Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an incompletely reversible chronic airway disease that can be prevented and cured. There is a tendency toward increasing the morbidity and mortality for COPD. Establishment of an animal model for COPD is an important step to explore the pathogenesis of this disease. Presently, a well-recognized COPD animal model is not available. The key points for establishing the COPD animal models, such as selection of animal species, parameters for model evaluation, are constantly updated.