How the Chow Brain Works

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:32 am

I'd love to hear some stories on your "super-smart" Chows. What amazing things do your chows do that you might have thought you'd never see from a dog?

Here's my example from this morning.

Every morning I get up, go to the bathroom, put some clothes on and head for the back door to let the furkids out. Sometimes they are tired, sometimes not, but whenever I walk to that back door, they are up like lightening. Yesterday I did laundry so most of my clean clothes were hanging up in the basement. I had all my clothes on except for my shirt as I walked to the back door. The two beauties only raised there heads and looked at me, sighed and put their heads back down. They knew, without me saying anything that it wasn't time to go out until mom puts her clothes on. I was amazed. They constantly surprise with their powers of observation.

Please share your stories!

Mandy, Chewie & Cayenne

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:56 am

They have you totally sussed out, don't they Mandy!

I have just posted a day or so ago about Milly and Mabel deciding they wanted to get the hell out of it!!
On Saturday we had a 2 yr. old great nephew here and they wanted to get away so they went to the back door to be let out.
The following day, another great nephew visited with his parents - nearly l yr. old.
Again M & M wanted to get out of his way - they went and stood by the sitting room door, into the hall so that they could go to bed!
Why the difference?!!

They had gone with me to answer the front door when our nephew knocked and knew it was raining!!
I tell you, they are bright!

Now then, I maintain ordinary dogs would not have worked that one out!

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:10 pm

I completely agree Judy! Those stories are what got me thinking about this! I was going to reply on that string but decided we needed a whole new subject to discuss our smart furkids. That story is classic Chow.

Mandy

sweetpea · Post by **sweetpea** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:37 pm

This may be silly but one thing I notice with mine are baths. My dogs hate bath time and will hide from me so I try to be sneaky. I dont say a word about the bath, just get things ready so once I get them in the bathroom I have everything there. Just as soon as I finish getting things ready and go get one for a bath, they are hiding from me! They do everything in their power to stay away from me. Princess is the worst about this. The other day I had princess outside while I gave Gracie a bath. Princess had no idea what I had been inside doing since she had been outside for sometime when I decided it was a good time to give Gracie her bath. After the bath I opened the door and called for Princess to come in. She took a step in, stopped, took one look at Gracie and turned around and ran back outside as fast as she could! She avoided me for the next couple of hours after that.

They do alot of things that amaze me but thats the one that sticks in my mind right now since they just recently had baths.

Post by **kingalls** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:30 pm

This happens every evening. Right about the time I should be coming home, Mr. Nahkohe goes to the gate to stand watch. Shiloh sits by the sliding glass door and watches for the front door to open. As soon as Mr. N hears my car he signals Shiloh with some barking. Then Mr. N runs to the sliding glass door where they both wait for me to see me come through the front door.
The thing is - especially this time of year - Mr. N can knows my car from the others. Duing the Xmas season our street is lit up like an airport runway and we have alot of cars cruising the street but Mr. N knows when it's me.
Just like M&M they work like a team when it comes to figuring things out.

Karen

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:03 am

M & M know our daughter's car Karen.
We live in a small cul-de-sac and we are at the bottom so our front faces up the avenue. When the weather is nice and the back door is open, if M & M are in the house and they hear Carolyn's car, they will immediately get up and dash, at the speed of light, out through the back door, up the side of the house to the side gate where they can see through and watch her reverse her car.

We know when she is coming because when she gets to the front gate, they dash back and are there waiting at the front door when she arrives.
The adore her!

She gets the tail wags and the purple kisses and the fuss.

Then Milly will ask for her keys and Carolyn will give them to her. She then goes and hides them in their pile of cuddly toys!

Also, when we take them to visit my mother, they sleep almost all of the way. We put them in the car and five minutes into our journey they are fast asleep, snoring their beautiful heads off.
The journey takes about an hour.
We travel westward all the time, through the city of Chester and then eventually we arrive at the village my mother lives in. We have to take a sharp left turn into the road that leads to her house - as soon as we make that turn, they "ping" awake and start snuffling and grunting until we reach my mother's house. The reverse journey is exactly the same.

Beautiful Chow girls.

arnis · Post by **arnis** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:31 am

Something that amazes me is Kahn recognizes my foot steps...(before he went deaf) if people stopped to see me and i was not home they always asked if i had Kahn with me, because they never hear any barking... well, couple times i road home with someone else thinking Kahn wont recognize the car. well, there is no barking till i start to walk on the front porch. if i send friend on porch and stay in grass , no barking, but as soon as i take more than 2 steps he goes off like a 5 bell alarm. they must attune themselves to us pretty good to recognize a walking pattern... amazing.

Elaina · Post by **Elaina** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:21 am

This is just one of the super-smart things my three do:

Every morning Max, Maha, and Mei-Mei wake us at 5:35am by sitting by my side of the bed until I acknowledge them with a "Good Morning!". We no longer use an alarm clock. This isn't unusual, you say? Well.... during the change from daylight savings time (when time is set back 1 hour at CST 2:00am, the last Saturday night/Sunday morning in October) the three of them woke me at precisely 5:35am on Sunday. If they were just regular dogs, they would have awakened me at 4:35am! When I told another Chow owner this fact, he said to me, "Why does that amaze you?.... afterall, they are Chow Chow!"

I guess I'm still learning!

Peace and Blessings
Elaina, Max-A-Million, Mahayana, and Mei-Mei

Victory · Post by **Victory** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:35 am

Well of course I'm smarter than the average dog, I have to be; see mommy makes really yummy stew food for me and the brat, (Firesong) and puts it into my metal bowl, but my head is very big and sometimes the food gets all mushed down and I can't get it. Now I could go get mommy but then the brat would be at my food and I'd have to growl at her to get my bowl back, (mommy doesn't like that) so I pick my bowl up and take it into the other room where mommy is and SLAM it down on the floor, this loosens the food a bit, and gets mommy's attention and she stirs up the food more so I can eat the rest.

And then there's the times, mommy picks up all our toys and puts them in a toy box,(then she sweeps the floor and washes it with this yucky stuff). She sometimes forgets to take the toys back out, so I go and get the toy box and pick it up and SHAKE it real hard and all the toys fly out. Then I play with the toy box cause makes WAY more noise than any of our squeaky toys and I like to make noise when I play, so the brat will remember that I'm bigger than her...and I was here FIRST, so there!

And that's all I'm saying for now,
Darkwind

PS anyone want a bratt? I'll send her free...

Shane · Post by **Shane** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:04 am

Um this may probally be a common thing. One thing I have to say with my two if they have to go through the bathroom in the night, they have the most annoying thing of waking me up. Krillan will come to my ears and let out an extremely deep loud bark to catch my attention. Shadow he is more passive he'll jump in the bed and stare. Krillan however is more persistant with how he get my the bed and start jumping around. The final straw with him that does works (if i am extremely tired i am a deep sleeper) he slaps me in my face, claws and all. That it cause me think he doesn't like lol. That is be like a full grewn man with weight slaps me. One time when I got up to let him out but not in time when I open my eyes his paw was in the air as high as he could carry it, it came smashing down on my face. A friend ask me when I gone to school the next day "Your dog beat you up again."

Shane

Ps: Now I changed to a light sleeper so I would not be abused by my dog again.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:37 am

These stories are brilliant and just show how absolutely bright Chows are!

Victory, I make your recipe for M & M and they love it!

Elaina, that is amazing - but as your friend says, they are Chows.

Shane - I too get woken up! Milly usually does the "talking" and I really mean talking. She sits by my side of the bed and makes a series of really slow, nasal grunts. She only does this particular sound when she and Mabel want to go out and spend a penny.

If I don't wake up, which I sometimes pretend I haven't, she will put her front paws on the side of the bed and pat my arm gently, still making the special grunting. If I still don't respond, she will poke my arm really hard and it hurts so I respond at the paw patting stage - it feels just so lovely having her beautiful fat paw patting my bare arm!

Then they strutt through to the back door, looking behind to see if I am following!

I just love them.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:58 pm

I was just wondering - Our Chows are pretty bright - do you think that maybe they have to be!!!!!!!

I received a Christmas Good Wishes message from a friend today and this is part of what it said:=

"Hope you and your familes and lovely chows have happy holidays! I thought of you both this week when I saw a man trying to walk a lovely blonde chow in the rain. The chow took dainty footsteps while he held the umbrella over it and if the umbrella moved, the chow seemed to stop and refuse to walk until properly covered again. It was a sight, wish I'd had a video camera

"

Do you think that maybe our Chow Chows have to be super-bright to deal with us.

Or maybe we have to develop "different" behaviour to deal with our Chows! (I have actually caught Fred tasting M & M's dinner using a fork in order to try and persuade Milly Ching to eat when she is being difficult!)

Something to ponder on during the holiday!

Have a lovely holiday everybody.

Shane · Post by **Shane** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 11:42 am

Krillan and Shadow are like that. If it has rained tat morning and I let them out and the ground is still wet, he'll go out urinate and stand one spot. After that I'll either have to call him in o he'll shoot right nside afterwards. They actuallty tip toe (they walk slow and very cautious).

Shane

bruinsmom · Post by **bruinsmom** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:52 am

My husband and I ask that question everytime we get a snow storm and we're out shoveling snow up to our elbows and our "daughter" is in the warm house watching us through the sliding glass door.

OR, when we're leaving for work on a cold, dark winters morning. She's inside sleeping.

I want to come back as a chow chow in my next life.....

Bruinsmom

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:12 pm

Yes, I know what you mean - but - only in your house or my house.

(or somebody else off the site!!)

sweetpea · Post by **sweetpea** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:54 am

lol, that sounds like Gracie. I get a kick out of her. Right now my daughter is staying with us with her pug (only until the weekend). I let them out and Princess and Kokomo go running out the door as if in a race, into the yard....but taking her time, heading for the door wiggles Miss America. No rush, to proud to be caught acting in the same manner as Princess or a pug.

Another thing,Princess andKokomo rough house. They enjoy a good game of chase. Gracie just sits and watches as if she is disgusted by this behavior. The two will then start trying to get Gracie to play, but she wont do it in the house. I end up sending Princess and Kokomo outside to blow off steam....Gracie doesnt rough house.

Elaina · Post by **Elaina** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:13 am

Gracie is like Mahayana. Max-A-Million and Mei-Mei will wrestle, rough house, and body slam each other, but Mahayana just watches the action with disgust and an expression that says, "Those silly young Chows!" That expression just cracks me up!

kiwani · Post by **kiwani** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:04 am

MandyBarrett wrote:

"What amazing things do your chows do that you might have thought you'd never see from a dog?"

---
Many years ago, when I lived in a great city with my first Chow, he broke out of a third story apartment window during a powerful thunderstorm, jumped into midtown traffic and disappeared into a city of millions of people. He was finally found the next morning, some distance away, sleeping next to the bears in the city zoo. The only injury he received through this whole ordeal was a chipped fang.

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How the Chow Brain Works

How the Chow Brain Works

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How Smart are Chow Chows?