Recognized by authorities to be among the oldest of domesticated dog breeds, the Chow Chow is estimated to date back more than 2000 years. Its original purpose may have been as a hunting dog, but other accounts contend that the breed was a source of fur pelts and food in Manchuria and Mongolia. The Chow chow is loyal, devoted, and completely predictable to those it likes. Some say that it would die for its human family.