Malamute or Chow Chow: The Same Coat Rules, Different Weeks

The Chow grooms at 5/5 and sheds at 4/5. The Malamute grooms at 4/5 and sheds at 5/5. Between them they represent the heaviest coat workload on this site, and the difference is rhythm rather than volume.

The Chow's coat stands off the body and mats readily at the ruff, trousers and tail. Brushing has to reach the skin in sections rather than skimming the top, and several sessions a week are the minimum. A Chow left for a fortnight develops mats to the skin that have to be cut out — and the skin underneath is often inflamed by the time anyone sees it.

The Malamute's coat is denser and less prone to matting, and its work is concentrated. A weekly brush covers most of the year. Twice a year the undercoat comes out in sheets over two or three weeks and needs an undercoat rake, a great deal of patience, and somewhere to put the result.

Neither coat should ever be clipped. Both insulate against heat as well as cold, and a clipped double coat frequently regrows with a texture that works worse in both directions.

This is the largest gap on the page. The Malamute rates 5/5 for exercise and 4/5 for energy; the Chow rates 2/5 and 2/5.

A Malamute is tired by resistance: carting, scootering, canicross, loaded hikes. Two hours a day of that produces a dog that lies down properly, and walking beside you does very little. Its own breed notes call it an extreme escape artist, and an under-exercised one excavates the garden and then leaves it.

A Chow wants two moderate walks and then sleeps. It is one of the genuinely low-output large-ish breeds, and its 4/5 apartment rating reflects that — a Chow in a flat is content, provided the grooming happens.

Heat limits both, and the Chow more so: a standing coat, a heavy ruff and a relatively short muzzle for its skull make it a poor heat regulator, and Chows overheat faster than their activity level suggests. Summer exercise moves to the cool ends of the day for both.

On solitude the Chow is better at 3/5 against 2/5, which for a household that works full time is a meaningful advantage.

Three eye conditions appear on the Chow Chow's list — entropion, cataracts and glaucoma — plus distichiasis, and together they make this the breed's most important health concern.

Entropion is the common one. The eyelid rolls inward and the lashes abrade the cornea, which is painful and progressively damages sight. Heavy facial furnishings and deep-set eyes make it likelier here than in most breeds, and surgical correction is frequently needed.

Distichiasis is related — extra lashes growing from the wrong place along the lid margin, rubbing the eye. Glaucoma is the dangerous one: rising pressure inside the eye destroys sight quickly, and a suddenly red, cloudy or painful eye is a same-day emergency rather than an appointment.

There is also a practical consequence that is not a disease. Deep-set eyes and a heavy ruff genuinely restrict a Chow's peripheral vision, so it startles when approached from the side more than other breeds do. Teaching children and visitors to approach from the front and speak first prevents most incidents.

The Malamute carries hereditary cataracts and progressive retinal atrophy but not this cluster, and its eyes are open and unobstructed.

The Chow rates 2/5 with strangers, 2/5 with other dogs and 3/5 with children, and those numbers describe a genuinely reserved dog. A Chow dislikes being handled by people it does not know and is indifferent to a stranger's approval. It is not aggressive by default; it is uninterested, and poor socialisation is what turns that into a problem.

At 2/5 trainability it is stubborn rather than slow. It learns quickly, declines to demonstrate, and becomes less cooperative under correction.

The Malamute could hardly be more different: 4/5 with strangers, 5/5 with children, demonstrative and noisy about it, and a complete failure as a guard dog.

Both need sustained socialisation for different reasons. The Chow needs calm exposure so its reserve stays proportionate; the Malamute needs it because same-sex intolerance with other dogs surfaces at social maturity around two years old.

Both rate 3/5 for barking, though the Malamute howls rather than barks and a howling hundred-pound dog carries a long way.

The Chow runs $120–$250 a month against the Malamute's $150–$300, and $1,600–$3,000 against $2,000–$4,000 in the first year.

What those figures hide is grooming. A 5/5 coat that most owners cannot maintain alone means a professional groom every six to eight weeks for the life of the dog, and on a heavily coated 60-pound breed that is not a small recurring sum. The Malamute's coat needs no professional attention at all if you own a rake and have somewhere to do it.

Eye surgery is the Chow's other realistic line item. Entropion correction is common and not cheap, and glaucoma management is worse.

The Malamute's expensive risks are orthopaedic surgery and a bloat emergency, both four-figure events at this size, and bloat appears on the Chow's list too.

On lifespan the Chow has the wider range at 9 to 15 years against 10 to 14, and outcomes depend heavily on breeding — a well-bred Chow from screened parents often reaches the upper end.