How do you train a Chow Chow? Many owners want to know how to make the breed more obedient. Here is a simple training guide.
Chow Chow training guide
The best age for training a Chow Chow is around six months old or a little older, though naturally not so late that the dog is already physically old and difficult to manage.
The most important thing is to build a strong foundation. Start with obedience exercises such as walking at heel and sitting. Once the Chow Chow becomes used to listening to your instructions, its intelligence will make it easier for the dog to understand other commands as well.
Proceed gradually. Break the training into small steps and teach them one at a time. Each time the Chow Chow successfully performs an action, provide encouragement and repeat the training many times until the response becomes skilled and reliable. Praise should be used when the dog is truly obedient. If you praise the dog constantly for everything, it may become confused and fail to understand when praise is actually earned, which makes key training harder to continue.
When the dog is just about to do something that is not allowed, stop it firmly and immediately. If you wait until afterward to scold, the dog will not understand why and will often continue doing the same unwanted behavior. Worse still, if it is frequently scolded without understanding the reason, it may gradually lose trust in the owner and stop listening to commands.
Never hit a Chow Chow. Training should be based on commands, and when you give a command your tone should be serious and firm. When giving encouragement, the tone should be gentle and warm. The goal of training is to teach, not to scold. The best method is frequent praise and affectionate touch, so the dog understands the owner's positive feelings.
Training is not limited to a fixed time of day. During walks, meals, or when guests arrive, the owner should patiently teach the dog what should be done and what should not be done.
Dogs often avoid things they dislike, bark at them, or even try to destroy them. This can create trouble for the owner. In these situations, patience is essential. Let the dog slowly approach the object it dislikes while you keep speaking to it in a gentle voice to calm it. If you hit or scold the dog in that moment, it will usually retreat even farther. Simply keeping the dog away from disliked places or objects may only increase the owner's burden without solving the problem.
Also remember to let the Chow Chow rest. Each action should not be trained for more than about fifteen minutes a day, otherwise the dog may become tired or bored. If you have the means to send the Chow Chow to a good professional training school, that can help, but once the dog returns home, you still need to help it review and reinforce what it learned so that it can truly become an excellent student.