ChowChow.org

Sorry Laura, in my over heated moment I forgot there are two on the site. I appreciate all your kind words and congrats.

Back on topic:

When I was growing up, the only way we got a dog was if it was listed in the paper for sale. My father still goes to pet stores and recently got a beagle puppy. To be honest when I got Shelby it was because we had been looking for so long for a "rescue" puppy that my husband became irritated that the process took so long. Then when our application was denied we looked in the local paper. Since the birth of my daughter almost 5 years ago, I have had post-partum depression. My husband brought home a pit-bull puppy three years ago, and when our park manager found out (mobile home park), they made us get rid of her, no Pitts, Rotts or Dobermans allowed. I was heart broken, and it made my depression worse. Since getting Shelby I have began feeling normal again.

I am not disregarding the opinions, or the pleas not to get this puppy. I am reading every post with acceptance and keeping everyone's experiences in mind. Now maybe I should have posted this before, but I will now.

My opinion: If an animal is born, and I have a position to be able to care and provide for it, regardless of were it comes from, then why not? If I am aware of the POSSIBLE problems and am still confident that I can provide for this puppy, then why not? If I have been made aware of what RHR does or does not test for, and still believe that I might be this puppies best chance at life, then why not?

Again I will say I have rescued and did plan on doing it again. My Janie was rescued two years ago, and we did know of her background. She was a 9 year-old Dachshund/black lab mix, and was brought to the shelter by the daughter of her previous owner. Since her mother died, and she was not able to care for her, she brought her to the shelter. I had her for a year and a half before she passed. She was the best behaved dog I had ever owned and very healthy. My position now is that since Chow's are known for being aggressive if not properly socialized, that I would get puppies and raise them properly so they are not. As with Missy, most rescues are or were strays picked up. Their background is unknown, and so is there behavior. It would be very difficult for me to rehabilitate an aggressive chow. I know this because I tried.

When I got Shelby I also got a personal dog trainer to come to my home to teach me how to train and socialize Shelby properly. Missy was here for 6 out of the 8 weeks. It was not possible even with his help.

I hope you all do not think I am disregarding your advise or experiences. That is not the case. If it was I would already be gone from this site.

I also do have to say if any of my posts were written in anger they were not directed towards all, but just to Laura Mac. I felt personally attacked by one of her posts and responded accordingly. Like I said, I accept all opinions and stories of past experiences, but will not sit quietly and accept an attack on me personally, as I doubt anyone else here would.

sorry, wrong thread. oops!
(post deleted)

Life is like a box of chocolates.

SSDD

Nothing will ever change, it will only get worse for Chows in general... and I don't think that even if we were swimming in a sea of dead Chows would the offenders even then understand what the rest of us are so upset about.

Exactly who are the offenders?

Red Dragon wrote:Exactly who are the offenders?

I typed in Offenders and AKC came up.

Many of the brachycephalic (flat-faced) breeds, such as pugs and Persians, have breathing and eye problems, and sharpeis often suffer skin problems because of their multiple skin folds. Other breed standards, set by breed clubs for showing dogs in American Kennel Club competitions, may include ear cropping and tail docking. These surgeries, which cause pain and distress, are performed for cosmetic reasons and are neither medically indicated nor beneficial to the dog. A particular breed's propensity for genetic problems, or a breed standard that includes cosmetic surgery, are both good reasons to consider a different breed.

Copyright © 2001 The Humane Society of the United States All rights reserved.

%J&$@JGDY*&^$@RGJII&$# Whoops, I fell out of my chair again because I was laughing so hard. Wrong again Jeff, a breed standard is set by the breed club, not the AKC. If you are mad about the standard of the Chow, contact the CCCI.

Red Dragon wrote: %J&$@JGDY*&^$@RGJII&$# Whoops, I fell out of my chair again because I was laughing so hard. Wrong again Jeff, a breed standard is set by the breed club, not the AKC. If you are mad about the standard of the Chow, contact the CCCI.

If You don't like it and think they are wrong tell it to them, I didn't write the article, Again Another crosspost dufus tell it to the writer which happens to be the Humane Society not me. Boy thats a hit to your pocket book now isn't it.

Discovery Channel a few years ago did a whole 4 hour show on how the breed standards set by the AKC has destroyed certain breeds and ruined others. People want AKC registered Chows great then don't bitch about the hips and eyes later.
Like I said AKC=Altered Kennel Chows.

Your hilarious Jeff, I just told you the standard has nothing to do with the AKC and you said again, what is the deal with you?

Nothing you can say or do will affect my pocket book one way or another. Keep on bashing, I am getting a good laugh out of all of this. You're an amatuer version of Melanie. Clueless!

Ok never mind what i just CROSSPOST, your question, who are the offenders? Red Dragon. Now see thats what I get for trying to be a nice guy and not mention you.

Red Dragon wrote:Exactly who are the offenders?

I'd spell it all out for you Sam, but your narcissistic god complex that comes with the type of personality that it takes to peddle flesh blocks the neurotransmitters that would actually allow you to care.

Have a nice day!

...and don't anyone give me any lip about copyright infringement, I plead fair use/satire.
So don't even think about suing me for using your image, Jeffrey.

Sandy

Sojourner11 wrote:

Red Dragon wrote:Exactly who are the offenders?

I'd spell it all out for you Sam, but your narcissistic god complex that comes with the type of personality that it takes to peddle flesh blocks the neurotransmitters that would actually allow you to care.

Have a nice day!

ciaobella wrote:

...and don't anyone give me any lip about copyright infringement, I plead fair use/satire.
So don't even think about suing me for using your image, Jeffrey.

Considering I have been using Quasimodo for the past ten years to describe myself thats actually a compliment

This has been a great thread to read and get caught up on. One good thing about being gone dealing with swollen creeks, rivers and flooding is... I didn't miss much.
I have had breeder chows and now I have a rescue. Tai just happened to "drop" into my life because our vet knew Tai needed me and I needed Tai. Had I not gotten Tai, would I have gotten another chow from a breeder eventually? Probably. I have a 41/2 month old shih-tzu puppy that we bought from a breeder in April, and not only that, we are thinking about getting another from a breeder. Do I feel bad or guilty because my dogs have come from a breeder? Nope!!! Nor am I going to allow narrow minded individual(s) to make me feel guilty. I'm just the type of person that feels if you don't like what I'm doing, then deal with it. That's your problem, not mine. So getting my feeling hurt because I have bought from a breeder just hasn't happened. But it is unfair to make the others who have bought from a breeder feel like they are dirt under someone's feet, and it is wrong. As was stated earlier, it doesn't state Rescuechowchow.org on this website. We all should be adult enough to agree to disagree. We all share a bond... the love of the chow. Each of us loves our chows. Each of us is owned by our chows. There is a wealth of information on this site that each of us can tap into. Between each of us, there are years and years and years of chow experience. Between all of us, there is alot of resources to help chows. Instead of being the site that fights all of the time... we should be the site that reaches out to chows... all chows, not just rescues or shelter shows. And as harsh as this sounds, the majority of us live in America. We have the right to live and do as we please without guilt and condemnation as long as we aren't hurting anyone. That also includes buying a chow from a breeder if we feel that's what we want to do. Things are not always as black and white as some think they are. If it weren't for the breeders there wouldn't be any purebred chows. That's the plain simple truth. Are all breeders good breeders? No they aren't. But they aren't all bad either. It isn't the breeders putting their chows in shelters. It's the owners.
My 2 cents worth.

Tai is a gorgeous chow! What a beautiful color! Reminds me of Chuka, a chow/border collie I had.

Chuka: (she was hit by a car at 9 months old)

As a shelter vet, I support and congratulate everyone who has adopted from a shelter/rescue. I personally have had to euthanatize great dogs because there are simply not enough homes and resources for the number of unwanted dogs around. It's a sad fact. I graduated vet school saying that I would never euthanatize a healthy animal. However, the world is not perfect and there are just too many animals. Until the public understands the importance of altering their companion pets, this will continue to occur. Everytime someone supports a breeder and buys instead of adopting, another dog dies.

No offense to those who got their lovely chows from breeders but I just wanted to let everyone know what's going on.

This was exactly my point...for which I've been blasted many times. I occasionally think it's stupidity, arrogance or ignorance of what the shelter dogs face. sometimes, I think it's a combination of all three and more.

See, statements like the last two posters made only create a huge rift between people here. Making statements like "Everytime someone supports a breeder and buys instead of adopting, another dog dies" or "I occasionally think it's stupidity, arrogance or ignorance" are designed to promote guilt in people. This whole "I'm better because I support rescue" is not putting a good light on those pushing that concept.

There's nothing wrong with getting a rescue dog, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. There's nothing wrong with buying a dog from a responsible breeder, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. If we would all stop getting dogs from crappy breeders, would promote and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets, and work hard to educate the public so that these excess pets are not born in the first place we'd be a lot farther along. We'd be saving more animals if we each offered to have someone's cat or dog spayed/neutered than if we just adopt one or two or three dogs from a shelter. Stopping the creation of a continuous supply of unwanted pets is the key, not griping about those who don't choose to adopt a rescue animal.

I don't know why those who promote rescue keep pushing the concept that everyone buying from a breeder is killing dogs in a shelter. It's not true. Why alienate others? Why create bad feelings? It would be really easy to generalize rescue people as pompous, arrogant, "holier-than-thou" people by some of the posts on this thread. Wouldn't you just HATE it if I did that?

Those who have purchased from a breeder are not on here saying you should never adopt from a shelter because you're probably not going to get a dog as healthy or with as good of a temperament as you would from a responsible breeder. We're not insulting those who choose to rescue. I wish I could say the same about some of the rescue people's attitude toward those who have purchased their dogs.

Melanie and the partly rescued and partly purchased gang in Alaska

Nicely put Melanie

I agree...nicely put Melanie. It's the holier than thou, self righteous attitude of only a couple that gets the subject of this thread boiling.

Never mind, misread my mistake.

hey jeff, i think those two posters were tryin to say the same thing. read back in the postings silly. wallacethegreat was agreeing with shelter vet not criticizing her.