How did you train your chow?

Training and behavior topics, guidelines, and tips for Chow Chows.

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nsponbe
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How did you train your chow?

Post by nsponbe »

I have read many post of people who have gotten their chows to behave in certain ways, but other than attending basic puppy classes at petsmart how do I train my chow?
I really want to train my chow better but don't want the huge expense of hiring a dog trainer who may or may not know anything about chows. So I am asking for your help. What books or rescources have worked for you? What books have good step by step instructions that work for chows? What did you guys do to train your chows?
lweiher
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Re: How did you train your chow?

Post by lweiher »

I'm no expert, but after having 3 chows....they pretty much trained me! Classes are always a good start, but chows are unique in their "cat" like personality and if they resist, they won't. I have had three well behaved friendly chows and the training is never ending in some ways, but easy in others....all depends on your chows personality and your personality...I think chows more than a lot of other dogs pick up your personality with a little or a lot of attitude! Good luck and I'm also interested in hearing other chowlings parents input!
mariabrook@gmail.com
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Re: How did you train your chow?

Post by mariabrook@gmail.com »

I trained my Chow from as soon as I realised that dogs must be trained. His training was based on positive training (just google it. There are lots of links and videos about it). In our case Plato was almost 3 months when we were made aware he should be getting training. So we had a trainer come to our house and we were instructed on how to go about it. The socialisation started immediately as well as training on so many other things (how to avoid him pulling the leash, playing without biting, etc). Occasionally he also goes to the trainer's house for being around other dogs or on pet sittings. Today we have the most amazing 15 months old male Chow. He's very very sweet, sociable with other doggies, kids and people in general. We're about to get a female Chow and start the training challenge all over again.
Truffle
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Re: How did you train your chow?

Post by Truffle »

I used puppy classes mainly for socialization but trained Truffle independently.
The first thing was to teach him to not kill our two aby cats and to not bark at them like a maniac. The only thing that worked was to put one of my cats in the crate and then lay Truffle flat on the ground in the submissive pose but where he can look at the cat and smell it; this made both, the dog and the cat, calm down. Let them loose after about ten minutes and they are fine. Had to do this maybe a total of four times and they just learned to get along just to avoid those tedious ten minutes of lock down :D
The sit, down and give paw was taught in the bathroom because he needed to be confined to a small space without distractions where he can't really walk away from me or ignore me :) Learned this the regular way, using treats, took 15min for each command. Also taught him the "look" command this way, by placing treat in front of his nose and looking him sq in the eye while saying "loook, looook" and that jelped with him responding to his name too, for some reason.
The other thing I did was that when he would get chaotic and start doing random things while ignoring me or if he accidentally nipped me, I would lay him down on the ground with my knee on his shoulder pressing him down if he resisted and keep him there for a good 5 to 10 minutes until he calmed down completely and did not resist. This helped so much to establish that I am the master and he is the dog. I only had to do this initially too, like for the first 5 weeks only and now I never have to do it because he listens to me even when he doesn't want to do something. I didn't ever feel bad doing this to him because it was for his own good, so that he can enjoy life fully by listening to me instead of having restrictions of where he can go in the house etc But def need to keep him down for the full 10 or sometimes even 15mins because chows are super stubborn.
And of course socialization is the most important thing ever. Truffle used to be super skittish and a "bite first, bark questions later" type of chow; even at just 8 weeks he attacked dogs and was unpredictable and very intimidating. Now he is super well behaved and I've even had him off the leash at parks playing with other dogs and doing great. Although, I would NEVER let him loose with dogs without testing their temperaments first or if there are too many of them or they are small or very big.
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