Page 79 - Chow Life - 2025 02 Summer

ideal in some way. The best tool to acquire is
breed knowledge. You should be more critical
of your dogs than anyone else could possibly
be. Your evaluation must be as detailed as
possible and you must strive to see their
true faults and virtues. This evaluation of
your Chow Chows will serve as the basis
for your future selection of breeding
opportunities.

• TREAT OTHERS AS YOU
WOULD WANT TO BE TREATED
Sounds a bit like the golden rule. Treat
people with kindness and respect as
they learn from you and you share your
experiences. Be willing to participate
and support our dog and Chow Chow
organizations as well as new fanciers. You
will learn a great deal from these affiliations.
Written agreements serve to protect business
dealings and friendships. Not having a written
agreement should be the exception, not the reverse.

• BY GIVING YOU GAIN
Celebrate other's successes. It takes nothing at all
away from our own accomplishments to recognize
the accomplished efforts of other breeders. By
being someone who can see the virtues in breeding
lines other than your own, you gain a reputation of
fairness and objectivity that is rare these days.

• LEARN FROM OTHER'S ACHIEVEMENTS
It is highly unlikely that all improvements toward
the perfection of a breed are going to come from
one single kennel or bloodline. Hopefully, you can
use the strengths of other kennels and bloodlines to
correct the issues you encounter in your breeding
program.

There are strengths and weaknesses in most
bloodlines. There will be areas in which your dogs
and bloodlines are less strong than others. It is the
ability to combine bloodlines without losing the
good points of your own bloodline that strengthen
a kennel and move forward in breed improvement.
It takes research and knowledge of the Chow Chow
pedigrees and history (www.ChowClub.org, www.
ChowTales..com) that will prepare you for success.

This article first appeared in the December 2024
issue of AKC Gazette and is reprinted with
permission.
77