I feel as though I do what I can in the rearing of puppies before they leave home. For the general health and wellbeing of your dog here are a few things to think of and which could help you out. You will know your dog, and you will know what is normal for your dog as far as eating and drinking, if this changes make a note of it, if this continues contact your vet. As you groom your dog look at all aspects; mouth; eyes; ears; paws and general body. Doing this you can note any change, look at the gums, eyes and ears to ensure they are clean and normal. With the paws and ears feel the temperature a dog can’t always regulate their temperature well, if they have something untoward (internal) they often have very warm pads on their paws. As you check the rest of the body again checking that everything is normal for your dog and noting any change.

Two common thing you can hear about a chow by your vet is entropion and hips. Entropion is when the eyelid turns in (toward the eye) and rubs on the eye causing an irritation. A wet eye isn’t always entropion, think does your chow rub its head on things, does it look like its eyes are irritating it? If the answer is no, chances are it is not entropion. An eye operation is easy and quick, and a vet can charge a lot for this. If it is not actually entropion you are doing the operation for no reason other than to pay the vet. Hips a vet may say that your chow has bad hips, it could be opinion or it could be after an x-ray.

The only way to know if this is true is to have a hip score done by the BVA. A friend of ours, took her bitch to the vets as she was limping. She was subsequently told her chow had such bad hips and elbows she would need to be put to sleep…. We thought this doesn’t sound right so we had her hip and elbow scored- the elbows were 0 (perfect), the hips were 3,4 (very near to perfect). This goes to show just how wrong a vets opinion can be. So please get a second opinion and have the correct test done, before doing anything drastic.

Avoiding steps can help to ensure hips and elbows grow as they should and at a steady rate. Equally by walking a chow on the lead it will walk at a steadier rate (minimizing the chance of injury) and keep the dog safer (prevent loss/ other dogs interacting negatively). Training your chow from an early age will make adulthood a pleasure and easy. Crate training is one aspect that I do recommend as it could have many uses through the chows life.