| Alternative Name Shar Pei. Chinese Fighting
Dog
Basic Info
Shar Pei is a breed of dog whose distinctive feature
is deep wrinkles. The name itself translates to "Sand
Skin," not because of their colors, but because of their
texture. As young puppies, they have lots of wrinkles,
but as they mature, the wrinkles disappear as they "grow
into their skin". They were not recognized by the
American Kennel Club until 1991. Coming in many colors,
it has the same characteristic blue-black tongue of the
Chow Chow. The loose skin and wrinkles covering the
head, neck and body are superabundant in puppies, but
adult Chinese Shar-Pei grow into their skin and these
features should be limited to the head, neck and
withers. Improper breeding that is detrimental to the
health of the Shar Pei, produce adult dogs with wrinkles
covering all of its body. Small ears, a hippo muzzle
shape and a high set tail also give the Shar Pei a
unique look.
Health
A common problem caused by irresponsible breeding is
an hereditary and painful eye condition, entropion,
which turns the eyelashes inward, thus irritating the
eye. Untreated, it can cause blindness. This condition
can be fixed by surgery ("tacking" the eyelids up so
they won't roll onto the eyeball for puppies or
surgicaly removing extra skin in adolescent and older
Shar Peis). Allergy-induced skin infections can be a
problem in this breed caused by poorly selected breeding
stock. One of the serious problems that a Chinese
Shar-Pei can have is Shar Pei fever. The disease causes
short fevers lasting up to 24 hours, after which there
may be no recurrence; alternatively they may recur at
more frequent intervals, becoming more serious. There is
also a possibly related disease called amyloidosis,
caused by unprocessed amyloid protiens depositing in the
organs and most often in the kidneys or liver leading to
renal failure. Susceptability to this disease is
recessive, and surfaces when both of a dog's parents
carry it. At this time there is no test for either of
these diseases and they seem to be prevalent.
Origin
China
History
The Chinese Shar-Pei breed comes from the Guangzhou
province of China where it was well-known as a fighting
and guard dog. It is suspected that due to the laid-back
nature of the Shar Pei, the dogs had to be drugged to
induce them to fight. Originally, the intense loyalty of
the Shar Pei defined its work -- guarding the Chinese
royal family. The dogs are ideally suited for defense;
the small ears and deep-set eyes are tough to grab and
if grabbed on the skin, the wrinkles enable the dog to
turn around and bite back. Once Mao took over, he killed
everything that had to do with the royal family,
including the Shar Pei. At one point they were close to
extinction, and were listed in the Guinness Book of
World Records as "The rarest dog in the world". Since
then, however, the Shar Pei has begun to thrive in many
parts of the world as an excellent family dog, due to
their loving and devoted nature, which shows that they
were originally a utility and companion breed rather
than a fighting breed. Recent DNA analysis has concluded
that the Shar Pei is one of the most ancient dog breeds.
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