bondichowchow

Thanks... taking all comments on board. We're scheduled to see a dog behaviorist to see if we can work out a programme.

Hi Karen, I will ring u about this. His behavior has been confusing us too and a previous trainer said he is protective with me. Somehow, our vet and a groomer mentioned he was fine in the presence of other dogs when in their facility. I have been very specific with the potential matches and told them the male was not comfortable around children. This is why it has been difficult to find a match. There were 2 good candidates and the last was particularly promising. They had no dogs and had to plans on having kids in the near future. But they got a puppy during the holidays. We are still taking him to a dog behaviorist this feb-- the earliest appointment we can get to see if we can do a programme ad get some proper assessment and advise. Sorry to confuse. I will ring to clarify. Thanks for your help.

Thank you everyone for all the advise and I will PM Gold Chow directly. I was very new to this forum and had no idea I had all these replies in my previous post. I thought I would get an email notification when someone replies to the post but I guess I wasn't able to set this up. I only received a PM saying I should post my problem in the General Discussions page so I did that this month after coming home from overseas. I posted a new, more detailed account of my problem this January and just found all the replies from there that also pointed out this stream of messages... I wish I found this earlier... We are seeing an animal behaviour specialist early Feb to see if we could work out a programme. Our last resort and we are preparing for this is to send him overseas to a family home where my aunt and a caretaker lives. They are two strong-willed women who have a big yard and lots of love to give. My aunt knows my dog and vice versa. They are able to care for him and my mother who is very familiar with this dog also will be visiting regularly. This was my last resort since I was trying to avoid having the dog travel half a day on a plane-- although he has done this before when we moved to Australia. This issue is really difficult for me and is breaking my heart. My husband and I are reading a lot on integrating dogs with children and trying to make a sound decision. I have also been told that there is someone looking to rescue a Chow in a previous post.. will investigate this but... I know that the only home that can work out is with an adult with no other dogs or children who has a yard and familiar with the breed-- i know this was always a slim chance but I needed to consider all options available. It's a shame because although this dog is uneasy with children and other dogs, he has always been a great companion at home. Regarding previous training he's had, I was involved in those training sessions outside the house and also with a trainer coming into our home to fix problems that may be causing his behaviour. He has been easy to control on a lead but we always have to muzzle him in case another dog or child comes near. Thank you again for all the valuable emails and we will be making our final decision on February.

By the way, we have also previously contacted the Chow Chow Rescue Org who have been very helpful but no successful match. Also tried finding his breeder... no replies...The chow imported from a breeder here in Australia when we were living in Singapore.

Thank you everyone for the messages and advice. Sorry I haven't been able to reply straight away as I have had a few issues with my pregnancy. There was a post from last year that has been referred to me who was from a lady looking for a chow and who was familiar with the breed. Unfortunately, the lady was unable to accommodate having a dog in the end due to health issues. I also tried posting this issue previously and have been advised to post this to the General Discussions board. It's not that we want to pass on our problems to someone else but we were hoping that maybe by luck there would be someone who is familiar with the breed who has no children and wants a companion dog would want him. This chow has no issues with adults and very good at home. Taking everyone's helpful advise and pending one more consult with an animal behaviour specialist on early Feb, we are preparing to send him to a family property overseas where a relative and a caretaker are staying. They have a big yard and can take him in. The chow just now has to deal with half a day of travel and he will be in his new home. Thank you again.

We need help... We have a 9 year old male desexed Chow Chow who has been a bit of a problem through the years. We are expecting our first child on April and need some advise if you think his case can be successfully rehabilitated or if you think re-homing him is a better option. He has been dog aggressive since he was 11 months after he was bitten on the face by another dog. He hasn’t been the same around other dogs since (even with dog training and socialisation classes). He has a gentle female Chow companion at home who he gets along with perfectly. My husband and I have to muzzle him when we take him for walks for safety since he has a tendency to snap at other dogs. He is a bit of a handful to walk but calm when we sit in a park or café (he normally stays under the table or under a park bench when we stop for a rest). At home, he is the perfect dog though—very well behaved, clean and he keeps to himself on his bed and just happily chews on his bone. He is not destructive and has no issues at home and follows our commands. There have been 2 incidents last year that got us concerned. My husband’s 9-year old daughter came for a visit from London for two weeks. He was fine with her for the first week although didn’t socialise with her much. The female dog however was always with her (we think instinctively since my stepdaughter has epilepsy). The dog snapped at her while we were away—apparently, she wanted to pet him while he was resting and he just snapped. Nobody saw what happened but we think he might have gotten jealous with the other dog’s attention towards my stepdaughter. The second incident happened when we were walking the dogs outside our house and my neighbour was walking with his children at the same time. My neighbour’s daughter has a trauma with dogs and started screaming hysterically when she saw my dogs. My female dogs was near them and my husband as a reaction tried to get my female dog out of the way. Our dog wasn’t on a tight leash, tried to snap at the little girl’s leg. Luckily, these two incidents have not resulted to any horrible injury to others but this has alarmed us about his tendency to be harmful to children. I thought you also should know that he cannot jump since he had surgery on a slip disc last year. We always have adult guests at home and he has always been good with guests. We live in a two bedroom apartment with a front and back courtyard and think that if we kept him, we would have to be diligent with making sure the he will never has access to our baby. My concern is more towards when the baby starts crawling and walking. I am really worried about this and been very very depressed about this. I love the dog so much and this is the one thing that is really affecting my state of mind during my pregnancy. I need some help to make a rational and fair decision. We are looking into two options. 1 is to re-home him-- that is if we find someone with no children and the second is if there is any possibility to rehabilitate him. We are seeking the advise of a dog behaviorist to assess him and possibly give us a programme to work with. I think in terms of quality of life, he might be better if a new loving owner takes him in because if we kept him, he will always have to be isolated from us. I wonder how do dogs deal with being re-homed? I am thinking as if my dog was a person and think it will be so depressing for him to be separated from us and our female chow—the only pack he has known for the past 9 years. If we find a suitable new home I wanted to do a slow let go and lend him a week at a time for 2 months until he gets used to his new family. I wanted to keep on visiting him once a month. Is this good for the dog or worse? I hope you can give us an insight on dog psychology. It would be much appreciated. If anyone would take him in, please let me know. We are looking for a loving home for him in Sydney

Hi, I have been in a constant struggle since we are considering to rehome our 9 year old chow chow. He has been a great companion at home and really protective over me. Since I am pregnant, we have decided it might be best to pass him on to a family with no children. Our chow is a fear biter and after going through three training courses, he is still very uncomfortable with other dogs outside the house and with children. We could really not trust him with a child. I was wondering if anyone has some experience with rehoming who could tell me how it is from a dog's perspective.. i know that might be hard. but my constant issue is thinking that my dog will feel abandoned. and that kills me. I thought if i found a suitable home, i could send him there 1 week at a time so he could feel comfortable with his new family and after 4 months of doing this, we let go. I could still visit him but i don't know if this is best for him or will this just mess him up. Thank you