ChowChow.org

So I've had Todd for almost 2 years now (March 19), and my parents have had Nikki (Rottweiler) for about 7 months... Well, these 2 absolutely despise each other. Todd does his best to avoid Nikki, but if they're in the same room, Nik doesn't hesitate to try to jump on him. And this really scares me... Todd's only 5 pounds and Nikki is already over 100 pounds. She could seriously hurt him if she was given the chance.

I'd really like to be able to try to work this out between the 2, but I don't even know where to start... Right now, we're working on a rotation where Nikki gets time to hang out and play while Todd is upstairs in his kennel in my bedroom. And then Nikki either gets put in her kennel or my brother or his girlfriend will take Nikki up to their room, while Todd gets time to hang out and play. It's really one big pain in the behind and I don't know what else to do...

I understand the switches, and thats with two evenly weighted and aged chows. Rory and Amber essentially cross in the night. She is either in heat or just coming off it and it drives him nuts.

They do eat side by side without issue. Food seems to be a bigger motivator than the 'other' thing. They also cross paths when heading outside to the great outdoors. Other than that, we try to let them hang out together at times, but they are both on lead with a human foot firmly implanted on the upper 3 feet of the lead.

Since she is only a year old, leaving them to their devices is not an option at this time. They probably wont be a mated set given some other restrictions, so it can be difficult and most likely will continue to be.

For your dogs, consider allowing them certain times together. Dinner is an obvious choice. Feed them together and allow them to eat side by side if they can do so without aggression. Let them decide who will be next to go out. I usually go based on who finished the meal 1st (surprisingly not always the same dog).

Well, Nikki wouldn't hesitate to abandon her for and go after Todd instead. We feed Dixie, Jasper, Nikki, and Todd in their kennels. It's the safest thing to do. Jasper and Dixie are food aggressive around other dogs and we don't want ANY fights.

The whole situation is stressful. I'm just wishing I could find a job and get me and my animals out of this house...

Well, it sounds like you are really stressed out, feeling hopeless and possibly angry about where you are at right now. I do sympathise and as I only have /had one dog I can't be of much help I'm afraid. It's also possible your stress may be passed on to your dogs thereby forming a vicious circle of getting nowhere pretty fast!. This might sound even more hopeless or feeble but Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer has some excellent videos on YouTube concerning canine behavioural problems of all dog breeds. Maybe he could help if any Chow owners here can't recommend anything else? Sorry, it's all I can think of. Good Luck!!

I can sympathize Jess, when Cocoa was a puppy my son lived at home with his little Papillon. Toby is a sweet dog but he is very submissive and would not put Cocoa in her place, he would just run away. Cocoa of course thought that he was a live action squeaky toy! We could not leave them unsupervised in the same room together. I think in my case the issue was not the size difference but that Toby wouldn't set boundaries with the crazy puppy (they get along much better now). Has Todd tried to tell Nikki off at all or does he just avoid her? Maybe it is the same problem, Nikki being a puppy pushing the boundaries?

christina chow mum wrote:Well, it sounds like you are really stressed out, feeling hopeless and possibly angry about where you are at right now. I do sympathise and as I only have /had one dog I can't be of much help I'm afraid. It's also possible your stress may be passed on to your dogs thereby forming a vicious circle of getting nowhere pretty fast!. This might sound even more hopeless or feeble but Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer has some excellent videos on YouTube concerning canine behavioural problems of all dog breeds. Maybe he could help if any Chow owners here can't recommend anything else? Sorry, it's all I can think of. Good Luck!!

Honestly, I'm not that stressed. And I do my best to de-stress myself before I even try to let all the dogs together. I don't want my emotional state escalating anything with the dogs.

Cocoa wrote:I can sympathize Jess, when Cocoa was a puppy my son lived at home with his little Papillon. Toby is a sweet dog but he is very submissive and would not put Cocoa in her place, he would just run away. Cocoa of course thought that he was a live action squeaky toy! We could not leave them unsupervised in the same room together. I think in my case the issue was not the size difference but that Toby wouldn't set boundaries with the crazy puppy (they get along much better now). Has Todd tried to tell Nikki off at all or does he just avoid her? Maybe it is the same problem, Nikki being a puppy pushing the boundaries?

Todd has attempted to put Nikki in her place and still attempts to when she's close by but distracted. It's never worked. She was equal weight to him when we brought her home and as she's grown, she started out just bowling him over, and now she's under the impression that he's a living squeaky toy... In all honesty, Todd's fear of Nikki is very similar to Nikki's fear of Jasper... But Jazz hasn't ever been mean to Nikki. He's never even attempted to make her submit to him. I don't think I'll ever get these 3 to get along at this point...

Oooops! Sorry... was just picking up on this:

"....The whole situation is stressful. I'm just wishing I could find a job and get me and my animals out of this house..."

I just thought that as the problem seemed to be associated with the Rottweiler/others in the pack and not basically the little Chow that some outside influence may help concerning those dogs. I really do hope you can get it sorted out as all our dogs want to do is to please us and we only want the best for them.
Take care!

No, it's just stressful when Nikki tries to make a snack out of my little pommie. I usually spend my days with my dogs in my room, in the basement, or outside. While someone else has Nikki in the main part of the house. Everything would be more simple if myself and my animals were at my own place....

You are doing exactly what you must always do with these 2 in the same house. I have the same issue with D'Lion and Montana. Don't know why, but he goes after the old girl without provocation, so I hawk eye them and keep them separated when I am not in sight. It's not ideal, but Big D can be backed down with a look or a word. Work on that and on Todd staying out of danger's path (not that easy) and you can co-exist easier.

Hang in there and work with them. I am fostering a chow Samoyed mix, and Maggie, our rat terrier, wants to eat him. Good thing he is mellow about it. Of course, the new dog has added a little stress to everyone, and Ursa wants to go at Malachi during feeding, so I have to be careful with them. I wish I had a good suggestion.

A while back, Maggie would get mouthy with Ursa. The problem with that is that occasionally Ursa would snap at her, and that would be a vet visit. Over the years they have mellowed. To me, it seems that the females have a tension between them which the males do not but.......Harvey, my foster wants to establish himself in the pack, and there were issues at first.