Page 29 - Chow Life - Winter 2025

The Standard:

Blueprint or

Set of Imponderables?

by PAUL ODENKIRCHEN

Before there were official standards, there were aesthetic discrimination based on tradition and
contests between dogs bred to perform a particular precedence. However, to maintain type, we must
function. The type of dog that most consistently also know the history of the breed.
won such contests was obviously best suited to the
sought-after tasks. Therefore, the word “type” does All dogs are descendants of wolves, but not all
not refer to one or more specific characteristics of breeds are descendants of the same type of wolf.
a breed, but rather to the kind of animal best suited Most areas of the world have their own indigenous
to fulfill the functions for which it was originally types of wolf, best suited to the conditions and
intended. Confusion on that point has led to the climate of their respective area. The domestication
gradual erosion of breed type in most breeds. of some of these wolf types has supplied us with a
handful of primitive types of dogs from
After thousands of years of breed which all other breeds were evolved
continuity, Chow type has been “ through crossing.
so profoundly altered in the last
90 years that even some of The Chow Chow’s origins are
the characteristics that set their original purpose with traced to the Serine wolf of
it apart are now seriously the Mongols and Tibetans Siberia or inner Mongolia.
compromised. Many From historical records,
changes that originated was mainly limited to we know that the breed
with people considered existed in pure-bred
knowledgeable in their guarding and herding, which form as far back as 3,000
time have found gradual years ago. From this we
acceptance through explains their original may conclude that it,
additions of omissions indeed, is one of the few
from the previous structure and disposition breeds from which others
standards. Unwittingly, the evolved. It also explains the
cumulative effect of some of wolf-typ0e characteristics
these changes has done much “ and temperaments of the
to lost type and has introduced original imports.
problems rarely seen in the breed Contrary to popular belief, the Chow
originally. There is no doubt that a number of Chow is not a Chinese breed but rather originated
modifications have been beneficial, but it is essential in Mongolia and Tibet. They were introduced to the
that type and functionality remain paramount. Chinese as tributes from these vassal states to the

Generally, a breed standard is considered to be a rulers of the Chinese Empire. Imperial kennels with
blueprint against which to measure progress toward thousands of Chows are knows to have existed as far
the breeding of a perfect dog. In fact, in the absence back as 2,000 years ago.
of any physical tools to measure the dimensions They were used for hunting, but never attained the
or attributes against an agreed upon standard, the recognition of the Pekingese as house dogs. The
evaluation of dogs remains a matter of selective Chow became the dog of the people, and where

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