Any advice for a new Chow owner?

[CinnasDad]

Hi all,

My wife and I just brought home our first puppy, Cinna, an 8 week old cinnamon Chow. She is absolutely adorable. I've done a lot of research on the breed, and have gotten a lot of mixed reviews. I get the impression that Chows are a special breed in that they are very independent and can be very aggressive/protective. I'm a firm believer that a dog's owner dictates its behavior, so I want to get off on the right foot. So far, aside from typical puppy chew frenzies and somewhat irritating play biting, I haven't noticed any unusually aggressive behavior. I have my fingers crossed that she was bred with care so she doesn't develop overly aggressive behavior. I adopted her from my local humane society, and she is a pure bred Chow. But I have no info on the breeder. Anyway, I don't really have too many concerns yet, but would love any advice from you experienced Chow owners out there. Everyone I tell that I have a Chow say that socialization is the most important thing to curb aggressive behavior. Any special techniques for this? What about training classes? Anything helps. Thanks.

[Sarahloo]

Everyone I tell that I have a Chow say that socialization is the most important thing to curb aggressive behavior.

It annoys me so much to always read stuff like that. There is no agressive monster inside the Chow that is just waiting to get out. Agression is something that happens - as you said - if his childhood goes wrong, if he isn't properly socialised, if he is abused and mistreated. You do not have to employ any special techniques to keep her "on the right path", you just have to ensure that she grows up happy and healthy.
If you treat her well without spoiling her or letting her take over, she'll be fine, and she won't suddenly turn around one day and take a huge chunk out of your leg! I wonder why you would think that!

[Merlin]

What about training classes? Anything helps

The fact that you are here asking about this subject, yes, please go to school with your dog.
Not only will your dog benefit, but so will you. You'll gain a more indepth understand of how to properly manage any problems and how to bring forth the best in your dog.

It's sad that you are being bombarded with mixed reviews, but \i can tall you that the negative reviews are brought upon by people who did little or nothing to educate and socialize their chow.

\best of luck.

[CinnasDad]

Thanks for the advice and reassurance that my little Cinna will be sweet girl. I apologize if I came across as negative toward Chows in my post. I just found it strange that pretty much everyone I told that I got a Chow said, "Oh", or, "Eeek", and gave me a "You're in for trouble" expression on their face. Then they would lecture me about how aggressive and mean they can be. Of course, I've also spoken with people who say that their Chow, or the Chow of a friend or relative was the sweetest dog in the world. Anyway, I'm going to firmly plant myself in the pro-Chow camp and train Cinna to be a wonderful, friendly dog to help tip the scales in favor of Chows. I'm glad I found this forum. It has certainly given me a lot of hope.

[Tippsy'smom]

Congratulations on your little bundle of fuzz!

I understand where you're coming from with getting the stereotype reaction from people. A chows behavior comes from how it's raised, same with ANY dog. Shoot, I'm having a conversation on Facebook with a friend about how sweet our chows are compared to how mean a LOT of Yorkshire terriers are. My chow is even sweeter than a lab I saw at Petsmart who lunged at my mix boy who was just sitting by my side while I looked at grooming supplies.

Anyways, there's no special technique to socialize your chow. Just get her out in public and make sure ALL of her experiences are POSITIVE. Puppy classes definitely help with socializing.

Btw, we LOVE pictures here!

[CoraP.]

Congratulations! I'll bet little Cinna is adorable! There is a lot of great advice in the training section. You'd probably be busy reading for quite awhile! Many here like the NILIF (nothing in life is free) approach. It is also explained in the training section. Let her know you are the boss with consistent, fair and firm treatment. Physical punishment does NO good with a chow, and I'm sure you wouldn't use it anyway. It sounds like you are very dedicated to raising Cinna right. Thanks so much for adopting from a shelter. Good luck, and keep us posted!

[Victory]

Yep, like Tippsy's Mom said, there is no one sure fire way, but a lot of techniques used to fully socialize a chow. Fortuneately you have a puppy, so you can start from scratch. Positive interactions with as many people and other animals as possible is the way. As for the biting, go to the training section read the thread, "bite inhibition" If you follow the great advice there in a very short time she'll stop with the nipping. Keys with a chow, paticence, firmness, respect and fairness. Be patienet with her, but be firm. If you have to repeat a command 2-3 times, do so, never get angry, she doesn't understand human language, (yet) or know telepathically what you want; show her, repeat it, until she gets it. Respect her, she's not a golden retriever, she's going to have her own personality, you have to learn what it is and work with it, not try to force her to be something she's not going to be. Some chows love treats and will do anything for them, some love toys, some could care less. Also be fair with her, if you give her a command, but don't show her, then it's not her fault if she doesn't get it. Also don't do one thing one minute and another the next minute, she'll get confused and if if happens to many times she'll start ignoring you and doing it HER way.

The one other thing you want to do is get her accostumed to going to the vet and having a check up. This is where a lot of that bad rep comes from. You do it by doing a fake examine yourself. Pick up her feet and rub them, all four of them, look in her eyes, check her ears, brush and comb her all over, praise her for accepting this calmly, and reward her. Get her used to being held and physically controlled. Take her for getting acquainted visits to your vet, let the techs hold her, and play with her.

A lot of the bad rap chows have is because they are really cat like, (they are clean and easy to potty train to because of this) they don't like new things, and if frightened or unsure they will fight, that leads to problems. Introducing her when she is young to things like the vet, petco, petsmart, the park and company in her house, will go a long way to her becoming a confident chow that accepts new things without fear, thus making her a calm and socially ready chow.

[JasonandNat]

Welcome! All good advice above. We all get the 'a chow!', from people who are just ignorant and stuffed full of disinformation. Our chows go everywhere and are far better behaved than 99% of all dogs we encounter. In fact we have helped over 20 various dog breeds and mixes get un-aggressive, because ours are so calm and confident. We wish you great joy with your beautiful new fur-kid and look forward to photos and wonderful stories.

[Boogie and Linda]

I adopted my Boogie as a chow puppy from the shelter and heard all the same horror stories from people. In fact that is how he ended up with his name, Boogie Man because everyone was afraid of him. It seemed like everyone we saw had been "mauled by a chow a long time ago" (no one was missing limbs so they were obviously being way overly dramatic). Most vets and groomers don't like chows because they say they don't know how to read them because they don't react like other typical dogs. I agree that they do act differently than a typical dog but I find mine to be very easy to predict.

The others have given you good advice. NILF is really good especially when you get into the "teenager" phase. Also, teach bite inhibition because as a puppy, they can go nuts with those baby teeth. Socialize with positive people and experiences. We used to bring Boogie to all my daughters soccer games where there were lots of kids running around and other dogs. He loves kids. One mistake I made with Boogie though is that we socialized him but a lot of adults he was around were the chow haters. Once he learned they were afraid he would posture and growl and get a fear reaction from them. He still does that sometimes now as an adult chow. If people show fear, he will act like he is ferocious and try to bully them even though he wouldn't hurt a fly. The funny thing is once they relax he usually is over with them wanting his belly rubbed. If they don't relax he will sit and stare at them keeping his eye out to make sure they don't try anything.

[CinnasDad]

Thanks all for the good advice and good wishes. It's nice to have a group of Chow lovers to make me feel like I got the right dog. One thing I've noticed that has been working for my little Cinna's puppy biting issue is giving her a good outside exercise session right when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work. I think she gets a lot of pent up energy from being somewhat confined throughout the day and she needs to get it all out.

[Victory]

Thanks all for the good advice and good wishes. It's nice to have a group of Chow lovers to make me feel like I got the right dog. One thing I've noticed that has been working for my little Cinna's puppy biting issue is giving her a good outside exercise session right when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work. I think she gets a lot of pent up energy from being somewhat confined throughout the day and she needs to get it all out.

You are exactly right! There is a belief that chows are lazy and don't need a lot of exercise; but that's just not true. Most of them as adults need at least a mile long walk twice a day and the longer legged athletic types need 2-3 mile walks twice a day, and more if they can get it. A bored puppy will chew, (all puppies chew but it's worse if they are bored) and if you're the only thing she can chew on then so be it. Getting her tired from play and exploring her world is a good way to get her to the point of listening. A puppy who is hyped up on excess energy is not good at listening or learning, so getting her calm is a good first step to training.

Also she should be getting her next set of puppy shots when she is about 10 weeks old, and after that set, she will be okay to join a puppy class. Puppy class for the really young ones is mostly just the basics and play. They learn to sit, come, lay down etc and they learn to interact with other puppies and you learn how to read her body language and work with her. It will be a good experience for you both. Just remember, no negative experiences, if you walk into any class ever and the instructor makes a face, says anything like the negative stuff you've already heard about chows, RUN, do not walk, but RUN to the door with your chow, get your money back and look for another class. Chows can learn, they can get their Canine Good Citizen certificates, become thearpy dogs and visit hospitals and nursing homes. We have chows on this site who have done all that and many are also champions in obedience too. Just remember those things when get her trained.

[CinnasDad]

Wow, so apparently Chows are ridiculously smart. We've had a our now 9 week old Cinna for only a week and her progress has been staggering. In just the past 2 days her biting has pretty much disappeared. She is finally taking more interest in her toys than my hands and feet. And she's potty trained and has no problem sleeping in her crate at night. This being my first dog, I can't help but to wonder if all breeds catch on this quickly or if Chows are special.

[Tippsy'smom]

Wow, so apparently Chows are ridiculously smart. We've had a our now 9 week old Cinna for only a week and her progress has been staggering. In just the past 2 days her biting has pretty much disappeared. She is finally taking more interest in her toys than my hands and feet. And she's potty trained and has no problem sleeping in her crate at night. This being my first dog, I can't help but to wonder if all breeds catch on this quickly or if Chows are special.

Chows are ridiculously smart! My girl Tippsy has taught herself trick just to get treats. But I can tell you from experience that not all dogs are as smart as chows. My girl Dixie IS smart as a whip but there's still a LOT we're working on. Potty training and nipping are our big problems with her... She's a German Shepherd/Australian Shepherd mix. I've had her for 4, going on 5 months now. And my boy Jasper can be a bit dopey sometimes, but he does have a lot of the chow smarts. From my experience, there's NOTHING like a chow. I'd LOVE to have another purebred chow, but that probably won't happen until after Tippsy's passed.

[Victory]

Wow, so apparently Chows are ridiculously smart. We've had a our now 9 week old Cinna for only a week and her progress has been staggering. In just the past 2 days her biting has pretty much disappeared. She is finally taking more interest in her toys than my hands and feet. And she's potty trained and has no problem sleeping in her crate at night. This being my first dog, I can't help but to wonder if all breeds catch on this quickly or if Chows are special.

No all dogs do not catch on as quickly. Some of the terriers are known to take months to completely potty train. Chows are very smart, they belong to the "thinking" group of dogs. People will tell you that if you put a towel over their heads they won't shake it off, (which is something a lot of so called dog trainers use to find out how smart a dog is), they normally won't shake it off, they will look at you in disgust, like, "why did you put this thing on me?" But they can easily figure out how to open a door, gate, package, or anything else they actually WANT to do.

I used to make my own dog food, and my Darkwind would end up mushing it down in his dish and couldn't get it, so he would pick his dish up and slam down on the floor to 1 let me know that it was all mushed down and he needed me to fix that and 2 it would loosen the food up so he could get to it, if I wasn't home or didn't move fast enough to fix it. He also did it with containers of yogurt that I would give him, so he could get the very last drop. My Dreamdancer knows I fill his waterdish from the bathtub faucet, if it's empty or low, he'll look in the tub and then back at me and then go to his dish and repeat until I fill it. Smart, oh yeah they are smart.

[Boogie and Linda]

Yes chows are exceptionally smart and clean. Other dogs, not so much. I am finding that out the hard way as we recently adopted a pekingese from the shelter. Even though he is already potty trained he will still occassionaly lift his leg in the house and he even pooped in the house once because it was raining outside and he refused to go out. My chows are so disgusted with him. They don't understand why he doesn't act like they do.

[Selethe]

Welcome to the club! You will be having loads of fun with your chow pup. I was a new chow owner not long ago and now I can't imagine life without momo. The fact that you've researched on chows and is a member of this forum shows that you are on the right track.

Actually I was quite surprised to read about the bad rep of chows after I got momo. She is protective and wary of strangers but never aggressive. I find smaller dogs that have been spoilt by their owners much more aggressive. Interestingly, most of the bad reviews about chows seem to come from USA? Here in Asia, they don't have a bad rep. I remember reading a book by a USA trainer who listed breeds that are hard to train....guess who was on top of the list? Yupz, chows. He even mentioned that he has never met a single non-biting chow...after that, I tossed the book aside.

I think one of the very true traits of chows is that they are very stubborn. To get them to obey you 100% of the time is near impossible. So my advice would be that you need to be patient and have a good sense of humour. When Momo doesn't want to move, she simply doesn't want to move. I can scold her, entice her and it just won't work. In fact, I can literally see the wheels of her brain turning when she is deciding to disobey me. When I go over to her to make her stand and move her, she slumps to the floor on purpose. Times like this, I feel exasperation, a little grudging respect and the urge to laugh.

[cloud]

ive got a question pls help our chow has success in pooping outside my problem is he pee in his crate he is 3mos old what will i do pls.. help

[Sarahloo]

ive got a question pls help our chow has success in pooping outside my problem is he pee in his crate he is 3mos old what will i do pls.. help

You need to let him out of the crate and take him outside every couple of hours. He's still just a baby and can't hold it in all night/all day.

[Victory]

ive got a question pls help our chow has success in pooping outside my problem is he pee in his crate he is 3mos old what will i do pls.. help

You need to let him out of the crate and take him outside every couple of hours. He's still just a baby and can't hold it in all night/all day.

Yep, a baby chow needs to go outside a lot, right after eating, after sleeping, after drinking and every 2 hours in addition to those times. They do not LIKE to soil their sleeping area, so if they are doing so it's because they needed to go out and couldn't.

[lovechows55]

Congratulations on your new chowlet!! I'm so happy that you found this wonderful website already and that Cinna and you will be able to share all of your adventures with the great people who post on this MB.

I adopted my chow girl, Chelsea, when she was just a young ball of fluff, too, and before I knew it, I had almost everyone I met telling me how mean chows are, how she'd turn on me when she got older, etc., etc. While it may be true that chows who are unsocialized may become aggressive, as others have said, that's because of their owners, not the breed. Chows are wonderful companions and Chelsea became one of the friendliest dogs I've ever known and we had a very happy life together for almost 15 1/2 years.

When people make comments about our beloved chows, they are showing their ignorance. Many chows have become therapy dogs, earned obedience titles (albeit a bit more challenging then other breeds because of their intelligence; they question why we want them to do something they already know how to do), and are just an amazing breed. Please let us know all about Cinna--and post photos!!

[cloud]

Yep, a baby chow need s to go outside a lot, right after eating, after sleeping, after drinking and every 2 hours in addition to those times. They do not LIKE to soil their sleeping area, so if they are doing so it's because they needed to go out and couldn't.

yup i did it! he did not pee in his crate ive taken him out as much as i can.. and viola! thankz,3+ during the day he is out i only take him inside when its night, i hate the thought of crating him the whole day.. just want him to potty on the right place and learn it while he is a baby.... what is a safe veggie for my chow besides carrot.. i want to cook for him hehe...