Breeding Smooth Chow-Chows
I like to tell you about our experience with breeding smooth chow-chows.
We have had chow-chows since the 1970's, at first the rough ones and later in 1986 we got our first smooth from the Tanlap Kennel in UK. - CH. Tanlap Sleek Tinka.
After our first smooth there came a second and third, with the third one - a black smooth bitch fom Norway - Mai-Ko-Chow's Lobke - we started breeding. At that time in the Netherlands there where proximal 20 smooth chow-chows.
As we could hardly find books about the chows in general, there was nothing at all about the smooth; however we did have mrs. Chr. A. Veldhuis.
This lady taught us a lot about chows in general and the smooth in particular.
Having known them way back from China, she was one of the last to get a Penhow smooth chow-chow.
About the inherited of the smooth gene she always said, the Penhow smooth was always dominate, the later smooth has a diffenrent way of inheriting the smooth Gene
We have had chow-chows since the 1970's, at first the rough ones and later in 1986 we got our first smooth from the Tanlap Kennel in UK. - CH. Tanlap Sleek Tinka.
After our first smooth there came a second and third, with the third one - a black smooth bitch fom Norway - Mai-Ko-Chow's Lobke - we started breeding. At that time in the Netherlands there where proximal 20 smooth chow-chows.
As we could hardly find books about the chows in general, there was nothing at all about the smooth; however we did have mrs. Chr. A. Veldhuis.
This lady taught us a lot about chows in general and the smooth in particular.
Having known them way back from China, she was one of the last to get a Penhow smooth chow-chow.
About the inherited of the smooth gene she always said, the Penhow smooth was always dominate, the later smooth has a diffenrent way of inheriting the smooth Gene
As we make plans to breed with the smooth, there was no doubt in our minds to try to find a smooth dog At this time I had not heard the unidentified rumour that one cannot breed a smooth to a smooth.
Well we found a young English dog and the results was a litter of 6 smooth pups, At this stage we heard the rumour that one must never ever breed a smooth x smooth.
Why? Well it seems that it had an effect on the boning and health as every believes.
I for myself tried to find out how that story started but till to day now one can tell me but it always come out now and again.
We did not listen to those rumours and our next litter was again a smooth x smooth breeding, this time 6 smooth boys and 1 rough girl. The rough was a real rough coat and the smooth where all real smooths and not the in- between coats.
After our fifth litter we had to go to a rough dog otherwise the lines got to close and as we did not have enough smooth dogs.
This litter contains 3 smooths and 2 rough ones, again the smooths were very smooth and the rough ones very rough.
A grandmother (S) x grandson (S) combination gives us 1 smooth and 2 rough ones.
The smooth was this time an intermediary, the rough ones were real rough ones.
Well we found a young English dog and the results was a litter of 6 smooth pups, At this stage we heard the rumour that one must never ever breed a smooth x smooth.
Why? Well it seems that it had an effect on the boning and health as every believes.
I for myself tried to find out how that story started but till to day now one can tell me but it always come out now and again.
We did not listen to those rumours and our next litter was again a smooth x smooth breeding, this time 6 smooth boys and 1 rough girl. The rough was a real rough coat and the smooth where all real smooths and not the in- between coats.
After our fifth litter we had to go to a rough dog otherwise the lines got to close and as we did not have enough smooth dogs.
This litter contains 3 smooths and 2 rough ones, again the smooths were very smooth and the rough ones very rough.
A grandmother (S) x grandson (S) combination gives us 1 smooth and 2 rough ones.
The smooth was this time an intermediary, the rough ones were real rough ones.
At that point there where still not enough smooth dogs and the ones there where are not of our liking, so we did try again an nephew (R) x niece (S) combination with as results one rough dog and two smooth bitches, one of these bitches had a very smooth coat you can call that coat velvet.
Searching abroad we find a dog of our liking in Denmark, a rough one from the Brosscroft Kennel and he had smooth lines in his pedigree.
With two of our smooth bitches he gives us 5 really good smooth ones and 3 really good rough ones.
Than we decided we want to consolidate the smooth Gene in our lines and make several nephews and niece's combinations, in the first three litters there was every time one rough pup in it.
For the bitches out of these combinations we found smooth dogs, one with a slight longer coat than the other one.
In the litter of the dog - Molboredens smooth Guldbaer - with a little more coat length there was again a rough pup, 2 pups with an intermediary coat length and 2 with a very short coat length.
Then with the dog - Bidachows Smooth Thunder Boy - with the short smooth coat, gave us litters with one rough with a shorter coat and all the others where smooth ones.
The coats of the smooth became shorter and shorter( max 2cm on the back/ neckline ,tail and trousers are longer) but we still not have a homozygote smooth.
Than we mated our 5th generation smooth bitch - Ninjah van Juttersburch - , with the very smooth coat, to a 3rd generation smooth dog and we got a litter of six smoothes, but one litter can't tell you anything. Her sister - Lobke van Juttersburch - gives rough and smooth in one litter even when the father is a smooth one, so we have to wait.
Ninjah's next litter with a rough dog from half smooth lines gave us again a whole litter of smoothes, when I say smooth I mean smooth with a very short coat length.
One of her daughters - Silke - out of her first litter we mated with a smooth dog and the results was only smooth pups.
Searching abroad we find a dog of our liking in Denmark, a rough one from the Brosscroft Kennel and he had smooth lines in his pedigree.
With two of our smooth bitches he gives us 5 really good smooth ones and 3 really good rough ones.
Than we decided we want to consolidate the smooth Gene in our lines and make several nephews and niece's combinations, in the first three litters there was every time one rough pup in it.
For the bitches out of these combinations we found smooth dogs, one with a slight longer coat than the other one.
In the litter of the dog - Molboredens smooth Guldbaer - with a little more coat length there was again a rough pup, 2 pups with an intermediary coat length and 2 with a very short coat length.
Then with the dog - Bidachows Smooth Thunder Boy - with the short smooth coat, gave us litters with one rough with a shorter coat and all the others where smooth ones.
The coats of the smooth became shorter and shorter( max 2cm on the back/ neckline ,tail and trousers are longer) but we still not have a homozygote smooth.
Than we mated our 5th generation smooth bitch - Ninjah van Juttersburch - , with the very smooth coat, to a 3rd generation smooth dog and we got a litter of six smoothes, but one litter can't tell you anything. Her sister - Lobke van Juttersburch - gives rough and smooth in one litter even when the father is a smooth one, so we have to wait.
Ninjah's next litter with a rough dog from half smooth lines gave us again a whole litter of smoothes, when I say smooth I mean smooth with a very short coat length.
One of her daughters - Silke - out of her first litter we mated with a smooth dog and the results was only smooth pups.
We now have bred a 7th generation smooth pup true to the mother line and we are still learning about the variety.
There is however one thing we know for sure now, breeding only smooth with smooth doesn't infect the boning and health.
The length of the coat is shorter than the smooths we started with, but still not every smooth has that real smooth coat - that feels likes velvet.
We notice that by several smooths during the first 3 years the smooth coat becomes shorter and shorter after the seasonal change of coat.
There is also no reason why one must not make a rough x smooth combination. Do so, but sometimes there can be one that brings in the in-between coats again.
There is one thing that disturbed me to day in a lot of smooth chows, - this is the very heavy overdone heads with too much wrinkles, a coat that is to long for a real smooth.
Well time will tell if being popular means the end of the real smooth coated chow-chow with the open face and expression.
There is however one thing we know for sure now, breeding only smooth with smooth doesn't infect the boning and health.
The length of the coat is shorter than the smooths we started with, but still not every smooth has that real smooth coat - that feels likes velvet.
We notice that by several smooths during the first 3 years the smooth coat becomes shorter and shorter after the seasonal change of coat.
There is also no reason why one must not make a rough x smooth combination. Do so, but sometimes there can be one that brings in the in-between coats again.
There is one thing that disturbed me to day in a lot of smooth chows, - this is the very heavy overdone heads with too much wrinkles, a coat that is to long for a real smooth.
Well time will tell if being popular means the end of the real smooth coated chow-chow with the open face and expression.
note :
After writing this article for the official Journal of the Chow Chow Club of Gauteng, South Africa, Ninjah got her third litter and again all very smooth, so after having 17 pups only smooth we can say that she is a real Homozygot.
After writing this article for the official Journal of the Chow Chow Club of Gauteng, South Africa, Ninjah got her third litter and again all very smooth, so after having 17 pups only smooth we can say that she is a real Homozygot.
