Pat and all, Boxers are really nice dogs. I don't see many of them up here anymore. One used to see a lot of them in the 1950's. Yes, Chows definately aren't for everyone. My vet hates oriental dogs, you can almost see him do bricks when I walk into his office w/Charlie Chan. My son in CO, and his fiancee, have Golden Retrievers. He's crazy for them. They're nice dogs, his are really sweet, but I said to him once, "Gary, all they do is run around and catch things, swim after things in the water, and bark." He likes them anyway. He has a golden one and a red one. My uncle Russell, when he was alive and living in Long Valley (yrs ago) always had Springers. They were lovely pets as I remember. The people who live next door to me, (I sold my mom's house to them in Jan) have a new baby and two dogs. One of the dogs is a pit bull and another a mutt which I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw it. They run loose and come into my yard far too often for my comfort. I don't th! ink I'd have a pit bull around a baby if I were them. The guy doesn't control them all that well either. It's a riot here where I live since the development came in 1998. There are 38 very huge houses and it seems like 100's of dogs, most of which, are Yellow Labs. One starts barking and then they all join in. A circus sometimes. Charlie Chan just sits on the porch and watches and listens to them. Typical inscrutible Chow. They don't bark much, just as Lee says, "tear you a new one" if you get in their territory. You can't take the guard dog out of them. Mamie