new chow puppy, first time owner!

[lsw939]

Hi everyone.

New to the site & thought i would say hello. My boyfriend and i are bringing our 1st chow home in a few weeks, a red male he is currently 5 weeks will be roughly 9 weeks on the 13th of june when we pick him up. we decided on a chow chow a little over a year ago, i grew up with labs and have been a big dog person all my life. When we decided to start looking for a puppy we knew we wanted something different and a little out of the ordinary, thats when we came across the chow after that we spent months on end doing research trying to find out everything there was to know about the breed, we then spent the next 8-9 months looking for a breeder we live in scotland and chow chows aren't exactly common here lol! we finally found our baby a few weeks ago. There are a few questions i wanted to ask as i can imagine the reality of owning a chow can be a little different to what you read. firstly i have decided on a harness over a collar but was wondering what type of harness you guys use or would recomend? Also i would want to have a collar on him in the house & garden with his tags on, but have read that collars can chafe if so is there a certain kind that wouldnt be so bad e.g wide padded, rolled, chain ect? Secondly i am having a hard time finding a puppy food here in the uk as even most of the posts i have read on here about food have been american brands, most websites say that chows should be fed a low protein diet and i have noticed a few things saying that corn isnt good for them, not sure if the corn thing is correct or not? Any suggestions from anyone in the uk about the food would be appreciated. Lastly i was hoping yous could let me know how yous picked your chows names bit of an odd question i know lol! I did have a name picked that iwas 110% set on (milo) until a few days when our next door neighbours brought home a new dog & called him milo im now having the hardest time picking another name. just realised how long and rambling this post is sorry lol, look forward to hearing from some of you & thanks in advance for any answers to my questions, x

[Rio]

Hi there, as a UK resident I have opted for Burns puppy food( link to website below) ,I too want to put a collar on Rio for tags and decided that as I was not using it to attach a lead I would get a leather one that could be kept relatively loose.he is microchipped but the laws are the laws regarding tags. As regards name, wellllllllllll we scrambled our heads for weeks and thought we had it down to 2 then I (being a fussy-butt) decided I couldn't shout Midnight or Bentley lol. I was playing MW3 when Rio's name just popped in there.
http://burnspet.co.uk/products.html
Rio was originally on Royal Canin with the breeder but I (not Rio) didn't like it, too many ingredients! So I have switched to Burns, currently moving Rio from mini-bites to Canine extra. Have a read around the Burns website it makes a lot of sense, and you can order direct too (unless you can find a stockist who in my experience tend to be cheaper!)

[Fozzbear]

I would say Burns, Wainwrights or Davies Rancher puppy kibble - all hypoallergenic, free of nasty corn/wheat stuff and the Davies stuff particularly is low protien (and cheap believe it or not).
My dog is predominantly fed wet food now as she has allergies (common in the chow), she has Natures Diet and Natural Instinct. Full of good stuff, totally natural but probably not the cheapest way to feed a dog (though I buy in bulk from Monster Pet Supplies). Since moving to the wet stuff, along with a little bit of kibble she is trump free! Sorry to lower the tone, but chow trumping is a sign of too much protien in the diet apparently.
My chow had a harness to walk on until recently - she is now pretty heavy and the problem with harnesses is that chows instintively lean into them and pull like mad. She is 100% better on a collar and my arm stays in my shoulder! She has a soft wide leather collar but she doesn't wear anything in the house. She looks a bit daft in her collar as she has a big mane that it cuts in half! If you arent attaching a lead to your collar, I'd get something soft leather and loose so his fur doesnt rub away.
My dog is called Fozzchops - so prob'ly best not to ask about that one!
You can put tags on a harness too and of course get your dog microchipped - you only need tags in a public place.

[Chowmomma]

I do not collar my guys, I keep their tags on their leashes that are attached to their harness, I figure they need them when on leash out in puplic, we live in mountains so I don't keep their tags on them when at home...good luck with your new chowbaby, just remember lots of patience and lots of treat enforcement, they do better with positive and never negative, they will never trust after negative. Just imagine you are training a cat because that's about what training a chow can be like lol
They are very aloof at times

They are the most rewarding and amazing breed in the world! My home will never be without a chow! Its like having your very own live Teddy bear!!!! Can't wait to see pics!!

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[Ursa's daddy]

I like the harness. For those who think a chow can pull, get a husky. They can pull for miles and hours. Chows can't hold out that long. In a 30 minute walk, I can pretty well get all of the energy out of my two. Once they understand that you can out last them, they learn that pulling is not necessary. Now if I put the harness on my two (I can't put a harness on just one because the other will hear all the excited barking and know what is happening) they recognize it means a outing in public, which means a ride in van, so they may pull as far as the driveway. Once we arrive at the destination, they are too busy looking and sniffing to think about pulling. If I get the collars and long leads, they know that we will walk the property, probably going around the pond. That is enough workout for them, so they keep the pace mellow. I keep the tags on the harness, which is used in public. I guess Chowmomma has a point. I have trained my cats to walk using a harness, and the approach is about the same.

[Rory's Dad]

No harness here, just a standard collar. Have found the flexi-lead to be much better for walking though. And we never put the collar on inside the house.

As for the diet, i am in the US, so tough to recommend foods that may be available to you, but we were actually recommended a high protein diet for our pup by the breeder...cant say whether that is right or wrong, just what worked for us. Rory is also on what some call a modifed raw diet. I think most of his protein comes from beef and chicken, so that might be different that whats in the dog chow mixes. We also balance that with some dairy in his breakfast food (cottage cheese).

Again, i am not recommending, just letting you know what we do. I think this will probably be changing once he hits the 1 year mark, but not really sure yet.

[Cam Atis]

Name him Nido if your neighbor already got the Milo.
Collars can be a pain with the mane. Anyway, wide or not, it should be padded. It's a must. Harness is fine. Really depends on you.
As for food, cassie has no problem with corn as it is a common ingredients and an excellent source of carbo aside from rice and wheat. That is also true with all my dogs previous and present, mostly purebreeds, some are mutts. So i dont think corn is toxic to dogs. I read somewhere here at cc.org someone said it is toxic.

Read the protein % on the label. They ( Blue and Cassie) loved Royal Canine shih tzu junior (28% protein) and Obesity (a whooping 34% protein). Most of my dogs in the last 14 years thrived on 27% protein food. Shih tzu Adult is 24% i think.
I have shifted back to US made Holistic Recipe puppy (24% protein and it listed corn as 3rd in ingredients).
I dont know but my dogs went gaga over Royal Canine. Its just soooo expensive. And their stool are good with ROyal canine.

[Victory]

Corn is NOT good for chows. It causes skin problems and allergies. We have had years and years of many people coming on this site feeding foods high in corn and they have had major skin problems, with the resultant high vet bills and no relief for their chows. They switch to a food with no corn on the recommendations of people who have had chows for over 20 years and the skin problems clear up, as do some of the allergies. I feed my chows a food with no corn, and I NEVER have skin issues, even with chows who are/have been allergic to other things, (dust mites, pine/evergreens, hay, etc)

As for collars mine wear theirs 24/7 365, they are rolled Nylon collars, I get from http://www.dogids.com/dobrnyslco.html they do ship to the UK. My two have been wearing these collars for years, without damage to their fur. Check out their pictures in my signature they are both wearing their collars. When I walk them they wear harnesses. My two can pull, a thirty minute walk is just a warm up for them. It takes my two an hour and a half to get all the energy mellowed, it is by no means gone. On the ice here in Minnesota that can be dangerous, so they wear harnesses that help them stop pulling.

[Chowmomma]

My babies pull too without that 30 min rule, lemme explain that to them and see if they listen lol
I always am telling em stop acting like a chow and come here lol
I so love these pups!!! No other like a chow

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[Ursa's daddy]

Ice? I have seen it in tea and other drinks. Right now it is almost 23:00, the temperature is 74F (23C), humidity is 78%. We recently had a cold front come through. I suppose I should have mentioned that my two get hot if we walk very long, so I try not to stress them. As those of you who are equine fans already know, our animal friends don't do heat as well as we humans. In the van, Malachi gets the passenger seat and the AC vent by the window, and Ursa takes the center vent. They might be a bit more energetic if the weather were cooler.