HELP with chow biting

[danielle7770]

Hey all.
I am writing in hope that someone could share some techniques in helping my chow chow to stop biting. My chow is 8 month olds, male and un neutered. He started last week biting on his lead during a walk round the block and then continued to bite myself on the legs leaving marks and breaking the skin once. He tried to bite for about 3 minutes while I tried to control him. He then seen other people and eventually walked home normal with myself. He then 2 days later turned on my boyfriend at the same point near the end of the walk and tried to bite him several times. My boyfriend pinned our chow to the ground until he behaved but when our chow got back up he turned again and my boyfriend carried him home. He has now started to play bite in the house and yard at various times and we have been putting him in a time out room to try and stop this. I cannot tell if its alpha male biting or very rough play biting. But its very sore and should not be allowed to happen. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[Pinoy51]

I just came across your post. You need seek help from a professional trainer in your neighborhood.
This kind of behavioral issues are extremely difficult to judge from a short description and without seeing you and the dog. I fully agree with your statement" .. that should not be allowed to happen". Although I would like to change it to"... that should not happen". What your boyfriend did is risky, if your Chow doesn't see him as a leader he will not respond properly to being pinned down, it could actually trigger a worse fight response. Chows are not know to flee from a confrontation. And if you're respected and trusted by your Chow, pinning down isn't necessary at all.
Chows are reacting in general very negative to physical positive punishment. The thing I totally don't get, why did he carry your dog home after being bitten.
In your case needing three minutes to control the Chow and getting bitten several times in the process, doesn't speak well for the relationship between you and your dog and your ability to handle stressful situation. But again I might tell nonsense, as I haven't seen what happened and how it started. But based on your story telling skills it sounds awfully wrong.
Now back to the beginning, seek help from someone known to handle Chows well and have him assess the situation.
You need to change something that's for sure. Wish you and your Chow all the best

[JasonandNat]

Good advice, neither you or your boyfriend are alphas to your chow. This is not a good situation. You must be calm and in control, your will is second to none, as with any animal, going to take alot of work on both of your parts.

[SashaLove]

I agree with the above posts based on the info given. You and your boyfriend need to establish pack leader status and quickly! If you're not sure how, then seek professional help. In the meantime, I'd go back to basic training 101 and really work on that. We believe in the NILIF methodology. NILIF is Nothing In Life Is Free. Basically anything we give our fur-babies, whether it's treats, food, water, toys, etc....they have to work for it by obeying a command or two (ie. Sit and Paw, or Down). Also, if you feed dry, I would put your hand in the kibble and lightly squeeze and mix the food. This gets YOUR scent onto the food and then they know where they get their food from, their leader. Our Sasha is now 9 yrs and 7 months old and we rescued her at 4 months old. Although she is an awesome Chow now, it was a lot of work in the beginning. Obedience training is a daily thing and never goes away (though not as strict as in the early days) but we always, to this day, re-enforce our pack leader status in our pack. We had our kids do this too so that there is consistency and so that the fur-babies know their place in the pack. When Sasha was a puppy, our Boxer, Otis too....play bit, we stopped that quickly. However, when it happened, it was in our own fenced in backyard. We had kids (then 7 and 10 yrs old) and couldn't allow that behavior at all. SO, when they started that play biting, we (kids were taught to do the same) just stopped playing and stopped the activity and inside we went. It got boring as the pups wanted to play and since they are so smart, they quickly learned that that biting behavior resulted in no more play. Good Luck!! Just remember, this is just our experience and opinion. I would suggest a professional and obedience training classes.