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What
drew you to the Chow Chow's look initially?
One of the most likely things was the magnificent coat
- rough or smooth - shiny, offstanding, impressive!
Known for it's 'clean' smell and habits,
the Chow Chow does not enjoy being unkempt,
it enjoys 'strutting' around once it has had it's
regular groom and/or bath!
An Arctic breed of origin, it's double coat demands
particular diets and certain skin care regimens to
ensure good skin and hair, health and condition. |
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Grooming
the Chow Chow:
Maintaining the Chow coat is not difficult provided
it is done REGULARLY. The Chow Chow has
straight hair which is relatively easy to brush, but if left too
long, the soft undercoat gets tangled and
knotted, making your job in brushing very difficult, besides being
most uncomfortable for the Chow!
The Chow puppy should be brushed on a daily basis, mostly to get
it familiar with the routine.
Start when it is tired and sleepy. Brush it gently whilst using
the time to bond with it. Once in it's
adult coat, you can maintain the coat with a thorough brush twice
a week. This is a task best left to
one person in the family.
The advice below is given for both smooth and rough Chow coats.
Both coats moult and both
coats require regular maintenance. However, the smooth is admittedly
far less work than the rough.
Tools you will need are pinbrush, slicker brush, medium/coarse comb,
nailclipper, soft cloth, pair of
scissors. During moulting times, you may find a rake very useful
to remove excess hair.
Quietly lie the Chow on it's side for grooming. (If you are using
a grooming table, make sure that
you have a non-skid mat on it.) Start at the shoulders, working
towards the rear. Hold the hair back
with your one hand and comb forward small amounts at a time. Make
it short strokes down to the
skin. (If you only brush the top part of the coat, the undercoat
mats underneath and eventually becomes
a 'breeding place' for all kinds of skin trouble!!) Continue brushing
to the skin all over the whole dog.
Then turn it over on to the other side, repeating the process. Whilst
the dog is on it's side, you can
cut excess hair under the feet (around the pads), and trim the nails
when necessary. Make sure the
eyes are clean and use a flea-comb for the muzzle. Sitting it up,
brush out the chest and mane.
Standing the dog, do the 'breeches', also cleaning up around the
anus. Do the tail now, working from
the base, brushing down and around. |
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Shaving
the Chow Chow:
It is one of the most misguided concepts, thinking that
you are doing your Chow Chow a favour in shaving it!
The opposite is true, and if you are totally honest, you're
probably doing it to save yourself work! If this is the
case, please buy yourself a smooth Chow next time.
It is pointless buying a rough Chow for it's long coat,
only to shave it short like a smooth. But there are far
more serious implications:
Think back of China/Tibet where the breed has spent
thousands of years: The winters are bitterly cold, but
the summers can be excessively hot. The Chow Chow
is well adapted to these extremes. The Chow being a
double-coated breed, sheds it's undercoat when it
is too hot. Thus nature protects the dog from being
too hot, whilst retaining the outer coat (thick, shiny
guard hairs) to protect it's very light coloured skin. |
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When the Chow
coat is shaven, it is the undercoat (that which keeps the dog
warm and waterproof)
which grows back first!! This means that your Chow will be hotter
than ever! It will have no protection
for it's skin because the coarse outercoat is also gone! To add
injury to insult, we have received numerous
reports where the Chow was shaven, and the lovely shiny outer
coat never grows back. |
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We
urge you to be realistic.
The magnificence of the rough coated Chow only is so
because it has been given much time and attention.
Very few folks who see the rough coated show Chow
in it's perfectly groomed state, realise that it has taken
hours of work on that day, to get it that beautiful!
Not to mention the weeks/months beforehand!
Whilst the rough coated Chow as a pet or at home will
not need the same many hours of daily grooming as the
rough show Chow, it still requires at least 1 hour of
your time, at least once to twice a week. If you find
coat maintenance a problem, we recommend you
choose a smooth Chow Chow. |
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You
have all the benefits of owning a Chow, without the amount of work
required to maintain the coat,
as grooming the smooth Chow is done the same as a rough, but it
goes much quicker, and can be
done less often. |
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Bathing
the Chow Chow:
Although the Chow does not develop that distinct
'doggy' odour after not being bathed for some time,
it still makes for easier coat maintenance and healthier
coats to bath your Chow about once a month.
Let us stress the importance of using shampoos
formulated for dog skins!! The dog's skin is not
nearly as thick or acidic as the human skin, and
any soap/shampoo not formulated for their skin,
will dry it out and make it a paradise for parasites
& other nasties! The Chow's reknown sensitive
skin makes this a necessity to avoid all kinds of vet
bills in time. |
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When
bathing, make sure the coat is thoroughly wet down to the skin.
Apply shampoo and work it
through coat. Rinse THOROUGHLY. Then apply a DOG conditioner (for
the same reasons stated
above - please use a conditioner formulated for dog skins, not human
or other products).
Rub it in well and then rinse it out THOROUGHLY.Allow the dog to
shake itself a few times, then use
large thick towels to dry it well, particularly under the tail and
behind the ears. It is better to dry it
with a drier, unless there is plenty hot sunshine! Perhaps one could
mention here that it appears to speed
up the process(shedding of undercoat) if you bath your dog once
a week during the moulting season. |
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Feeding
the Chow Chow:
Being a heavily coated breed (meaning thick), the Chow Chow needs
diets that will maintain skin/hair
health. Hair is 95% protein and the Chow requires diets with the
correct amount of highly digestable
proteins to maintain this crown of it's beauty.
Therefore it is strongly recommended that you feed a highly digestable
dogfood with quality ingredients
and the correct nutrients for skin health. Observe breeders' dogs
and ask what they feed. Go to dog shows
and ask the folks whose dogs' coats are so beautiful, what food
they feed. We must stress that a
Chow Chow cannot be fed the cheapest foods on the market - doing
so will cost you in vet bills trying to
sort out 'hotspots' and the likes. Another option is Raw Meaty Bones/BARF
(Bones and Raw Food).
Before attempting these diets, please do careful research to ensure
they are approached correctly.
The Chow Chow is a heavy breed for it's height with the same growth
issues that large breeds face.
It is advisable to put a Chow pup on a top quality large breed growth
food for the first 18 months
of it's life. Always ensure that the Chow has access to plenty fresh
water, making sure you use
stainless steel bowls. |
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Part
of coat maintenance is proper tick and flea control.
Think of how you can scratch and itch from just a single
mosquito bite! Now think how your Chow must feel
after being bitten by ticks and fleas!!
When a quality spot-on is used to control ticks and fleas
- at the recommended intervals - you should avoid much
of the 'hotspots' and other skin trouble caused by these
little parasites. Not to mention the fact that fleas carry
tape-worm eggs, so if your dog has fleas, you now have
to deworm it more often as well!
More importantly, our continent plays host to two
deadly diseases carried by the infamous tick - Erlichia
and Babesia Canis. By using proper products for tick &
flea control, you avoid the heartache and huge vetbills
associated with trying to save your beloved Chow. |
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The Chow Chow's rich history,
breed standards, colours and coat types,
the smooth chow chow, and much more!
Read all about it... |
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Guides
on purchasing, raising, feeding,
grooming, socialising, showing the
chow chow. Care of the senior chow chow,
health concerns and much more!
Read all about it... |
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Find
chow chow breeders accross
Southern Africa. Display adverts
featuring puppies & showdogs.
Find out more... |
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Our
visitors
photographs:
View
the albums... |
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Smooth
chow chows
in Southern Africa,
owners, photos,
albums, history
and more!
Read more... |
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Chow
Chow
puppy photos -
rough & smooth
puppies in all
5 colours
See the photos... |
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