The Right “Chow” For Your Chow Chow

You are perhaps aware that each breed of dog comes with its own unique nutritional requirements that have come down the generations much like his coat, temperament, attitude and body size.

As a pet owner, it is necessary you know that your pet doesn’t look for a change in his diet. On the contrary, he finds it odd to eat anything new and different from what he’s used to. And you must also take care to see that his nutritional needs are being met by his diet.

His diet should contain:

1. Sources of nutrients found in his ancestors’ native environment. If should therefore not be strange and unfamiliar to his digestive and glandular systems but familiar and easy to digest and
2. The content of protein, carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals should match the requirements of his breed’s nutritional requirements

By feeding your pet right, you could not just invest in a healthy pet but also save a lot of money by not having to take him to the vet for problems of nutrition. Problems arising out of wrong or bad foods result in dry, itchy or flaky skin, hot spots, yeast infections in the ear, thyroid, liver or kidney problems, costing you an alarming amount of money every year.

This is why you need to study the nutritional needs of your pet before deciding on which food to give him. This results in a win-win situation: not only is your dog healthy, but you save money too.

Freshly cooked food: It is widely acknowledged that the best food you can give your pet is the one you make fresh for him everyday, using quality ingredients and without preservatives.

You will observe in time that it takes only about a couple of hours a week to cook for your Chow Chow so that his nutritional needs are satisfied. It will also turn out to be less expensive than buying commercial pet food.

In the early days, the Chinese ate the Chow Chow’s meat, though this breed lived on a diet of grains and vegetables. As a result, succeeding generations of this breed showed an indication of its development as a vegetarian by having a different structure of mouth, jaw and tooth as opposed to meat eating dogs. Its teeth are flatter than the sharp incisors of carnivorous dog breeds.

In its native environment, the primary sources of the Chow Chow’s food were rice, wheat, soy, and occasionally, fish. Even today, if you blend these foods, it would be the most ideal for him, On the other hand, foods to avoid serving him are beef, horse meat, lamb and poultry or their by-products.

1) Foods good for him: You perhaps don’t know that there are over 170 different molecular forms of the mineral called calcium. Its source is something this breed can easily digest, avoiding the possibility of the Chow Chow ever developing kidney stones.

2) The amount of calcium he takes in depends on his age, sex, activity level, stress levels, medical conditions and other dietary factors. After the dog is a year old, let him eat one meal a day. Be consistent with the amount of food you give him and his meal timings. If you give him just one meal a day, feed him towards sunset, since then he can go to bed after his meal.

3) When choosing the right feed for your pet, bear in mind that he cannot eat a lot of meat, unlike other dogs. If you do, he will break out into numerous skin ailments. For protein, give him eggs, rice, cottage cheese and a spoonful of meat every meal. However, rice is very good for him as this does his digestive system good and is great for a shiny coat.

4) Try "Pro Plan" once he is an adult. Mix it with warm water and if you choose to give it dry, see that it is a ready-expanded meal or the gases this forms in his stomach when the dry food becomes moist could lead to the problem of torsion and lead to his eventual death.

Rather than give him prepackaged food from supermarkets that are filled with preservatives, stick to the same diet with a few changes every now and then, just so he stays healthy. Vary the amount of food every now and then. Usually, a healthy Chow Chow eats four cups of food a day, over two meals.
Don’t give your dogs raw hides as this causes their deaths since they cannot digest it and sometimes choke on the hides. If you want to give him something to chew, give him a cow hoof. Make clean and fresh water available for him both inside and outside the house.

Feeding schedules: Usually, pups eliminate an hour or so after a meal. Once you regularize his feeding schedule, you will have some control over when he needs to eliminate.

1) Set the time for his dinner so that after the meal you can take him out of the house.

2) Just before you crate him, don’t feed him a large meal or he will eliminate when you’re not around to take him out. Instead, set two or three feeding schedules a day.

3) Let him eat only for 30- 40 minutes, then take it away.

4) Several hours before he is confined for the night, feed him. This, coupled with exercise sessions, confinement periods and trips outdoors to the elimination area will help him develop a fixed routine for eliminating.



The Chow Chow is a tough customer, no doubt, but if you have the guts and grit to take him in to your home, they can make a swell pet! Remember, he’s aristocratic, arrogant, reserved and aloof—so you have to adjust to his whims and fancies.

But he’ll do you proud, no matter what, so take one home today. Be assured you have a life of love and understanding from your dog friend.

Socialize Your Chow Chow

Socializing your pup isn’t something you do one fine day and then not again till you get the urge. It is an on-going process that begins when you bring your pup home and ends with his death.

To begin the process, right from the time you take him home, encourage visitors to come over and visit you and your new Chow Chow. Ideally, these people must belong to different races and cultures, be in different age groups and to both sexes. Let him go forward and be friendly, and respond to your friends’ toys, treats and gestures.

Once the vet certifies he is well and healthy, take him out with you on errands. When you meet a friend, let the person hold him or give him his time, attention and a treat. Your "dog friendly" friends could be good for such occasions. Socializing him means taking him out to as many places as possible so that his breadth of experience is wider and he mixes with people better. So, take him to the convenience store, park, supermarket, mall or playground, hang around for a while till he soaks in the environment.

If, however, you don’t socialize your Chow Chow for some time, he will go back into his earlier unsocialized state and turn his earlier shy self. Immediately resume the socialization process with him. You’d know he’s regressing if he tucks his tail behind him when he sees a stranger or barks while backing off.

Socializing your pup: Pups need a lot of positive experiences to become confident and well adjusted adults. This is why they need to be exposed to a variety of people, dogs, children and people and to sights, sounds and smells.

Adjusting to people: Your dog is a part of your family comprising human beings, so it is necessary he get along with people. He needs to be in the company of a lot of people and earn praise or rewards for good behavior from them in order to be well behaved.
To do this:
Ask your friends over to meet and play with your Chow Chow. Make them crouch down and meet him at eye level.
Ask your kids or the neighbor’s kids to come in and play with him, if they know how to be gentle with him. If a pup doesn’t know what it means to be with a kid, he can be aggressive towards them when they’re older.
If kids run around squealing and shouting, it sets off prey instincts in dogs if they are not familiar with them.
Gently but firmly correct bad behavior right from the start.

Gelling with other dogs: If dogs cannot speak the way we do, they have their own means of communication—through body posture, facial expressions and vocalization, they get across their message of fear, anger, aggression, submission or playfulness.

If he learns canine language, he will be able to put his feelings across effectively but if raised in isolation, he may misinterpret cues from other dogs or send wrong signals that will result in anger in other animals.
Like us, they too must learn acceptable norms of behavior such as when not to nip a friend or when to jump on Mom and when not to. So, from play behavior too, they learn to live by the code of their society.

How is your Chow Chow with other pets? For many dogs, getting along with other house pets is more of a problem than dealing with other dogs. So, if you have small animals beware, since hamsters or rabbits elicit prey instincts in dogs.

Fortunately, cats and larger pets aren’t at that much of risk. If you have a multi-pet home, introduce your pets to your pup at an early age. Supervise them when they are together, and reward them with praise or treats when they behave well with your pup.

When dogs and cats are raised together, the former usually accept cats. But considering your Chow Chow has strong hunting instincts, any cats in the house are in danger.

Why is your Chow Chow shy? Your Chow Chow may be shy if:

One of his parents is shy: Shyness in dogs is a dominant genetic trait. So, if one parent is shy, half the litter will also be so.
He’s badly socialized: Your pup should ideally be socialized between the ages of five and 12 weeks of age. If they are left unsocialized, they are probably timid and need a lot more effort to be well adjusted.

How to deal with shy dogs: Two winning techniques to deal with such dogs are: the flooding technique and desensitization and counter-conditioning. Flooding involves exposing the dog to a frightening situation until he is no longer scared of it.

Desensitization and counter-conditioning refers to gradually exposing the dog to the stimulus that brings on fear in a low-intensity form so that he doesn’t get frightened. By counter-conditioning, we mean that you add a reward when he proves he’s no longer scared. As he shows his confidence, gradually increase the intensity of the stimulus without bringing on fearful behavior.


Socializing shy dogs:
i. Ensure he’s healthy since shyness can also be due to poor eyesight or hypothyroidism.
ii. List all the things that your pet is scared of before you begin training and rank them.
iii. Teach him to stay in a relaxed posture, perhaps the sit-stay.
iv. Next, introduce him to the situation he’s least scared of and gradually go high up in the list you made in Step 2 till you reach the highest. Ask a friend to train your dog. Put him in a sit-stay position and ask your friend to stand at some distance from him. If his presence affects your pet, the latter will begin to show signs of concern such as sneezing, hyperventilating, shaking, panting, etc. But if he isn’t concerned, he will sit in a relaxed posture.
v. Repeat this till you’re sure he isn’t frightened of anyone.

Spaying and neutering your pup: If you don’t intend breeding your pup, it’s best you spay or alter him. Ask your vet the best age at which he can be spayed or altered, but usually it’s after he reaches sexual maturity.

There are many reasons why spaying or altering is considered a good idea. First, an accidental pregnancy could lead to unwanted litters that endanger the mother’s health. It also prevents the outbreak of female diseases such as pyometra. Besides, male dogs are easier to manage if neutered.

By selectively breeding the Chow Chow breed and producing only the best and the healthiest alone can you do a great service to this wonderful breed.

Housetraining Your Chow Chow

There are many ways in life to achieve the same desired results. Of them, there are hard ways and easy ways, right ways and wrong ways. The best course is to combine the easy way with the right way and get the best results. This requires a lot of supervision and positive reinforcement. Let’s see how best to achieve what we want in order to housetrain our Chow Chow.

Where to begin: To get the kind of behavior you desire, you must:

• Allocate an area for elimination outside the house
• Show him the way to this spot
• Praise him generously after he finishes

If you praise and reward him immediately after he finishes his job, it encourages him to eliminate in that area alone. The odor of his urine that he leaves behind this time will linger till his next visit and he will soon mark that area as his sole place to do his business.

Time it right: At age six to eight weeks, your Chow Chow should go out to eliminate every couple of hours, though as he grows older, he can go out fewer times. In puppyhood, take him out at the following times of the day:

• Upon waking in the morning
• After naps
• After each meal
• After playing or a training session
• After being left alone for a while
• Just before bedtime

“Hurry up” or “Potty”—the power of your command: To hasten the dog’s potty time, teach him to eliminate when you give the command for it. So, say “hurry up" or "potty" in an encouraging tone just when he gets the urge to “go”. He will soon learn that when you say the command, he will begin to sniff, circle and then get down to business. Once he’s done, praise him lavishly.
Crate training: To give your pet a safe confinement during housetraining, he needs to be crate trained. If you introduce the crate to him in a fun way, your pup will take to crate confinement quickly and without fuss. And there’s more you can do too, such as:
To make this experience pleasurable, play with him there or spend time watching TV there or reading as he gets busy with chewing a toy. If he is there all by himself, he begins to associate the area with isolation and may resist being there at all.
Begin crate training at dinnertime. Give him his feed, one piece at a time, by throwing bits of kibble in to the crate and making him search for it. This is one way of making a game of his training.
If you pick up his toys, replace them in the crate, so that when he returns he can play with them. To surprise him, hide a biscuit in the crate—even that’s fun!
Don’t crate him for longer than he can hold the urge to eliminate or defecate. If you are gone for long periods each day, why not consider a larger confinement area such as an exercise pen or small room?
If you give him a large area to eliminate in your absence, he can do it away from his crate space, say about 15-30 square feet. If he finds a particular spot eliminate, cover it with paper for easier cleaning.

Excuse him his mistakes: If you leave him to himself, he’s bound to make mistakes. He needs to be supervised, so be with him at this time. Until he goes through four weeks of not eliminating in the house, don’t consider him housetrained. If he’s older, this should be a longer period. Until then:

• Keep a constant vigil over him
• Set up baby gates to control his movements in the house
• When unsupervised, confine him to his crate

Does he wet himself? If he squats and urinates when he greets you in puppyhood, he may probably suffer from submissive urination. Such dogs are hypersensitive and should not be scolded for this behavior, since punishment only worsens the problem. However, as he grows older, he will no longer do this if you are calm and quiet. Or you could ask him to sit down for a tasty treat till someone greets him.

Once he has made a mess:
Remove all urine and fecal odor so that your Chow Chow does not return to the same spot in your house where he made a mess.
Use a good deodorizer for doggy odors.
If he’s urinated on a carpet, saturate it with a cleaning agent.
Shut off all those rooms in your house where your Chow Chow has made frequent mistakes. Let him enter here only when accompanied by a family member.

Correcting his “mistakes”: It’s quite natural for a dog to make a mess during the housetraining period. This is why you need t be ready to handle these problems. Here’s how:

Don’t punish him sternly when he makes a mistake as this only delays training.
In order to correct his behavior, make a startling sound, a sharp noise or say “No” loudly. Do this when you catch him red-handed, but be sure not to be too loud or he will eliminate in front of you or perhaps even outdoors.
Be patient.
Don’t scold him after he has stopped soiling the area. Once he finishes, take him into the yard where he can finish in the area he has marked and when he finishes, praise him.
Don’t rub his nose into his mess. This will not teach him not to repeat it and will only end up making him frightened of you.

Training your pup: Your pup’s socialization process begins when he is still in the litter. When he is seven to eight weeks old, he gains in independence and is adventurous about his environment. Now’s the best time to bring home your pup.
In the next fortnight, he will begin to be easily frightened and will cling to you for support and reassurance. Don’t make loud noises or surprises at this time and have new experiences that don’t shock him or threaten his peace of mind.

At 10 weeks, he is well over this phase and will now enter the juvenile phase. Watch him nose around and be more exploratory—a phase that will go on till he’s an adult. Now, introduce him to more new things He will be more inquisitive and wider ranging in his explorations. But watch him closely now as he may enter a second phase of fear in the fourth or fifth month.

While you socialize your pup, take his health needs into consideration. Vaccinate him completely or he will catch the deadly disease Parvovirus. Don’t take him out in public if his shots are still incomplete.

Obedience training for your pup: Even at age seven weeks, when you begin socializing your pup, you can make the whole process fun for him by injecting some gentle play. Use motivational methods and reward-based behaviors by offering treats, toys and food, apart from praise so that he wants to obey you.
Try to set up situations where he cannot go wrong. And don’t use physical punishment while he’s still a pup as this may harm him both mentally and physically.
As with all the very young of all species, pups too have very short attention spans. This means that you repeat exercises several times a day. All you need to do is to spend a few minutes a day and watch the difference in his attitude. For best results, start the process a few days after he comes home to you.


Trick training: Here are some commonly taught tricks for all dogs:

Sit:
Take a piece of food or a toy and from in front of him, move it to over his head and simultaneously say "Sit".
He will raise his head and follow the direction of the food or toy, and without knowing it, lower his rear end to the process, lower his rear end to the floor in a sitting position.
Help him into this position by tucking his bottom under with your free hand.
Now, praise him lavishly and give him the toy or treat as a reward.

Down:
Try to tease him by showing him a piece of food or toy.
Now, say "Down" and lower the toy to the floor.
If he needs help, lower his rear body with a slight pressure on his shoulders.
When he lies down, as per your commands, give him the toy, even if only for a second and reward him profusely.
Now, increase the time period for him to stay on the floor before you give him the toy.

Stand:
While your pup is still in the Down position, say "Stand" and raise a treat or toy high above his head. Help him get into position if he needs it.
Let him remain in this position for a couple of seconds, then release, reward and praise him generously.

Wait:
Get your pup into sitting position.
Say "Wait" and move back from him, by a couple of steps. Praise him for staying.
Now, reward him, praise him and then release. Remember to reward him while he’s still waiting so that he makes the association between his action and your reward.

If he gets up too soon, repeat the exercise and slowly increase the time he waits.

Strut (Heel):
Dangle a tasty treat at his head level on your left-hand side.
Say "Strut" or "Heel" and walk forward briskly.
Allow him to much a bit as you walk.
First, just take a few steps, then increase the range. Now, release the pup and praise him. As he gets better at this, raise the level of the treat higher, but don’t reward him for jumping.

By training your pup, you will develop a close bond of love and loyalty with him, besides also being a whole lot of fun. As you know, an untrained dog can be a nuisance, and a danger to the family and the neighborhood. But a well-trained dog is a friend for life and an asset to your family.

Grooming Your Chow Chow

One of the most endearing traits of a Chow Chow is his great leonine mane and coat. While it is true that your pet won’t require elaborate and extensive coat trimming, but he’s sure to need a few hours of brushing, bathing and cutting of his nails just in order to look his best always.

When to start grooming him: Begin his grooming sessions as soon as you take him home and don’t worry that he’s just six weeks old or six months. It’s never too early to put him on a grooming regimen, so don’t feel sorry for him.
Besides this breed thinks no end of itself, so pride themselves on their cleanliness and their need to be well groomed and looking magnificent. By grooming your Chow Chow, you would really be pandering to his vanity, besides also helping him to maintain his majestic look and attitude. Lastly, it will help forge a closer and better link between you.

What equipment will you need? To do a good job, you need the right equipment to do a good job in the shortest amount of time and for the best effect. These tools are easily available at your nearest pet store or can also be ordered from catalogs. But remember that all good things in life don’t come cheap, so you have to pay for quality.

If you use a sturdy grooming table it will give you better control of the dog on a table and it'll save your back. You can also build a table using inexpensive materials found at the hardware store.

You will need:
A bath tub for a pet
A Greyhound-style medium or coarse steel comb
A fine-toothed comb with a handle
A well-balanced grooming shears, about 7" long. Maintain it well so that it remains sharp and has a good balance
A slicker brush and a pin brush
A nail clipper and a product called "Quik Stop"
A spray-on coat dressing and a conditioning shampoo. Use shampoos meant exclusively for pets, don’t cut corners by using yours as dogs need a shampoo with a different pH balance
A blow dryer—you could use either the handheld variety or the hi-powered ones.

Bathing: With your tools in hand, you can begin the grooming procedure. Bathe your dog monthly or oftener, if you like. If you choose to give him a bath once a week, don’t worry about his coat drying out because if you use good shampoos, this won’t happen. Usually, Chow Chows are bathed once a week.

Before you bathe him, check for any large mats in his hear or dead hair that he is shedding. Remove these, wet his coat thoroughly and apply shampoo, taking care not to let the liquid enter his eyes. Rub hard to work up a good lather, and add water if you so require.

Remember, the soap or shampoo has to go all the way down to his skin, traveling all the way through the thick maze of his coat. Rinse well, and lather again. Now, use a washcloth to wipe his face, once again taking care to keep the soap or shampoo out of his eyes and ears.

Rinse once more for the last time. This is a very critical wash for him as no shampoo should remain in his coat or this will irritate his skin and cause "hot spots". The rule of thumb is to rinse till the water runs clear, and follow it up with yet another rinse, just to be sure. While he is still in the tub, wipe him dry, ensuring that no water has remained in his ears.

Now, blow-dry his coat by laying him down on one side on a table. Initially, you may need the help of a member of your family or friend, but keep him down and make him obey you, no matter how much he may want to get up and run about the house. Once you work your way, he will find it so comfortable that he will fall off to sleep while you dry his coat.

Begin with the coat of hair on his stomach and legs, and go all the way to his spine, blowing his coat with one hand and brushing it down with the other with a pin brush. Dry the part between his rear legs and around his private parts.

Brushing is very important now as when you do this, you should be able to see the skin as you go along, no matter how thickly-coated he is. If you can’t achieve this, the hair closest to his skin will pack down, collect dirt and moisture and cause skin problems.

Part his coat in small sections, and brush within these sections as this makes reaching the skin easier. Use a slicker brush or pin brush, and then comb his coat to ensure that all his dead hair has been removed. Now, turn him over and repeat the above process on his other side. When you dry his ruff and bib, let him stand up or sit, if he likes.

Being long-coated, you will need to brush his hair a few times each week. To hasten shedding and prevent hairy tumbleweeds from finding their way into your house, comb out his dead hair often enough.

You can certainly do most of the grooming yourself, with a little bit of help from family. All you need are a good brush just right to suit the texture of his coat, nail-clippers and a fine-toothed comb to run through his silky hair and weed out fleas.
To get your dog into the groove of grooming, you need to first teach him to accept all the attention he gets. Begin when he is still a pup by letting you touch him all over his body, to stand and lay on his side as you command him to. He must grow used to your touch, the use of a soft brush and a coarse washcloth.
But if he can’t lie still, place a mat on the kitchen table and set him up on it and work with him there. All you need is patience and time to draw your shy dog out and make him confident.

If his coat is tangled, work gently weaving your hands and brush through the tangles and trying hard not to irritate his skin. Comb out the tangle by working your way inwards, but if it is badly tangled or matted, do it little by little, praising him as you go along whenever you hit a rough patch.

Alternatively, you could shave his matted areas, but do it carefully so that he doesn’t get nicked and the skin inflamed. But ff you can’t go through it yourself or can’t bear to cause him pain, hand him over to a professional groomer to do the needful.

Your Chow Chow may shed hair continuously, particularly in the household heat of a dry winter. But double-coated dogs are known to shed a lot of hair twice a year, with undercoat shedding beginning on his haunches and going up to the rest of the coat. His hair may look dull even before the new hair begins to grow back. It may take a month or more for the entire coat to shed completely.

Begin with your pup: Good grooming habits begin in puppyhood with teaching him to sit, stand or lie down to have their bodies examined and their hair combed.

Grooming equipment for your pup: For your pup, you need a basic home grooming kit comprising a soft wire slicker brush, a fine and coarse toothed comb, a Universal brush and mat comb for tangles, and an oil-based conditioner. The mat comb must have long teeth to loosen the hairs.

On a daily basis: Check your dog for cuts, sores, fleas, rashes, bumps, ticks or hitchhikers in her coat or dirty ears. If he has fleas, use a fine-toothed comb to draw them out and drop them into a mug of soapy water. If ticks are way under a pile of coat hair, pick them up with tweezers or your fingers and drop them in a vial of alcohol.

To do this, pick up the tick by its body, roll it back and forth and then pull firmly. Use pincers or tweezers to also remove any grass awns, seed casings or thorny twigs.

Checking his skin: You need to ensure that your pet has a healthy skin—something that begins with a nutritious diet. If he likes the food you give him, is energetic and happy, he’s healthy but he wouldn’t be in the pink of health if his energy levels were low, his coat dull or itchy and suffers from any medical problem including thyroid.

For a glowing and healthy skin, you need to be sure he doesn’t suffer from any skin problems. Skin problems can be due to flea allergies, so a daily check for fleas is necessary, particularly during the flea season. His skin can break out in a rash due to contact allergies too when irritated skin leads to him scratching the area, which in turn can lay the skin open to staphylococcus infections.

For this, your vet will prescribe antibiotics, though expensive. Skin irritations and infections need only a night to erupt so use a fine-toothed comb to check for fleas and ticks.

Ears: Check his ears periodically for fungus; if he has drooping ears since these are more prone to fungus and bacterial infections. Cleaning agents prescribed by the vet can dry them out.
Infected ears can be very uncomfortable to the dog, and may cause a hematoma by breaking a blood vessel if he shakes his head vigorously to ease his discomfort. If he sits still, the hematoma may go on its own, or it may need to be surgically removed.

Feet: Cut your dog’s toenails every fortnight as long toenails can make walking difficult. Cut them after giving him a bath. If he is reluctant to get his nails cut, he may be nipped and this may deter him from getting them cut a second time. So, early in life, you need to teach him to stand or sit still and offer his paw.
Now, clip off a tiny bit of each nail for a couple of days consecutively, or allow a groomer to do the job. If he gets nipped, the quick contained in his nails has a nerve and blood supply. So, if by mistake you cut him there, it not only hurts him, but causes a lot of bleeding. Cut the flow with flour or cornstarch.

See that there’s nothing stuck between the pads such as seeds from grass, pebbles, chemicals on lawns that can burn him, and fungus that can irritate him, and result in hot spots and infection.

Trim the hair between the toes and pads short as also around the outside of his feet. If you let this hair and the nails grow, they can cause the foot to spread and become flat, picking up dirt and making him slip on smooth ground.

In order to encourage nail cutting, give your Chow Chow treats and praise him for his cooperation.

Shedding: Your Chow Chow’s hair growth is as cyclical as anything else. You will see that he sheds his coat twice a year and loses his guard hairs once a year. The whole process of shedding, however, can take place between three weeks to two months. To accelerate the process, give him a warm bath and groom him twice a day.

The process of shedding is controlled by hormonal changes linked to the length of the day and is influenced by his food levels and health. Your pet may also lose hair after surgery and X-rays under anesthesia. Chows shed seasonally, certainly not daily. A couple of times a year they shed their coats.

Grooming him in the summer: Don’t make the mistake of shaving his coat in the summer, only to make him brave the heat better. Perhaps you don’t know that the Chow Chow's thick coat is specially designed to protect him from heat and cold. Its undercoat helps to insulate the skin. So, if you did shave him, it won’t make him feel cooler, and certainly will cause skin problems and sunburn. Instead, groom him now by getting rid of unwanted and dead coat hair. But if his coat isn’t particularly thick in the summer, don’t blow dry it after a bath as this is a lengthy procedure and comes with the risk of retaining moisture and causing hot spots in humid weather.

Curing hot spots: Cropping up overnight, these can grow from a tiny spot to a huge, oozing and red sore. He will try to relieve the pain by biting himself there, only worsening it in the process. Though its cause is yet unknown, it may be due to unrinsed soap or shampoo, flea infestations, wounds, allergies and hormone disorders.

To relieve the itching, apply skin medication such as Panalog and Gentocin ointment and Variton cream. Over the counter drugs are also available for this condition or the vet may advise injections of anti-inflammatory steroids to reduce his sensitivity to allergens. This is common in every Chow Chow’s life, so treat it as natural.

You should see a home-grooming session as an incentive to a relationship with your pet. Dogs inherently groom each other to depict and reinforce pack behavior and show subordination, and you can take advantage of this by spending a few minutes a day to check for fleas, brush his coat and talk and praise him as you go along. This will increase the bond with him and he will look smart and healthy too.

Choosing a groomer: If you’re sure you neither have the time nor the inclination to groom your Chow Chow, hand him over to a trained groomer. For this, you need to select him with as much care as you chose your pet. After all, you must be pleased with his hair styling and treatment of your dog.
Besides, many vets also have grooming centers at their clinics, so you could choose to take your pet there. But if he doesn’t have a center, he may recommend you to a good one. Alternatively, you could ask for references from friends who are dg owners, boarding kennels that don't have a grooming service, pet supply stores, shelters and purebred breeders.

Armed with these recommendations, phone around to ask about the prevailing rates and each groomers rates and other add-on services. Usually, a good groomer will not tranquilize your dog before getting down to work on him. But if your dog has a particular problem or if he is a senior dog with a medical problem, he may need special handling.

Before zeroing in on a groomer, visit his center and ask him as many questions as you can think of until you are satisfied. Look around his place to see if it is well-lit, that he and his assistants handle dogs gently and with special consideration where it is necessary, and that the shampoos and flea and tick products are of good quality.

Your responsibility: In order to get the most out of every visit to the groomer, here’s what you can do:

Teach your Chow Chow to stand when you command him to and to allow the groomer to do his job without putting up a resistance. Put him through obedience classes for this, which, in any case, is part of the Canine Good Citizen test.
Comb his coat regularly to prevent tangles and mats or let the groomer do it.
Give him crate training so that he learns to sit quietly until his coat is dried and wait for you to return.
Warn the groomer of any bad habits your pet may have that may interfere with his smooth functioning. If your pet hates her nails to be cut and bites if you try it or if he subject to seizures or is arthritic, let your groomer know in advance.

Caring For Your Chow Chow

All breeds of dogs are prone to an array of health problems, and so too with Chow Chows. Of them, hip dysplasia, luxating patella and entropion are the commonest. But the chances of your pup not being dysplastic or having a mild problem with it are minimized if you buy him from a registered breeder who X-rays the hips of animals and examines them for dysplasia before they can be bred. But on the whole, we now know that about 50 percent of all Chows suffer from hip dysplasia.

Hip dysplasia: This is caused due to a malformed hip joint that results in the head of the femur bone not fitting perfectly into the hip socket in which the femoral head lies. Often, it leads to pain, lameness and arthritis. However, the good news is that this condition, though congenital, can be treated by surgery.

Again being congenital, a dysplastic dog will often and invariably produce dysplastic puppies. Therefore, to ensure you’re taking home a healthy pup, it is imperative you ask to see the sire and the dam, and inquire if they are diagnosed with this condition. If not, ask to see a certificate granted by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals or by Penn HIP, stating this.

Do not believe what you hear, but wait to see the certificate proving they are healthy and clear of this condition. Ask for a copy of the same so you can show it to your vet. Also, ask him if he will guarantee a puppy against hip dysplasia for at least two years.

Entropion: Another medical condition they suffer from is entropion. Check if your Chow Chow has runny eyes. If he does, he may well suffer from entropion, a condition caused by eyelid abnormality in which the dog’s eyelids are turned inwards rather than outwards. This irritates the eye and, if you as an owner turn a blind eye to this, it can lead to your pet turning blind. If detected in time, it can be corrected with surgery.

Usually congenital, entropion can also be acquired in later life due to an eye injury or infection. However, since this isn’t always apparent in pups, you should take care to check this out when selecting your pup. Look out for clear, dry and sparkling eyes of the parents of your prospective pup. But if you see inflamed or runny eyes or crusty eyelids, you must know immediately that your pup is suffering from an eye infection and should be treated by a vet without delay.


Luxating patella: If the small, flat and mobile bone in the front of your Chow Chow’s knee is dislocated, don’t panic, as this is a knee problem that is yet again a hereditary one, often due to overweight. But this too can be corrected surgically.

Intolerance to anesthesia: Chow owners are often worried about their pets being intolerant to anesthesia, resulting in complications from surgery and death during surgery. This happens because this breed is said to have small hearts, in comparison with their body weight, and since anesthesia is given according to body weight, often they have been given a much larger dose than their bodies can take, causing their hearts to stop functioning.

Ruptured or torn ligaments: Your Chow Chow has such straight rear legs that the angulation isn’t enough, resulting in torn cruciate ligaments. He may rupture his ligaments when exercising strenuously. Or he may chase a ball, stop and start abruptly and cry in pain and turn lame. When he stays lame for some time, you realize that he needs immediate medical attention.

Diabetes: One of the commonest hormonal disorders in dogs, diabetes is a problem of the pancreas. It is caused due to the body producing insufficient amounts of insulin, thereby affecting the endocrine system.
The highest occurrences of diabetes are found in dogs aged five to seven years, of which female dogs are more prone to it. If your dog is obese, he stands a greater chance of being affected by it. It is the most common hormonal disorder in dogs.

If your Chow Chow suffers with diabetes, you’ll notice that he drinks more water than usual, urinates more frequently and may even do so within the house, and will lose a lot of weight.

In order to prevent diabetes, have your dog examined by the vet every year, with urine and blood examinations as part of the routine checkup. The earlier you detect diabetes, the higher the chances of treating it in time. While there is no cure for diabetes, it can certainly be controlled.

Treatment: Treatment usually consists of daily injections of insulin. Learn from your vet how best to administer these shots and adopt a time schedule. Monitor your dog’s response to the insulin shots and their dosage. Testing his urine with test strips that you can get from a nearby drug store or pet shop does this. This strip will denote the level of sugar in his system-if it is too much, you reduce the insulin level and if it is low, you scale up the insulin dosage.
If you maintain a record of the results of these test strips, the dosage of insulin given and your dog's eating patterns and attitude, it will help you in understanding his condition, besides also helping your vet predict any future problems.

Feeding your diabetic dog: Give your dog a fiber and protein-rich diet with restricted fats and carbohydrates. Be sure to feed him at the same time everyday, besides also giving him the same food, as this will have an effect on his sugar levels.

Take care to see that you feed him a third of his total daily amount of food about ½ hour before you give him his insulin shot. The remaining two-thirds can be given about eight to 10 hours later. But if he likes a snack before bed, give it out of his two-thirds amount of food.

Put him on an exercise regimen and see that he sticks to it. If you decide to walk your dog, or play with him for about 20 minutes a day. Exercise will help keep his sugar levels constant. If he is obese, you will have to put him on a diet to lose weight.

If you have a female dog, have her spayed as this has an effect on the female hormones and will stabilize her insulin levels. And don’t forget to give her all your love and understanding, since she sure doesn’t understand her condition.

Glaucoma: Diagnosed as a painful and serious optic condition, here as pressure within the eye increases, it leads to blindness, if undetected or if not checked in time. In dogs, this is a leading cause of blindness and is caused due to increased fluid pressure within the eye. If the pressure is not reduced, permanent damage to the retina and optic nerve end in permanent blindness. Blindness can set in within 24 hours if the fluid pressure is very high or slowly over weeks and months if mild, but in all cases, it is extremely painful.

Glaucoma may either be primary or inherited or secondary due to a variety of eye disorders such as luxation of the lens, tumors of the eye, and uveitis or an inflammation of the eye.

You may detect your dog rubbing away at his red eyes or the eyes may look cloudy due to a swollen cornea and he may prove to be sensitive to light. It may seem larger or bulge outwards and your dog may consequently lose his appetite and be depressed.

An emergency called Glaucoma: In such a situation, the vet must begin treatment immediately to save the dog’s vision or it may result in irreversible damage to the retina and optic nerve within just a few hours of the fluid pressure being significantly increased.

Treating glaucoma: In order to save his sight, immediate surgery is necessary. Initially, your vet may render emergency medical therapy but then refer him to a large and more specialized veterinary center.

Skin, hormonal problems and allergies: Your Chow Chow can also suffer from skin and hormonal problems. Often congenital, these problems are hardly ever obvious to the naked eye in pups. Once again, therefore, you will have to ask the breeder about the parents of the pup and if you don’t find that he is healthy or has an issue with his appearance or temperament, refrain from buying him.

Skin and hormone problems include hot-spots and allergies. If your pet scratches himself a bit too much or has irritated skin that looks red and infected, show him to the vet immediately.

Heat prostration: If you leave your pet in a hot area with no ventilation, or out in the sun, he will be very uncomfortable and suffer from heat prostration. He reacts to extremely high humidity, particularly if the temperature rises above 80º.

To avoid such a situation, keep him cool in a shady area or room, with provision for rest and peace. If he is still uncomfortable, call in your vet, but meanwhile wet him with cold water or towels soaked with cold water.

Bloat: If he eats too much, he is bound to suffer from bloat or gastric torsion—a life-threatening and sudden illness caused due to the stomach filling with air and twisting.