Obedience classes

[CM]

Hello,

My partner and I are getting a chow chow puppy in a couple of months. We are both very excited to have this new addition to our home. Our plan is to enroll him in puppy school and basic obedience class once he is older. We have heard varying opinions on how chows handle obedience classes. We were just wondering how you have made out with training your chows? What do you think we could expect with lots of time and energy devoted to him?

Thank you!

[jerryo]

Congratulations on your choice. Chows are fantastic friends,and usually really poor servants. I think they are too smart to be "trained", but rather have to be educated. If they see a reason to do something, they will. If they don't see a reason, you may be on your own.

They will often amaze you with what they DO understand. For example, Saturday afternoon I heard Benny, my Chow buddy, barking from the front yard, so I went out to check on him. Unfortunately he was barking at the Sheriff's car which was now parked in front of my house. The Deputy asked if he was my dog, and I said he was (not wanting to get into a discussion of why people belong to their Chows, not vice-versa). The Deputy asked if I had any other dogs, and at that point I noticed that Benny's dog Lady had come outside after me. As the Deputy was reminding me that there is a County leash law (which nobody ever follows) and suggesting that I needed to secure the dogs when they were outside, I was trying to think of how to get them back inside as quickly as possible. That process can take some time most days, But I told them to go back to the house and they did it as if they spoke perfect English and knew this was one time not to argue the point. You never know how much they understand, I guess.

On the other hand, several of the Chows on this site are winning obedience competitions regularly, just to prove they can do whatever they choose to do.

[Rogansmommy]

Hi CM - welcome to the boards. I'm one of the people with an obedience titled chow. He's retired now (he'll be 9 in November) but in his heyday, he was quite competitive. The trick is to find a trainer that understands chows. Short bursts of training work best with them. It's also important to keep it fun and light. If you get upset or angry, they will just walk away and do nothing. You cannot train chows by compulsion. They must be trained with positive reinforcement. Realize that even if they know something, they might choose not to do the task at that specific moment. But they are smart, smarter than most people give them credit for.

Somewhere on here is a training thread that Melanie started. Let me see if I can find it and post the link.

Here it is:

http://www.chowchow.org/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

[Jess04920]

I have a chow mix, so it may be relatively different, but he resonds very well to positive reinforcement, especially when you make a big deal of him. The right treats are always very important But seriously, as long as you have respect for your chow chow and a lot of patience, you'll be fine. Socialization is also very important for your new buddy.

Have fun with it and be consistant. I'm sure others will be able to give you better advice, but good luck and welcome to the boards! You'll find a plethora of information and very good hearted chow lovers. Learn all you can from them!

[TXSusiQ]

We're currently in puppy school and Cabo is 4 months old. I wish we had started sooner but as you can see from the picture below we had to wait a little while.

Our trainer is really great and Cabo adores her. I do get a little concerned about the amount of time we spend in 1 session - 2 hours I think it may be too much. But Cabo takes it all in stride. As long as we're handing out turkey hot dog treats he's in heaven.

[CM]

Thank you everyone for all of you advice.

We are excited about soon becoming proud chow parents.

CM

[Yvonne]

Welcome to the board.

And congratualtions on soon being owned by a chow.