Chow becomes anxious in public

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blackmagic26
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Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by blackmagic26 »

Hello, I've had chows most of my life, I love the breed and I can't imagine having a different breed. I know that they can be stubborn... that's putting it nicely. I have a problem that I have never encountered before and I'm hoping to get some advise from other chow lovers. I have a beautiful black male chow (3yrs old)...he has a wonderful personality. Probably one of the best chows that I have ever had (my son says I say this about all of the dogs that we've had). Anyway here is my major problem. We live in a city and about a year ago we moved to a different part of the city. The first month it was difficult to get him to walk down the street, he was scared to death! The traffic is heavy around here but once you turn the corner it becomes very residential. After coaxing he now walks the SAME 8 blocks daily. If I try to deviate from the familiar route he will pull me down the street, as though he's racing to get out of an unfamiliar area. Neiko weighs 60/lbs so his pulling is murder...it's actually nuts to watch! I would love to take him on a longer walks. Second part of the problem is strangers. If I stop to talk to someone he pulls to get away, he wont sit still or even listen.. he becomes spastic! Neiko isn't aggressive, if you come into my apartment he backs up with his tail down and after a couple of minutes he calms down once I let him know that everything is AOK. I have my guest sit on the couch so that he can sniff them. Once Neiko is satisfied he goes back to laying in his favorite spot. How can I get him to calm down when we are outside? I feel like he is on sensory overload /overstimulated which makes him nuts. I do use a harness, if I didn't I would be in the emergency room :D Has anyone else experienced this? Help pleazzzeeee
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Rio
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by Rio »

You have much more experience than me when it comes to Chows, but here goes anyway. I kinda had a similar problem with Rio as regards walking the way I wanted, new areas freaked him out and he dug his heels in. I then started taking out a bag of treats on walks, he is very food orientated. Slowly I was able to change the route and he accepted it without too much of a fuss.I didn't try to go too far off the regular path too quickly. Plenty of re-assurance and slow slow slow. You know Chows only too well, they do not take kindly to change of any kind and the stubborn gene kicks in big time.

As regards visitors if you could have a bag or box of favourite treats at hand and if your guests didn't mind you could maybe ask visitors to give a treat once they have seated themselves down. Knowing the Chow attitude he/she will come around to accepting strange people as the norm and will maybe be more calm when new faces walk by. You could ask a few friends to help you out, find an area your Chow is relatively comfortable in and have your friends walk by, if Chow turns towards them you call his/her name and get the focus back on you,onced you have the attention reward with a treat. Eventually you will be able to have anyone walk by and your Chow will automatically look to you.

Not sure if any of that will be helpful.

Good Luck hope you can work through it. :D
wokman
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by wokman »

I moved several years ago from a crowded environment to one less so and found my one female often reluctant to venture far from the house. When she did, go further the sound of a car door or the sight of the mail person at the mail box sent her pulling me home. She was best going with the other two, hiding in the crowd. Now with only one companion she will often walk down in the road side ditch as if hiding from her fears. My other male Chow often does not want to go with her and have his walk cut short. I have recently found a reassuring voice has calmed her fears and we now can enjoy longer walks. I think their intelligence can sometimes be a hinderance.
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Ursa's daddy
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by Ursa's daddy »

That sounds like my girl Ursa. She was basically dumped at 6 weeks of age. I did my best with her, but she to this day remains cautious. Malachi, my male is out going and was well socialized. He has no problem out in public, and the two together work well as a team. As Rio noted, I had to use treats to get her to respond to changes in our walks. As she got older, and learned to trust me as the pack leader, she has gotten better. It will take a lot of time to instill some confidence. My experience with chows is that they look to me, as the leader, for cues on how they should deal with any situation. I try to provide them with confidence. Basically, I try to always reassure Ursa that I have the situation in control and that she does not have to be worried. She still has some issues, but we continue to work regularly by taking her out in public.
blackmagic26
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by blackmagic26 »

Thanks for the advise, I really appreciate it. I'm going to Bone Appetite today to buy Neiko's favorite treats. My goal is to introduce (1) new block a week...hopefully. This sounds good in theory but we all know that a chow has a mind of their own. Gotta love them! I wonder if chows are really dogs...hahhaa

I love having a way to communicate with other chow lovers. Have a wonderful day and stay tuned.

Cheers :D :D
Rory's Dad
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by Rory's Dad »

Sounds more like the walks are the traditional chow pull...she's not racing to get out of there, she trying to get somewhere even though she doesnt know where it is. i know some members have reported good results with a harness type collar that tends to keep the eye focus straight ahead rather than wandering to every little detail on the side. havent tried it myself though, and Rory is definitely a puller on walks outside his normal area.
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TyChowgirl
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by TyChowgirl »

I have this issue with mine when we walk down town. It's kind of a desensitization thing. Introducing one new block at a time is a great idea :) Also, in regards to strangers, start out with training him with strangers somewhere where he is comfortable in the environment and invent a protocol for him to follow in such cases. Make him sit and wait until you're done, small conversations at a time, or even if they are not conversations at first if you get the idea. Then when you find yourself in these situations, repeat protocol. Soon it won't matter to him anymore. At least, as long as he's comfortable enough in that environment. Oh, and if you make the end desination somewhere fun, that's always good too. For example, when I used to work on training I would start out one end of the designated area and then walk the busiest part of the city and then go back to the car and go home. I started parking so that the destination was the dog park. We'd start out there, something positive, walk through busy part of down town, walk back, play in dog park(yay!) and then go home. Always end on a good note.
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blackmagic26
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by blackmagic26 »

Thanks for all of the good advise. Quick update... I've been using a harness for over a year and it works quite well. I can't imagine walking Neiko without it. I purchased different treats today with the hopes that something new would be even more distracting when I deviated from our normal route. I gave him a sample treat before heading out. I must tell you that he loved them (Stella & Chewy's Carnivore Kisses 100% Angus Beef Treats - freeze dried). These treats are expensive! $10.00 for 2.25 oz. Ok... back to the update. I usually walk Neiko with a harness on a retractable leash. I probably shouldn't use the retractable leash because he pulls until he's tired of pulling. I use it so that he can run a bit since we don't go to doggie parks. Neiko is so aloof that I don't really trust him around other dogs. He doesn't bark at them he just quietly observes. So I took him out about an hr ago on a regular leash with the harness on. Everything started out great. I was expecting him to pull since he hasn't been on a regular leash in over a year but he didn't. He actually walked better on a regular leash , which means that I will be using it at least 4 days out of the week. As we walked home I decided to cross the street as we approached our block and walk past our house towards the corner. The corner has 4 way traffic with lights and city buses. 5 doors past the house the tail goes down and he stretches his body to get in sprint pull mode. I double wrapped the leash around my wrist and began to talk to him trying to reassure him that everything was OK. I tried to get him to sit so that I could give him a treat. That was the farthest thing from his mind. He wanted to get the heck out of there. Keep in mind that I said 5 doors from my house going in the opposite direction. I managed to make it to the corner holding the leash with two hands and praying that I didn't hurt my arm in the process. I sat on the church steps for about 5 minutes trying to get him to calm down and sit down. A couple of times he sat but not for long. Oh.. he could have cared 2 licks about those treats. He couldn't calm down or focus long enough to want any. His head was going back and forth as though he was watching the US Open. At one point he was contemplating going up the church steps. I had to sit there long enough for my hand to stop throbbing. We made it home, Neiko drank enough water to drown! I think I'm going to try to walk down different residential blocks before I try the busy intersection again. Tomorrow is another day... I feel like I deserve a treat. I see Lorna Doones in my future :) Good Night
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Cam Atis
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by Cam Atis »

They really are like what you have described. Cassie also behaved the same when she was younger. She prefer to explore on her own. Once she walked on that area, she can follow me on leash. We are like that for many weeks and I almost lost hope to ever be able to walk her down the neighborhood on leash BUT one day it happened. She is now eager to follow me around. But she had bouts of her old self when she wasn't walked for a few weeks.
Anyway they are a breeze to walk down the streets. No pulling ahead. :D
NanouetJon
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by NanouetJon »

Not wanting to delve too deep in Dog Psych here but chows and people love routine. Step out of that routine and voila anxiety. That being said. the same 8 blocks for year will get boring and there may be a time you need to walk somewhere unknown. Best to tackle the problem now.

I have tried, choke collars (not a huge fan) Harness's, regular collars and found the winner. A head harness. This is not a muzzle, the chow can fully open and close their mouth. Image
This collar is attached to the neck collar so that should it slip off the nose you are still attached to the chow.

The difference here is I can control the head of the chow, where all the anxiety and stubborn is held. 99% of the time Maddoxx and Marru walk along nice and easy. Its that 1% when I give a tug or take of the slack that makes all the difference. I am not trying to move 80lbs+ of Chow. When Maddoxx wants to get in a starring contest of move towards something I don't want. I don't have to pull him as he moves away from me his head halter prevents it. I am not fighting the firm pull of chow, just his head. When he sees another dog walking down the road, he can look but once he stares, I shake the leash and he realizes I am in control and he keeps walking with me. Its genius. BUT it must be used properly. You CAN never JERK, YANK or pull strongly on it or you could hurt your chows head and neck.

I have been asked if I am not worried about him bolting or pulling and hurting himself. At first I was and had him double leashed, one on his body harness and one on his head. If I needed to pull him forcibly away I had the body harness leash. Thing is.. I never used it. Once I was leading by the head, he knew and I knew we would have no issues.

Anxiety: Once technique that I have learned is routine. A new dog is on the block, there is a big loud dump truck down the street. Once I sense his anxiety. We stop.
Then we do 2 or 3 things that re-establish confidence. So I ask him to sit, praise him, look at me, praise him, give me a paw, praise him. Then I start walking again. praise him.

We may need to do this a few times. But several things are learnt by my chow. 1. He can trust me, I only ask him to do things he can do. 2. All the little wins and praise boost his confidence. 3 New things can be great (he was praised all the time during the event)

The biggest test is if I am anxious. Then I have to decide: I once walked down a street with 3 dogs barking like crazy but not leaving their yard ( not fenced ) I decided to choose another road. I will not ask Maddoxx to protect me, he will , but better to avoid. Well the three dogs decided to approach, running and barking , the owner was running behind with her garden shears in her hand yelling, " They aren't viscous, I promise". I turned and stood as tal las possible, Maddox was one pace behind me and his main was on full alert. Then I let out one loud "BOOOF!"
They came to a screeching halt and headed home. Looked down at Maddoxx and his tail was wagging a mile a minute. He was so proud!

So practice doing things your chow is not used to. but reward the success, I use praise, some use cookies. Sometimes our chows are so good we use both.
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blackmagic26
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by blackmagic26 »

I would like to thank everyone who posted advise. In particular I would like to personally thank the person that posted last. I can relate to much of what you wrote and I'm taking your advise. I am better equipped to deal with situations ( like dogs off leash while walking). You made me think back to the times when I showed fear seeing a dog walk off leash. I'm going to follow your direction. It's going to get better (1) block at a time. :D
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Ursa's daddy
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by Ursa's daddy »

Then I let out one loud "BOOOF!"
I love that. I have been known to bark at dogs, so I understand. It does get their attention. As you noted, it is a matter of your attitude, since you are the pack leader and your dog is looking to you.
NanouetJon
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Re: Chow becomes anxious in public

Post by NanouetJon »

blackmagic26 wrote:I would like to thank everyone who posted advise. In particular I would like to personally thank the person that posted last. I can relate to much of what you wrote and I'm taking your advise. I am better equipped to deal with situations ( like dogs off leash while walking). You made me think back to the times when I showed fear seeing a dog walk off leash. I'm going to follow your direction. It's going to get better (1) block at a time. :D
Sharing our tricks and tips is the best way we can have our best chows. It helps everyone, and most importantly our breed. The negative perception, and the stand offish nature, needs and is changing. Our role is to have the best behaved chows, out in public and showing what a cherished breed they are.

Anxiety of other dogs is valid, very valid. Here is a little confidence for you. Our chows are designed with the tools to survive. The thick fur and loose skins is their defense. They were used to hunt bear in past years. The loose skin and ample fur is a protection from biting attackers. Most bites get a mouth full of hair or if they do pierce the skin it is not hitting vital organs. The mane and fur makes them look alot larger than they are.

That square and low to the ground hindset is built to be solid and agile. A chow can pivot in no time. When charging chow rams you, it packs a punch, and knocks everyone on their butt.

We never want to see our chows fight, we must avoid it all costs, but if your chow had too, your chow has excellent chances of walking away to protect you another day.

I have taken Maddoxx to the dog park and seen other dogs confused when playing with him. They do their leaping and running when play fighting. When they tried to bump Maddoxx to flip him, they realize they hit a brick wall and scamper back. When Maddoxx puts his mane on high, he becomes HUGE.
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