HELP!!!.....MY NEW CHOW PUPPY

OZZY13849 · Post by **OZZY13849** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:11 am

MY HUSBAND AND I ARE THE PROUD OWNERS OF OZZY. HE IS A 3 1/2 MONTH OLD BLUE MALE. I HAVE OWNED TWO CHOWS PREVIOUSLY AND HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THIS PROBLEM. ONE OF OZZY'S EARS WILL NOT STAND ERECT. I THOUGHT MAYBE HE WOULD LEARN BETTER CONTROL OF IT AS WEEKS GO BY, NOT THE CASE HIS LEFT EAR IS JUST FLOPPY IT DEFINATELY GIVES HIM CHARACTER!!!! JUST WONDERING IF ANYONE ELSE HAS EVER HEARD OF THIS AND WHAT I MIGHT BE ABLE TO DO. ALSO FROM WHAT I HAVE READ CHOW CHOWS SHOULD HAVE DARK COLORED EYES AND OZZY'S ARE A GOLDEN COLOR IS THIS NORMAL? THANKS FOR ANY INPUT

JAYGOW1 · Post by **JAYGOW1** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:46 am

I've heard about that Erectile Disfunction !! Did you try the "blue pill" ??

What does his vet say, and where are the pictures ????

Post by **chris** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:52 am

Steel's ear was floppy for quite a while. Give it time, it will correct it's self.
His eye color still may change as well. Steel had a light grey/blue color when he was a puppy and now they are dark brown. I have seen some of the other chow chows on this site have light colored eyes still.

At one point, I was hoping that Steel's ear would stay floppy because.. like you said.. gives him character

Welcome to the site and congrates on your new addition!

sit_by_the_beach · Post by **sit_by_the_beach** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:30 pm

Don't worry, chow's ears may not stand up till a bit later. My chow's ears are both floppy. I love it when she walks quickly and the ears bop up and down,
karin

OZZY13849 · Post by **OZZY13849** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:44 pm

LOL!!! THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE GREAT ADVICE!!! I JUST CAME ACROSS THIS FORUM IT IS REALLY GREAT TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO OTHER CHOW OWNERS I WILL DEFINATELY BE A REGULAR VISITOR. I WILL HAVE PICTURES POSTED SOON!!! I HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DOWNLOAD THEM. IM NOT VERY GOOD WITH COMPUTERS! I MUST SHARE OZZY'S CUTE LITTLE FACE WITH EVERYONE ELSE! THANKS AGAIN FOR A WARM WELCOME

TJordan · Post by **TJordan** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:49 pm

I think Butters still has a semi-floppy ear. I call him my little reject!!!!!

OZZY13849 · Post by **OZZY13849** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:12 pm

I TELL OZZY "LET ME SPEAK INTO YOUR GOOD EAR!" LOL

AWWWW BUTTERS!!!

Chow Chow Mama · Post by **Chow Chow Mama** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:16 pm

Holden's eyes are soft brown. Tucker had dark brown eyes.

cheriekynb · Post by **cheriekynb** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:22 pm

Sid has one ear that is a tad floppy. Every once in a while he will make it stand up but most of the time it's floppy. I love the way it makes him look. His eyes are almost as black as he is, sometimes you would think they are black.

Sharons Chows · Post by **Sharons Chows** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:39 pm

My JR's ears were both floppy until he was about 18 months old and then one day I woke up and so did both of his ears!!

Sharon

cleopatra20043 · Post by **cleopatra20043** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:05 pm

If you are worried about the ears not standing up all the way you can "tape" them up. It's pretty common and all you have to do is hold the ear in the standing position and use medical tape to keep it in place. Leave that on for a week and then take it off to check the progress if the ear is still loped then tape it back up for another week. This only works in puppies while the muscles that hold the ears up are developing and just gives them a little "boost" to keep them up. If you have more than one dog though it doesn't allways work since (as in the case with my two) keep chewing the tape off. As far as the eye color goes it is very common in the blues to have the lighter eye color an even if you check the AKC standards brown eyes are the only color that is accepted EXCEPT for the blues in which case a lighter eye color is acceptable. Hope that helps!

Julia

Mia · Post by **Mia** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:20 pm

If Ozzy has that cutie chow face, whether his ears are up or down won't make any difference.

Chow Chows are just so cute and adorable, a little ear limping won't do anything but give him character.

(Plus, no one knows about chows, just tell everyone they are supposed to be like that.!)

chow fancier · Post by **chow fancier** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:08 am

Teddy's ears are both floppy and only stand completely up when he is intently listening. Gives him character, I think.

chowfrnd88 · Post by **chowfrnd88** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:00 am

Welcoem to the forum!

Please don't tape your puppy's ears. It's very dangerous if you don't do it correctly. Remember taping is what people do to crop ears. It can cut off circulation and your puppy could lose an ear. I've seen puppy's whose ears have been very messed up by this process.

cleopatra20043 · Post by **cleopatra20043** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:33 am

chowfrnd88 wrote:Welcoem to the forum!

Please don't tape your puppy's ears. It's very dangerous if you don't do it correctly. Remember taping is what people do to crop ears. It can cut off circulation and your puppy could lose an ear. I've seen puppy's whose ears have been very messed up by this process.

Good point. You really shouldn't do that unless you know exactly what you are doing. Sorry I didn't add that in my post last night, I was in a hurry. You can also ask a vet to do it for you if you are worried about lop ears. The only reason that I see for making sure that the ears are erect is because of ear infections, they tend to be more frequent in dogs with lop and fuzzy ears. You can avoid that also by making sure the ears are cleaned often if you don't care about them standing up. Personally I love the lop ears and agree with everyone else that it gives charecter and personality to your pup.

Julia

OZZY13849 · Post by **OZZY13849** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:48 am

FROM WHAT EVERYONE HAS SAID THIS SOUNDS MORE COMMON THAN I THOUGHT. ONE CONCERN WAS THAT THE FLOPPY EAR WOULD BE PRONE TO MORE INFECTIONS BUT I GUESS DIFFERENT BREEDS HAVE FLOPPY EARS AND ITS NO PROBLEM. I THOUGHT IT MIGHT STRAIGHTEN OUT GIVEN TIME. YOU GUYS HAVE GREAT INPUT! SOMEONE ELSE TOLD ME ABOUT TAPING THE EAR...I DID THINK ABOUT IT.... BUT DECIDED I DONT WANNA DO THAT TO MY LITTLE GUY IT MIGHT GIVE HIM A COMPLEX...LOL I DO LIKE THE WAY HE LOOKS

I DID NOT KNOW THAT THE BLUES COULD HAVE LIGHTER EYES. THEY HAVE CHANGED ONCE ALREADY HE HAD BLUE EYES WHEN WE BROUGHT HIM HOME AND NOW THEY ARE A BEAUTIFUL LIGHT GOLD

pfordeb · Post by **pfordeb** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:48 pm

As long as they are not Alfred E. Newman ears
like Gilbert -- what, me worry?

Victory · Post by **Victory** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:00 pm

The floppy ear in chows and the light eyes are common, and they are disqualifiers for conformation. Sometimes it's a lack of calcium, (for the ear) but most times it's a genetic flaw. He's a blue which is a dilute color and with the dilute coat color sometimes lighter eyes and lighter tongues and mouths are common as well.

My Dreamdancer is a dilute, (he's a cinnimon) and his tongue is only smokey purple, and his mouth has a fair amount of pink in it. Unlike my black girl who's mouth is jet black entirely. Her eyes are darker as well, very dark brown, where as his are a lighter medium brown.

If you aren't going to show or breed him, (and he would be disqualified from either really) don't worry about it and enjoy your unique chowling.

Chows5 · Post by **Chows5** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:09 pm

This is taken from the Chow Standard regarding eye color.

Eyes

Dark brown, deep set and placed wide apart and obliquely, of moderate size, almond in shape. The correct placement and shape should create an Oriental appearance. The eye rims black with lids which neither turn in nor droop and the pupils of the eyes clearly visible.

You can find Chow information at the Parent Club website.

http://chowclub.org/ccci/content/view/32/35/

There is another option for an ear that is not standing up. A chow's ears should be up by the time they are 8 weeks old. A couple weeks late is acceptable. But, if they're not up by 3 1/2 months some intervention is needed. The inside of the ear can be shaved and super glue applied and press the ear together. By the time the super glue lets loose the ear should be standing. It does not harm the Chow's ear.

Carolyn

coleywoley · Post by **coleywoley** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:59 pm

Ginger is a mix. Her ears are definetly floppy and big and non chow but one almost always stands straight up. The other never does. So far they've both been healthy. If anything she gets more dirt into the erect ear then the floppy one when she goes rolling in the yard.

Clockman · Post by **Clockman** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:27 pm

Emma's now about seven/eight months old and still has half-floppy ears; they bend in the middle. I love them! I laugh hysterically when she moves them independently around like mini radar! Too cute!

boot · Post by **boot** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:14 am

Arrggh! I can't believe people are putting superglue on their pups' ears!

Ears may flop due to genetics (poor breeding, as in, doesn't match up to AKC breed standard). I had heard that it could otherwise be weak muscles in the ear, in which case gently rubbing (massaging) the ear might help (and, handling the ears, as well as feet, mouth are good things to do anyway when the pups are young, as it gets them use to handling later, so nail clipping, ear cleaning, etc. are a lot easier!).

pfordeb · Post by **pfordeb** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:48 pm

What a gorgeous picture JonathonFSU. (I just realized,
what does the FSU stand for, if you want to share).
I'm partial to blacks, but your other two look like
siblings?