Shar Pei Dogs

Shar Pei is a breed of dog whose distinctive feature is deep wrinkles. The name (沙皮, pinyin: shā pí) 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.

Appearance
The Chinese variety of Shar Pei looks like a Doberman Pinscher with small floppy ears, long legs, and a narrow face. Coming in many colors, it has the same characteristic blue-black tongue of the Chow Chow. The wrinkles are seen only on the face and back. Through selective breeding, the American variety of Shar Pei has very short, stubby legs, many wrinkles covering all of its body, and a wide "hippo face". The tail curls up and rests on the back.
 

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 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.
 

[ The same Shar Pei as a puppy. Note the greater amount of wrinkles. ]

History
The Shar Pei breed comes from the Guangzhou province of China where it was well-known as a fighting and guard dog. Originally, it was an all-purpose utility dog of poorer farmers and had fewer wrinkles; when the British introduced dog fighting to China in the late 19th century, it was the breed best suited for this purpose due to its size and strength.

The dogs were then bred with an increased number of wrinkles for their advantages in fighting; if the dog was bitten on a wrinkle, it could still turn around and bite back. 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.
 

Famous Shar-Pei

Lao-Tzu, Martin Prince's dog in The Simpsons, who only appeared in one episode; " Bart's Dog gets an F".

Fu Dog from the Disney cartoon, American Dragon: Jake Long, might be a Shar Pei.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Shar Pei".