Do I need to train her for home protection, and guarding?

DeadIrishD · Post by **DeadIrishD** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:18 am

I was wondering if I needed to train her to be a guard dog, and teach her how to protect me, and the family, or if it will come to her naturally...

also I heard that chows are hard to train to do tricks, but was wondering if this is like chows being "killers" or if this actually has some truth behind it.

I was outside today with her, and she got along very well with the black lab x (Scooby) but when he came around me, or the family she barked and chased him away, and than would be good with him again.

Victory · Post by **Victory** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:54 am

Chows are very natural at guarding, it's one of the things they must be a bit trained out of...for instance is Scooby your dog? Then you need to discourage her from chasing him off and the sooner you start the easier it will be for her to get the idea that he is welcome near you.

They learn tricks quite easily when they want to... Melanie has a web site that will help you teach her to learn tricks, but you should know that even the best trained chow will sometimes decide they don't want to do that trick right now. (which is why they are classed as hard to train),

Chows need to learn the rules you have set for them from day one, they also need socialization, this means exposing them to people as much as possible and new situations. It means taking them to the vet for a social visit not just for examines or such.

This will not reduce their guarding and protecting but teach them when they need to do so and when they can just relax and be secure. My chows are exposed to a lot of people, I have guests over quite frequently, and they love their vets, they also let me know if something is outside our apartment that shouldn't be there.

DeadIrishD · Post by **DeadIrishD** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:25 am

How do I go about teaching her that it's alright to allow the other animals around me.

Melanie, if you are reading this, what is the URL to your site, I have not yet been there but it's great to see a site dedicated to teaching chows (alot of places, make it seem impossible.)

she gets plenty of socialization, one lady asked me if she was a shar pei, but I corrected her and said chow (arn't shar peis short haired?) but all of our guests love her, and I am randomly being stoped by people who like her.

I also noticed when she walks she wants to be right next to me, I have yet to teach her to heel, is this normal?

I also think that I am her chosen person, but she shows everyone more love than me, yet looks at me for protection, and someone to protect her.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:02 pm

She will learn to guard you naturally and as she grows older. also, she will do tricks IF she wants too but only if!

Don't hold your breath!!

Post by **kingalls** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:17 pm

Here's Melanie's website: http://www.kippsdogs.com
Melanie has provided alot of different informative posts on this site. You might try the Search engine for the author: IliamnasQuest.

IliamnasQuest · Post by **IliamnasQuest** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:31 pm

DeadIrishD wrote:How do I go about teaching her that it's alright to allow the other animals around me.

Melanie, if you are reading this, what is the URL to your site, I have not yet been there but it's great to see a site dedicated to teaching chows (alot of places, make it seem impossible.)

she gets plenty of socialization, one lady asked me if she was a shar pei, but I corrected her and said chow (arn't shar peis short haired?) but all of our guests love her, and I am randomly being stoped by people who like her.

I also noticed when she walks she wants to be right next to me, I have yet to teach her to heel, is this normal?

I also think that I am her chosen person, but she shows everyone more love than me, yet looks at me for protection, and someone to protect her.

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Chows are very trainable but it does take a special touch and a LOT of commitment and consistency. I am a firm believer in a dog of any breed needing to be trained sufficiently to be a solid canine citizen and member of the family, and anything beyond that is extra. I like training mine and we do everything from agility to obedience to freestyle to herding and tracking. But that's ME - number one in importance is just being a good safe companion.

As socialized and trained as mine are, they are still very natural guard dogs. They alert quickly to any strange noise or movement. In fact, my shepherd has learned that she can sleep peacefully and let the chows alert her .. *L* .. THEN she jumps up and adds in her low German shepherd bark! I really haven't found that socializing and training take any of that away from them. I do think it helps them differentiate between a real threat and an imagined threat, though, and that's important.

You've been given my website URL (thanks, kingalls!) and if you go to "TIPS" there are a number of suggestions for training. Most of these are basic training for a pet dog, because all of our dogs need that first. I really recommend that people get into a good safe puppy or beginning obedience class with someone who doesn't have any breed bias and who uses highly reinforcing methods to train. Chows do very well with lots of reinforcement, paired with fair and consistent boundaries. I think it's completely acceptable that our dogs understand "NO" and know that there are consequences to certain behaviors. But that doesn't mean that punishment is a good way to train - train with reinforcement, set boundaries with firm but kind consequences.

For accepting other animals, she needs to learn that the other animals are good things and having manners near them are good. So lots of reinforcement (praise, petting if she likes it, treats) when she's acting in a way you like, and NO reinforcement (not even attention) when she's being pushy or grumbly. Hopefully she is not reacting to the point of being snappy or overly pushy. If that happens, she has to be taken out of the situation, of course. But if she's just pushing them out of the way or acting possessive of you, that's usually easy to change by not feeding into it with your actions, and only reinforcing her when she's not being that way.

Walking next to you is great! All my dogs learn to walk on a loose leash before they're taught to heel. I only make them heel when we're in working mode. On a walk, they can wander around as long as the leash is loose.

As far as being her chosen person goes ... Khana is my youngest girl and she adores me. But when we meet other people, she is so interested in all the new people that I will get ignored for the most part, at least for a while. However, if I try to leave the room she races after me! *L* Yes, the other people are very interesting to her but she does NOT want me to leave her there. I'm her person and when it comes right down to it, she wants to be with me.

Good luck!

Melanie and the gang in Alaska