New to this breed

[hhemmeter]

Hello! My younger sister bought a chow, not knowing the amount of time needed to take care of him. She is always on the go, and the week after she got him, she and her boyfriend broke up. Needless to say, we ended up with him, but since then we have fallen in love with him!!! Especially my husband. We also have a six year old boxer. Our boxer plays with him, and is gentle except when the puppy bites down hard on him, he will definitely let the puppy know. We crate train him at night, and also when we are not home. He is really good about going to the bathroom outside, as he lets us know right away when he needs to go. My main concern is when the puppy grows up. We are wondering when the the chow grows up with the boxer, if two opposite breeds will cause an issue? We love this puppy, but this is our boxer's home, and we will definitely choose him over any thing else. As of now, they play constantly, but we would like to know how this will be in the future?

Thanks.
Heather H.

[Victory]

Hello! My younger sister bought a chow, not knowing the amount of time needed to take care of him. She is always on the go, and the week after she got him, she and her boyfriend broke up. Needless to say, we ended up with him, but since then we have fallen in love with him!!! Especially my husband. We also have a six year old boxer. Our boxer plays with him, and is gentle except when the puppy bites down hard on him, he will definitely let the puppy know. We crate train him at night, and also when we are not home. He is really good about going to the bathroom outside, as he lets us know right away when he needs to go. My main concern is when the puppy grows up. We are wondering when the the chow grows up with the boxer, if two opposite breeds will cause an issue? We love this puppy, but this is our boxer's home, and we will definitely choose him over any thing else. As of now, they play constantly, but we would like to know how this will be in the future?

Thanks.
Heather H.

The issues you're talking about would only be because you have two male dogs. Now if they are both two neutered male dogs you might not have the issues, MIGHT NOT, there aren't guarntees. The best thing is to be a strong leader, and for you to notice which dog becomes the beta to your alpha. The boxer is in that role now, but it could change, this doesn't mean a bad thing for the boxer, sometimes it's good to be the omega, (just ask my Dreamdancer, he sleeps, plays, and has fun, while Firesong and I do all the work) However, this probably won't happen for 3-5 years, a male chow matures kind of slowly and isn't fully mature until he's 3. My mom had two male chows, MingToy was the older by 4 years, and they got along fine until I brought them to live with me, after my mom passed away, and then LiChi moved to beta, (the change in their lives, caused the move) Once the new order was established, all was well again.

Socializing your chow puppy with other dogs from a young age will also help with any future problems, a well socialized chow intact or neutered is less aggressive and more accepting of the status que. Also establish at this young age who is really the boss, (you and your husband) NILF training is a good idea to make this clear, won't hurt the boxer either. Do a search on this site on it, and you'll find what I'm talking about. Many chows on this site share their home with members of the same gender and get along fine, it is a matter of training and leadership. And obeidence classes, (good ones) will help as well with this.

Oh and by the way, we one, like pictures, and two, thank you for taking in this puppy, too many chows end up in shelters and no one adopts them because they are chows.

[Sarahloo]

Both your dogs sound good-natured, so I don't see a reason to worry! Victory's post contains all the important info, so if you take it to heart you should be fine!
There are boy dogs who have problems with other boys, but then there are boys who didn't get the memo (other boys are evil), like my Loo, and your boxer! He has no idea that he's suppposed to be aggressive and hostile towards other males. Don't let your puppy terrorize your boxer, shower your boxer with the same amount of love and attention that you showered him with before, make it clear to your dogs that there is plenty of love, food, treats to go around, and try to be relaxed around them. Don't let your dogs feel that you expect them to pounce on each other at any moment. What you need is a happy and relaxed atmosphere!

[Grab]

My Chows have always lived with dogs of other breeds (of both genders) with no issue whatsoever

[hhemmeter]

Hey everyone! Thank you for the quick replies! There is a level of ease after reading your responses. We defintely look forward to taking him to obedience classes, as I think Pet Smart offers a beginners, intermediate, etc. Are these good classes? We do not have much to chose from around her, I live in a really rural area, but we have taken Bleu (our chow) with us when we go for drives because he seems to like to look out the window. We just got a huge snow storm last night so I will upload some pics of them. Oh yeah, Johnny (my husband) is a nature with the puppy, he treats him as an infant but when he bites down hard (while playing) we never hit him, only use stern tone and he stops right away. We already have him trained to sit when and stay when he wants a treat, and we always give treats to them at the same time. Its defintely like having a baby in the house!! But it has already added alot of love! Bleu seems to take well to my eleven year old daughter, when she is around he licks all over her!! I think that there was a reason he was placed in our laps!! We love him.

Thank again guys!
Heather H.

[Victory]

He sounds like a really mellow chow. My boy was a bit more tenacious when it came to not biting, took a time out or two before he got it. So if he's responding to just a word, you have a mellow boy. That's good. Pet Smart classes really depend on the teacher leading them, if you walk in and you get a wary look, or get told something like, "oh he's a chow, they can't be trained", or "chows are vicious by nature" run, do not walk, RUN out the door, with your boy and buy some tapes and books if there are no other training classes around you. Start a puppy play group if you have to, but do not let a bad trainer, (and what I just described is a bad trainer) any where near your puppy.

If however you walk in and the trainer gets down to the puppy's level and treats him like the cute little thing he is, then stay, he'll have fun and so will you.

And hehehehe, it's not just sticking out his head of the window that he loves, it's being with you. Most chows LOVE to go for car rides 'cause then they are with you! Most of them ride well too. We can't wait to see pictures of him.