HistORy Although dogs have been our companions for ... Chronicle...Uncivilized and Underdeveloped. We make a big leap in time to the Han Dynasty, the second imperial dynasty in China

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Although dogs have been our companions for millennia, we have to guessat what prehistoric dogs looked like exactly. One thing we do know forsure, though, is the work they did. They followed the prey, drove the

flocks and herds, guarded livestock and defended their owners’ property.

HistORy

The Dog of the Barbarians Some historians speculate that the Chow Chow, known inChina for 2,000 years, was developed in Arctic Asia about3,000 years ago. The dog did not lookexactly like the present-day ChowChow, but was a square-built animalthat resembled a lion. The Complete Dog Book publishedby the American Kennel Club in 1935,speculated that the Chow originated innorthern Siberia. As the property ofnomads, these dogs would have arrivedin China via Mongolia. It seemed thatthey were used as war dogs. Peoplenamed the breed man kou, meaning“dog of the Barbarians.” It has been a long road, from war dogvia gun dog, to guard dog and sled dog,later cloister dog and farm dog. Forthousands of years, they served thepeople of China, and were regarded asvaluable companions.

Uncivilized and Underdeveloped We make a big leap in time to theHan Dynasty, the second imperialdynasty in China (206 BC-AD 220) when the Chow Chow wasdepicted in pottery with a number of familiar characteristics:square-built body, erect ears, a heavy coat around the neckand the tail curled over the back. When the Lama monasteries were developed in Mongoliaand Tibet, the Chow Chow played a role as gun dog andguard dog. At the Chinese imperial court, the Chow was a

companion dog as were the Pekingese and Tibetan Spaniel.One of the theories is that employees of the Dutch East IndiaCompany (1602-1799), which had established a trading

house (factory) in Guangzhou (Canton)in 1729, took the Chow Chow toEurope. The Chinese term for thetrading houses where China’s Westerntrade was restricted in The ThirteenFactories area of Canton,was Houses ofthe Barbarians. In other words,Westerners were considered to beuncivilized and underdeveloped.

The origin of the name of the breedis more or less unknown. Apart from“edible dog from China,” the breed wascalled Wonk or Lang Kou (wolf dog),Hsiung Kou (bear dog) and Hek she(black tongue).

Meat FestivalAs farm dogs, they guarded, hunted,

hauled, and tidied up small vermin. Butmost importantly, they were valued fortheir coat and meat. For Westerners, dogbreeding for consumption or fur isunacceptable. In 1915, the Chinese

government forbade the breeding and/or killing of dogs forthese purposes; Peking ratified this law in 1928. But duringmy visits to China in the 1980s, I saw dogs for sale forconsumption; and 10,000 to 15,000 dogs are eaten annuallyduring the 10-day Yulin Dog Meat Festival held every yearsince 2009 at Yulin, Guangxi. In 2016, Dutch breeders, exhibitors and fanciers

text and illustrations by Ria HöRteR

A few Chow Chows arrived in England as early as 1820 when anEnglish newspaper reported the arrival from China of an oriental

dog with a thick red coat and blue-black tongue.

Chow Chow

The bitch, Ch. Windholmes Wan Lung, by R.S. Moseley. Wan Lung won the American National Specialty in 1921.

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confronted two members of the DutchKennel Club, both international showjudges, who had accepted the invitationof the Chinese Kennel Club to judge atthe 2019 World Dog Show inShanghai. After loud protests by Dutchdog fanciers, the two judges canceledtheir assignments.

Communism The first dog show in China wasorganized in Shanghai in 1887. Fiftyyears later, the 1936 Chinese KennelUnion (CKU) yearbook stated that asmany as 89 Chows were entered thatyear in 1936. The dogs varied in type;some looked “like a bear,” others had a“fox head” or deep sunken eyes and“too many skin folds.” Early Chowswere illustrated by paintings by R.S.Mosely (1897) and Gustav Muss-Arnolt(ca. 1920). The CKU seemed to disappearshortly after the Second World War. Ageneral ban on keeping dogs wasenacted in 1961. For many years, theChinese government had been facingthe problem of more than half a billion people that must be fed;pet dogs were seen as purely luxury animals that did not fit intothe ideas of Communism. Gradually, the People’s Republic of China changed their opinionabout dogs, and keeping them was no longer forbidden. Interest innational dog breeds – for example, the Shar Pei, Pekingese, ShihTzu and Chinese Crested – grew. I made my first trip to Wales in the 1970s. As a breeder, ownerand exhibitor of Welsh Springer Spaniels, I expected to see manyWelsh Springers on the streets, but I did not see a single one exceptat dog shows. The same thing happened during my trips to China;not a single Chow Chow on the streets!

In today’s China, thebreed has been built upusing imports from theUnited States andEngland. In 2006, theCKU became a contractpartner of the FCI; itbecame a full FCImember in 2011.

Blue BloodA few Chow

Chows arrived in Eng-land as early as 1820when an Englishnewspaper reported the

arrival from China of an oriental dogwith a thick red coat and blue-blacktongue. Exotic dogs taken from foreigncountries were exhibited in theZoological Society of London zoo, orplaced in the highest circles in England.The zoo identified them as “the WildDogs of China.” Their coats were black,red or blue – long-haired and short-haired. The first attempts at seriousbreeding began by 1880.

A well-known Chow owner was LordHugh, Earl of Lonsdale, who traveledaround the world and acquired manyanimals of all kinds. During one of hisvisits to the Far East he was, in his ownwords, presented a purebred specimen ofthe breed. Lord Hugh presented his“edible dog” to his relatives, the Marquisand Marchioness of Huntley, whosedaughter, Lady Granville Gordon, begana breeding program and was an inauguralmember of The Chow Chow Club (U.K.)founded in 1895.

Lady Granville Gordon’s daughter,Miss Armyne Gordon (married nameFaudel-Philips), shared her mother’s

interest in the breed; together they produced the first English-bred champion, the blue male Ch. Blue Blood, from red andblack parents.

Chinese Dog Chang Queen Victoria was given a “Chinese dog” in 1865. TheQueen had owned three Chinese dogs as early as the 1840s –Betty, Hung Shoo andAkoe. Were they ChowChows? If they were,they represented thefirst-known nameddogs of the breed inGreat Britain. In The IllustratedBook of the Dog (1880-81), Vero Shaw wroteabout the breed: “… andis in all probability veryclosely related to theEsquimaux breed. Themuzzle is pointed, earserect, coat long, strait andrather coarse in texture,tail closely curled overthe hip. The lips andtongue are black. Thedogs are seen in a variety

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HistORy

Pottery from the Han Dynasty (206 bc-ad 220). A dog with a number of familiar characteristics: a

square-built body, erect ears, a heavy coat around the neck, and a tail curled over the back.

Ch. Choonam Chu Tang, owned by Mrs. A. Roes-Roes.

Photographed at the Arnhem Dog Show(Netherlands) in June 1938.

Photo By: Arthur Weisz

A Painting by Gustav Muss-Anholt, 1897.The dog resembles a bear.

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of colours but most commonly of adeep red and most rarely of a jet-black. In this country they aregenerally known as ‘the edible dog ofChina,’ as they are used for eating bythe inhabitants of China.” A Chow Chow bitch wasexhibited at the Crystal Palace Showin London in 1880. In 1881, thePrince of Wales (later King EdwardVII) exhibited his imported “ChineseChow” Chang at the Royal DogShow in Dorchester, handling thedog himself. The 1891 Crufts show, at the RoyalAgricultural Hall in Islington, had six dogsand two puppies entered under ForeignDogs, Chinese. The catalog doesn’tindicate whether they were all Chows, butat least two seem to have been: Chowess,owned by John Lawrence Bosely; born1889, pedigree unknown; and Chough,owned by A.C. Bartlett; born 1887, “by Dr.Evan’s imported Chow.” In 1893, Chow Chows received theirown classification at the London Aquariumshow; previously they had been entered inthe Foreign Dogs class. A year later sawthe first Chow registered in the KennelClub studbook.

Distinguishing Traits A breed club was founded in 1895, thefirst outside China. The club drew up ascale of points, which became the breedstandard, and organized the first club show, held in conjunctionwith the Schipperke Club, in December 1895. In general, the Chows wereindependent and self-willed,watchful but not noisy. They weredistinguished by straight forelegs,straight hocks, and a bluish-blacktongue. Coat colors in the firststandard of points for Rough andSmooth were black, red, yellow,blue, and white

Something about Chows in theUnited States According to AKC records, thefirst Chow Chow exhibited atWestminster was Takya, entered byMiss A.C. Derby in 1890. In 1901,Dr. and Mrs. Henry Jarrett acquiredtheir first Chow, Yen How, fromChina via a San Francisco exoticanimal dealer. They then imported

six or seven more Chows fromChina to establish their ChestnutHills kennel in Philadelphia, the firstChow Chow kennel on the EastCoast. In 1903, Yen How became thefirst Chow registered with the AKC.

In 1905, Mrs. Charles E. Proctorfounded her Blue Dragon Kennel;she imported Chinese Chum, whobecame the first American showchampion. He is still considered thefather of the breed in America.

Other pioneers in Americaincluded Mrs. E.K. Lincoln, who

established the Greenacre Kennel inConnecticut. Mr. and Mrs. David Wagstaffof the Ledgeland Kennel became knownnationwide as the owners of Englishimport Ch. Ledgeland’s Wupei NagyurTut, born in 1952 and entered at Crufts in1954. It is impossible to mention here allAmerican and Canadian breeders andexhibitors who devoted their lives to theChow. If you are interested in the morerecent American history of the breed,T.F.H. Publications published The Book ofthe Chow Chow in 1977. It’s a splendid,richly illustrated work by Dr. SamuelDraper and Joan Mcdonald Brearley andone of my favorite dog books (ISBN 087666 653 5).

We have tried to find the names of allphotographers. Unfortunately, we do notalways succeed. Please send a message tothe author if you think you are the owner

of a copyright. A retired bookseller and publisher, Ria Hörter is a dog writer from

The Netherlands. She is thecontributing editor of the leadingDutch national dog magazine OnzeHond (Our Dogs) and works for theWelsh Springer Spaniel Club of theNetherlands of which she was oneof the founders. She served the clubfor 44 years, as secretary andchairman and is a Honorary LifeMember of this breed club. She wasnominated twice, and a finalist inthe 2009 Annual WritingCompetition of the Dog WritersAssociation of America, for herarticles in Dogs in Canada. OnApril 12, 2014, she was awarded theDutch Cynology Gold Emblem ofHonour. The award was presentedby the Dutch Kennel Club. For moreinformation visit: riahorter.com

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HistORy

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), psychoanalyst• Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), U.S. First Lady• Princess Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962),

psychoanalyst• Joan Crawford (1905-77), American actress• Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), American painter• George, Duke of Kent (1902-42), younger brother

of Kings Edward VIII and George VI• Martha Stewart (1941- ) American television

personality, businesswoman and writer

• Country of origin: China• Patronage: Great Britain• Used as: war dog, gun dog, guard dog, freight dog; later,

monastery dog and farm dog. Now companion dog andsuitable in various dog sports.

• Life expectancy: 8 to 12 years• First breed standard in Great Britain and the U.S.: 1906,

based on the Chinese import Ch. Chow VIII:chowtales.com/1906-chow-standard

• FCI standard: fci.be/Nomenclature/Standards/205g05-en.pdf

• AKC standard: akc.org/dog-breeds/chow-chow/• FCI Group: Group 5 – Spitz and primitive type. Section 5:

Asian Spitz and related breeds.• AKC Group: Non-Sporting• Breed club U.S.A.: chowclub.org/ccci/

The Duke and Duchess of Kent with their oldest children, Edward and Alexandra, in 1938.

George of Kent was regularly seen walking inBelgravia with his favorite dog.

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