They'll always have more wrinkles than you! (Shar Pei)

Member Name: Sandyd

Product:	Shar Pei
Date:	06/03/01 (318 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loving, gentle pets

Disadvantages: none that can't be dealt with

I know people say they grow to look like their dogs but l am sure l will never have that many wrinkles.

We have two of these lovely creatures and we really love them dearly. They originate in China where they were first bred as fighting or farming dogs. They were at one time the rarest dog in the world but now there are many dogs around. Not enough though that we don't get stopped every second step by people asking what on earth it is, the most regular comment being 'I've seen one on the telly, but never a real one' and 'Arn't they ugly, but in a really adorable way' Hmm???

They are about the size of a boxer and are a really gentle, affectionate breed. I actually think that my dogs think they are people as they want to be with you all the time sitting with you on the sofa not in a dog like position at your feet. They watch TV with us (NO, l mean really watch)and talk to us when they want something, jumping about and really talking. I can only describe it as this because when it happens no-one can believe the way they are, you can almost appear to have a conversation with them. Its very amusing.

They are brilliant with children, l have three ranging in age from 9 to 20 and they have never shown any sign of agression towards the children. Even the boy who suffers from ADHD (attention defecit hyperactivity disorder) and is running all over the show and sometimes really agravating the dogs, they seem to know that he means no harm and just sort of look at him distastefully and walk away. The twenty year old daughter was attacked by an alsation at a fair ground when she was 9 and l had to drag her out from underneath the animal, since then l have always been really afraid of dogs. It took many years of persuasion from my husband to allow the family to get a dog for a pet. But boy, l don't regret it for one second. The dogs give so much to us. I know that you can never trust any animal 100% but l woul
d trust these as much as is humanly possible.

They are very good at guarding the house, if they hear any noise at all they bark their heads off, if l were a burglar l would certaily be put off by it. Mind you if they were actually to get in l think the dogs would probably just lick them to death. Thye are so affectionate to everyone but hopefully the barking would be deterant enough.

There are two types of coat, Horsecoat (we have a bitch in this coat type called Kato), this coat is very prickly, short, rough and can cause a rash in some peoples skin. I suffer if l touch her at all with the inside of my forearm and l have a brother-in-law that comes out in a complete rash head to toe if he touches her at all. The other type is Brushcoat where the fur is longer and much softer (we have a dog in this type, Bruno is his name). He is like a big teddy bear but the only problem with this is he does moult and as he is white/cream the fur is very noticable everywhere. There is another coat, the bearcoat, but these are quite rare in this country and have very long fur like a long haired german shepherd. The first time l saw one l couldn't believe it was a Shar-Pei.

The dogs do suffer from their skin, they get something similar to excema, the vet says it is a form of demodectic mange, the fur just falls of and becomes very patchy and unsightly. We tried loads of different foods for them and nothing seemed to help. Then we tried James Wellbeloved Lamb and RIce Kibble. Within 2 weeks of starting this we were able to see improvements in the coat. Now there are no problems at all. Some people think its cruel to keep the dog on the same food all the time, but they do have some of our food and even when they don't they do not seem to mind. It is brilliant food and they are truly thriving on it.

If l had to say anything about the breed it would be that they are not really very good with other dogs (as they think they are peop
le). When mine see another dog they just bark and growl (its the only time l see any agression). I've never let them over so l don't know what they'd do if l did. I think its because they see another dog coming over and are wondering what this strange creature is thats coming over to us people (including them of course).

Well to sum up, l have had no problems with the dogs at all now that the coat situation is sorted with the James Wellbeloved food. I have never had any problems with the folds or wrinkles and the eyes are fine (they are known to have problems with their eyes due to the heavyness of their wrinkles above their eyes causing the eyelashes to turn into the eye). A simple operation at your vets to cut a piece of the eyelid away therefore bringing the eyelid and lashes back sorts it out at a cost (in my vets) of about £50.

They are beautiful animals and l feel very proud to walk down the road with them and would recommend enyone get one.

Summary: