My black chow mix

[chica_2626]

Hello everyone! I am new to the forums. I came on here to get some thoughts and opinions on my dog I adore more than anything else. His name is J.D.

We got J.D. November 23. We think he was about six weeks old when he came to us. A friend found J.D. out on the street, pawing at the door of an apartment building. My friend picked him up, knocked on the door and asked the woman if the dog was hers. She said, oh, that WAS my dog, he kept pooping in my apartment so I got rid of him. She said my friend could take him and said he was a purebred chow puppy. So my friend took him back to his apartment, but he already owns a dog and cannot have more than one. My bf and I had been looking to adopt a rescue dog and he asked if we wanted him. I have only ever owned short hair dogs and knew nothing about chows and I was like well I don't want a chow, but we will take him in until I can find a no kill rescue that will take him because this puppy is not going to the pound. Of course the second I saw him I knew he wasn't going ANYWHERE! Instant love .

When we first got J.D. he was this little ball of fur and cute as can be. And while the chow in him is extremely evident (like his entirely purple tongue, is that not the cutest thing?), I do not think he is purebred. I think he has some lab in him. His tail does not curl over his back, his snout seems just a bit longer than most chows, and he has webbed toes (which I don't think chows do?) for swimming. As he's shedded for the summer his coat has definitely changed. And I am trying to figure out if his fur is just a chows summer coat, or more a retriever coat coming through. From the neck forward he is still all fluff and has his little mane, and his tail is the same fluffy kind of fur, also a little down his legs. But the bulk of his trunk area is shiny, and smooth to the touch, almost feels like human hair. Is this normal for chows in their summer coat? He started with the shiny stripe down his back, but now has traveled down his sides as I use the furminator on him periodically to get the dead fur out.

So anyways, that's J.D.'s story. He is extremely friendly to everyone and for the most part does not have any of those typical chow characteristics. Doesn't mean that I am not having a near impossible time finding a new apartment right now though, as he's automatically dismissed based on his breed. His vet said it best, "he doesn't know what it means to be a chow, he's just a lover." After reading about chows territorial tendencies I made sure to take J.D. out a lot and be around people, and invite people over to the house a lot, and just all around made sure he was very socialized. We think he's about 9 months old now.

Here are some pictures of him!

Within the first two weeks of owning him:



Still very fluffy in February


This is about as high as his tail ever goes (gotta love the "Swiffer" fur as I call it...picks up everything!!)


Most current pictures

Appearance of the shiny stripe on his back after he was furminated the first time

Head out the window

Sulking in the back of the car after I had him neutered, good shot of his fur though

Shininess going down his sides

Most current picture as of yesterday! He likes to walk over and scratch his belly on my foot haha


Best friends : ) I may be biased but I just think he is SO CUTE!!!

[Tippsy'smom]

Welcome! J.D. is such a cutie! He reminds me of my chow/lab mix, Jasper! Minus the ears.

[Sarahloo]

Hi!
Beautiful dog! My Newfoundland dog had the exact same long, glossy black fur, the webbed toes (obviously) and looked exactly like this

while sleeping on her side. Once he's done being a teenager, your J.D. is going to fill out and look even more like a Newfie, I think! He's definitely a Chowfoundland, if you ask me! You're so lucky!

[Tippsy'smom]

Sarah, Labs have webbed feet too. And Jazz looks like this when he's laying on his side and I'm almost 100% positive he's a lab/chow mix (chowder), there's NO Newfies in our area.

Jazz when he was about 7 months old.


A good shot of what his coat looked like at 7 months.


Jazz about 10 months old.

[Sarahloo]

Funny, I've often thought "Newfie" when looking at a picture of Jazz. But if you're positive that there was no Newfie around anywhere he was conceived ...!

[chica_2626]

Thanks for the replies! I had wondered if J.D. had newfie in him, but he's been holding steady at about 45 pounds for a few months now, and I would think he'd be much heavier if he did, because newfies are huuuuge!! LOL. But I don't know how long he'll grow for either. I've considered getting one of those doggie DNA tests but I hear that those are a scam so I dunno!

But this long shiny hair is definitely not typical for chows then? I've tried searching for pictures of chows with their summer coats but couldn't find anything very helpful. I'll be curious especially to see him once winter rolls back around and if he gets fluffy again or just thickens up with this new kind of fur, and maybe the fluff was just puppy fur?

[Tippsy'smom]

Funny, I've often thought "Newfie" when looking at a picture of Jazz. But if you're positive that there was no Newfie around anywhere he was conceived ...!

Yeah, anyone who actually paid to have a Newfie out here wouldn't let it wander in the area where we found Jazz when he was about 5 weeks. And I've NEVER seen one out here, even at the pet expo and other places they could be seen. But there's a LOT of labs around that area, and there's a big black male chow that I'm almost certain is Jazz's daddy.

[chica_2626]

After just posting how J.D. is very friendly and well socialized, had kind of an interesting experience with him yesterday. My dad (who J.D. has met a handful of times) came over to visit him. He knocked at the back door, which people never do, they always go to the front door, and J.D. seemed very startled by it and started barking. When I let my dad in, J.D. didn't jump all over him to be petted like he normally does with any visitor, he hung back and kept barking, but his tail was wagging the entire time. My dad, who is great with dogs, just patiently held out his hand and let J.D. come to him. J.D. finally inched closer and started sniffing his hand, but put his ears back and his tail stopped wagging, and for a second I thought maybe J.D. was going to snap, though he didn't wrinkle his nose or growl or anything. I was uncomfortable with the way he was barking so I don't know if he was picking up on the vibes or what? When he did that I brought his attention around to me and tried to get him to settle down. We went into the living room and sat down and J.D. was still hanging back and barking, even though I had my dad try and coax him over with toys and such. I didn't want to bribe him but finally I grabbed a treat and had my dad give it to him J.D. even sat and shook paws for it, and after that he was very friendly with my dad, rubbing himself against his legs and wanting to be pet, and they played fetch almost nonstop.

Is it possible the startle he had when my dad knocked at the back door could have triggered this behavior? I don't want to dismiss it but how worried should I be? Like I said, he didn't outright act aggressive but he seemed like he was on "guard dog" mode. Thoughts?

[Auddymay]

Sadly, having looked on PetFinder too many times, I can say the mix of Lab and Chow takes on many variations in appearance. Also, as most everyone knows, my Pip was a Chowder. She had undercoat and gaurd hairs, but her gaurd hairs were glossy and soft. She shed like a Chow, seasonally.

[Victory]

After just posting how J.D. is very friendly and well socialized, had kind of an interesting experience with him yesterday. My dad (who J.D. has met a handful of times) came over to visit him. He knocked at the back door, which people never do, they always go to the front door, and J.D. seemed very startled by it and started barking. When I let my dad in, J.D. didn't jump all over him to be petted like he normally does with any visitor, he hung back and kept barking, but his tail was wagging the entire time. My dad, who is great with dogs, just patiently held out his hand and let J.D. come to him. J.D. finally inched closer and started sniffing his hand, but put his ears back and his tail stopped wagging, and for a second I thought maybe J.D. was going to snap, though he didn't wrinkle his nose or growl or anything. I was uncomfortable with the way he was barking so I don't know if he was picking up on the vibes or what? When he did that I brought his attention around to me and tried to get him to settle down. We went into the living room and sat down and J.D. was still hanging back and barking, even though I had my dad try and coax him over with toys and such. I didn't want to bribe him but finally I grabbed a treat and had my dad give it to him J.D. even sat and shook paws for it, and after that he was very friendly with my dad, rubbing himself against his legs and wanting to be pet, and they played fetch almost nonstop.

Is it possible the startle he had when my dad knocked at the back door could have triggered this behavior? I don't want to dismiss it but how worried should I be? Like I said, he didn't outright act aggressive but he seemed like he was on "guard dog" mode. Thoughts?

Two things happened here, First, he was startled by the knock on the door. A startle reflex in a dog is a bit more intense than it is for a human. In both it is caused by an adrenline spike, but for humans we "start" then if there is no real danger we laugh it off, and that brings the adrenline back to normal levels, it can even take some time, we might still be chuckling over it 20 minutes or more later. For a canine, they don't have that release mechinism, (at least I've never seen one actually laugh) so the adrenline levels stay up. Add that to the confusion he was under--it was a person he knows and likes that did something that was unexpected and frightening, (and remember an adrenline spike is the beginning of the fear/flee response) so he wasn't sure what to do or how to handle it. And he needed some time for the adrenline levels to go back to normal, so he could actually think again, (canines don't think very well when they are under the influence of adrenline. ) You hanledle it correctly the only other thing you could have done was give him a time out to relax then let him back into the room with you. To avoid it in the future I'd have people use the back door a bit more to get him more used to it.

[chica_2626]

Thanks for the response! I didn't want to just necessarily write it off but I also felt he just got unsettled from that. I will tell people to come to the back door more often. We use the back door a lot, it's more convenient to the driveway so he's used to people coming and going through that door, but not knocking at it.

I am taking J.D. to a dog park today that is having a grand opening of their waterpark area. I will be very interested to see if J.D. is interested in playing in the water or not. He doesn't for baths but likes to go outside in the rain so who knows? I'll try and snap some pictures if he does go in!

[Victory]

Except for the tail, and the webbed toes he looks like a chow to me. Here are a couple of pictures of my girl Firesong who is 100% chow, You can see that she has long shiny guard hair on her back and down her sides. Don't let if fool you, she also has a TON of soft wool under it especially in the winter.
You can see that she has long shiny hair on her back going down her shoulders, and also around her face:


This is Darkwind. It's harder to see on him, but he had almost the same sort of coat as Firesong, there were long straight hair down his back and shoulders, and the rest was very soft fluffy hair, he was also 100% chow:


I'd say your JD is most likely about 3/4 chow and 1/4 lab. He'd be bigger if he were part Newfie, even if his mom was a chow and little like my Firesong is.

[chica_2626]

Thanks for the reply and the pictures! Does Firesong's coat always look like that or does it get fluffier in the winter and is this shiny coat in the summer?
Whenever people ask what J.D. is or ask if he's a chow I always say he's like 85% chow haha. There is definitely no denying it!

The chow side won out at the doggie waterpark today, J.D. was not interested whatsoever!! He still had lots of fun though, he went around to all the people there first to have them pet and pay attention to him, then moved on to playing with the dogs. He did love running up and down the hills they had built around the water!
Pictures incoming!

"I love these hills mom!"


King of the mountain


Caught him mid jump-for-joy


"I don't care how much you try to coax me, I ain't going in!!" (I threw tennis balls into the water, I even threw a treat near the water's edge and he wouldn't go get it!)

[chica_2626]

It's funny, within the past couple weeks J.D.'s tail seems to keep curling further and further up towards his back, though it still doesn't look like the usual chow-tail.

He also seems to really enjoy barking at people coming into the house that he doesn't know very well. Kind of frustrating but he isn't trying to go after them just more like whoa whoa who are you why are you here kind of thing. Still don't like it. If I walk in with the person though he doesn't seemed bothered, but if someone just comes into the house or I let them in he starts barking.

I took J.D. to the dog park on Tuesday and he made a new friend! This was a chow/collie mix, though her and J.D. look very similar! Her fur was shorter though.

[Auddymay]

Beautiful photos! It brought me back to lovely memories of my Pip. If you click my link in my signature you will see her tribute. I think Chowders are handsome animals.

[jazzmineong]

Very nice looking chow-mix!

[chica_2626]

I love your video tribute! So beautiful. I am definitely a fan of the chowders too : )

Thanks jazzminesong!

[Victory]

Thanks for the reply and the pictures! Does Firesong's coat always look like that or does it get fluffier in the winter and is this shiny coat in the summer?
Whenever people ask what J.D. is or ask if he's a chow I always say he's like 85% chow haha. There is definitely no denying it!

That picture was taken in the very early spring. Yes she is MUCH more fluffy in the winter, but she still has the straight shiny guard hair too, which will fool you as to how much fluff is under there...until the dreaded "SHED" in the spring and then she looks a lot like a camel with all the under coat hanging from her.

[chica_2626]

So I've tried searching the internet and on this forum but is there any definitive information on the benefits/cons of an elevated food bowl? I just purchased one today for J.D. because I've noticed lately after he eats he will let out a burp or two, and LOUD ones, like a human, so I thought the elevated food bowls might help. I don't want him to get bloat. But now I've read they think the elevated food bowls might cause bloat after all?! I need an answer to this mystery! LOL

[J & C]

J D is just awesome. Java has the shiny hair! I always thought it was from a healthy diet...but their backs are almost identical. Great pictures and remarks. Welcome!

[chica_2626]

Had to post a couple current pictures of my favoritest dog in the world! LOL

I completely adore this picture. Riding in the car, I know I cut part of his face off but I love this pic, I think it's just the expression I caught on him as he was looking up at my face. <3


J.D. never gets into stuff, never chewed up table legs, doesn't steal food off the table, but the other day I went into the other room and when I came back to the living room I could hear him in the kitchen, he likes to lay on the laminate floor sometimes so I didn't think anything of it. Then I can tell he's moving around and go in the kitchen to find that someone stole this off the windowsill. The theory my mom offered was maybe he thought it looked like one of his chew toys and then discovered it tasted good too. He chewed off the skin and spit it out then munched away at the inside as you can see! I almost fell on the floor laughing.

[Auddymay]

Cuke on the cob? LOL...

[chica_2626]

Thought I'd post up a couple more current pictures. I never tire of photographing this dog!!

Love that smile


J.D. did not approve of the camera flash


I think maybe, just maybe, J.D. is starting to shed his summer coat : ) We had a big furminating session the other night (my foot next to the pile for perspective)!!

[Cocoa]

He is just gorgeous . I think you are right about the shedding, Cocoa seems to be shedding more right now as well.

[Tippsy'smom]

I totally understand the shedding. Both of mine are shedding.