For me this is one of the most important aspects within Chows, breeding, showing, owning etc. I have been choosing my puppies via the Puppy Puzzle technique over the last 10 years or so. 

The Puppy Puzzle dvd is available online and will walk you though each step. I have taken this concept and adapted it for my own personal values in this breed. For my evaluation I regard the following:

• Bone
• Temperament
• Eyes
• Teeth
• Pigment
• Stop
• Top skull
• Ears
• Neck
• Front angulation
• Length and shape of rib
• Tail and tail set
• Rear angulation
• Hocks
• Lifted structure
• Top line
• Tuck up

By this time I want to have microchipped everything so I can refer back to them as their number. Along with the aspects above I also regard Height and height at elbow, length and squareness. For record keeping I include, sex, weight and colour.

I score each aspect out of 5, 5 being perfect and 3 is average according to the standard. This method allows me to look for consistency within certain areas, I can also use this as a method to see what a dog or a bitch throws. I refuse to keep something with an attribute of 2 or lower. 

I can use this as a method of improving one area at a time with a long term aim for the perfect chow. If I have generation after generation of good hocks (4-5) I should only be able to have good hocks and so on. This is a longer process but a means of improving a breeding program opposed to a means of keeping by eye for the next champion. That’s correct these don’t always match up. A dog with one bad aspect could have many good attributes makign it worthy of being a champion, but in a breeding program this one bad aspect could be passed on from one generation to the next making the dog useless for breeding. I wan’t to breed consistency and to have many champions which will have a positive impact on the breed. 

Once I have scored each area, I take an average, each year the score I want to keep above increases. This occasionally means I do not keep from a litter, or that I want to keep the whole litter. This is where logic needs to kick in and I need to think of the needs for my breeding program. Yes I have a breeding program, a want and a plan for the next three generations, if you have no plan how can you decide on what to keep. 

Each breeder has differing opinions on what aspects they value most- I can’t keep anything with a bad mouth and pigment, my eyes, temperament and hocks need to be good. Other areas can be average, this can mean I let very good puppies go which don’t fit the bill for what I want.