43 
House & Garden 
THE 
CHOW 
Levick 
All puppies are heart-break¬ 
ers, but little chows are in a 
class by themselves for in¬ 
stant appeal 
CHOW 
FROM CHINA 
A Dog With a Mystery , a True Oriental That Came to America and Won 
a Place by Sheer Weight of Worth 
ROBERT S. LEMMON 
T HROUGH tradition and experience we 
have learned to endow many things 
oriental with at least a touch of mystery. 
The Celestial is non-understandable to West¬ 
ern minds—was it not our own Bill Nye who 
said that “for ways that are dark and tricks 
that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is peculiar”? 
That seems an irrelevant way to begin an 
article on dogs, but it really is not. 
For the chow-chow, the maned, bel¬ 
ligerent looking fellow whose pic¬ 
tures are here presented, comes 
from China and, true Oriental that 
he is, has his own mystery safely 
tucked away within his cobby, 
strangely shaped body. In this 
wise: 
We know little or nothing of the 
chow’s history, save that his breed 
is an old and respected one among 
the Chinese. What were his an¬ 
cestors of many generations ago? 
Whence come that tail so strangely 
curved and flattened over the back, 
those straight hind legs, that 
tongue of blue instead of pink or 
red, those black eyes seeming to 
discount the theory of wolf blood 
flowing in his veins? Other dogs 
do not have them, nor is the chow’s 
coat of fur instead of hair any help to us in 
clearing up the facts of his origin. 
There is no little of the Oriental in his dis¬ 
position, too. Where another dog might be 
openly friendly or hostile in the presence of 
strangers, the chow is prone to be merely stand¬ 
offish. He will sniff critically at your ankles, 
examine you with an air of silent analysis, 
■ 
and then steadfastly reserve judgment until 
you have proved yourself worthy. 
Such is the chow’s habitual treatment of 
strangers, but within his circle of established 
friends he is a different sort of dog. His 
aloofness vanishes, and he becomes jolly, even 
rollicking. He seems to have an odd sense of 
humor, and the baffling twist in his disposition 
which is so marked when he is on 
his dignity largely vanishes. His 
admirers—and they are many— 
know him as a dog of courage, 
strength and intelligence. 
The chow’s points and general 
appearance are as widely known 
today as those of any other breed, 
but the general dog-interested pub¬ 
lic displays a certain amount of 
| ignorance about him in other ways. 
Comparatively few know that a 
chow’s coat should be brushed but 
never washed; or that, for all his 
robust body, his digestion frequent¬ 
ly is delicate and calls for care¬ 
fully selected food. 
The famous chow “scowl” is one 
of his outward characteristics, 
but he is really not the surly fel¬ 
low his appearance suggests 
A cobby, powerful dog with a curiously curled and flattened tail, and 
thick, furry coat of red, blue or black 
The straight hind legs of the chow, with practically no bend at the 
hock joint, are part of his mystery 
