I met a shar-pei puppy the other day... beyond gorgeous. ?adult temp?

[kerilli]

he was in the pet shop with his owner, who very kindly let me spend 5 mins cuddling his gorgeous wrinkly face and going "oooooooooooh". i've had a look around on the web and on sharpei rescue, and am tempted to rehome an adult one - i know the adults aren't as wrinkly as the pups, etc etc, so i'm not just smitten by the looks. i've been thinking for quite a while of getting a bigger dog to go with my crew of jrts anyway.
so, i gather the horsecoat ones are known for being pretty headstrong. bearcoats seem to be calmer. and onany particular things i should know about the breed? (i'm experienced, have had big dogs as well as small ones.) likely to get on okay with the horses? likely to savage my free-range chickens, ducks, etc? (have trained jrts not to!)
any advice hugely appreciated. thankyou.

 

[kit279]

Ok, disclaimer - I've never actually owned one but my father was a vet for 30 years and every time I talk to him about getting a dog, he has something to say about the breed! Sharpei have a lot of skin problems because of the folds of skin and as a result they can get very itchy and irritable and bad tempered. I'm sure there are exceptions but my experience of them bears out the above observation. As always, I'd be wanting to see mum and dad before I got a dog - if you're rehoming, you might not have that option.

Am absolutely plotting to get a husky though, they are the only dogs we were allowed to have when I was a kid due to their lack of veterinary problems!!!

 

[mealrigghallstud]

Have a lot of money saved up for vet bills - they are very prone to skin problems and every one we ever had anything to do with at the vets I worked at either had to have several surgeries to correct entropion and basically give them face lifts as they grew. All of them had a skin condition of some sort ranging from bad to having to have them put to sleep as was so severe and had got worse as they got older. I think the entire breed stemmed from just 2 or 3 dogs which says a lot really - basically don't touch with a barge pole unless you have lots of money! They were also originally bred as a fighting breed - hence the saggy skin as they couldn't be pinned down so easily - so they need a lot of socialising and training. Am not personally a fan of all these deformed dogs being bred simply because someone finds it cute despite the animal suffering because of their deformities. I don't have anything against the dogs themselves as it is not their fault!

 

[kerilli]

ah, okay. thankyou, i will consider myself warned off... the vets' bills from the horses are quite enough, i love my tough little jrts!

 

[BBH]

I have a dog with skin problems ( bull dog ) and its a constant round of treatments / medication. I give him an antihistamine every day which keeps him comfortable but its no fun watching them distressed and constantly scratching.

As it sounds like you have decided I would also avoid a shar - pei

 

[devilinajar]

The other very big problem they can have is difficulty breathing as a lot of the excess skin is also inside the mouth. You will also strugle to get insurance, especillaly if you rescue one, as it will probably already have a list as long as you arm of pre existing conditions that will not be covered by insurance!!

 

[BBH]

I think the most shocking thing is breeding dogs who actually need facelifts, truly awful. No matter how cute they are that is not acceptable imo. A basic right of any living thing has to be easy breath and freedom from distressing conditions.

 

[Woody78]

Gosh, Kerilli! Think that's a no then!

I too, think it is wrong to breed to create a wrinkley, however, cute they look. It is even worse to create a breed from such a tiny gene pool. Very very sad.

How about a nice labrador?

 

[girla]

I have seen two sharpei in the space of 3 weeks, the 1st one was shocking,

his skin looked so bad he looked like he had the mange and he was very under weight, i actually asked the lady if the dog was ok and got told in no uncertain terms to bog off & mind my own business.

The second dog looked young and was up to weight although you could see he had skin problems also.

A friend of my mum had one years ago & he sufffered terrible with his skin, he lost weight & he grew very bad tempered. In the end he was PTS

because of his physical & mental state ( No fault to the owner they tried everything & it cost a fortune)

 

[PucciNPoni]

I don't see many of this breed, but on a grooming forum a groomer I know tells a tale about how she was cornered and mauled by one of these in her own salon. A bit of pointless heresay, but it would certainly make ME think twice.

 

[prosefullstop]

You meet the odd one now and then in NYC, and I have to say I've never noticed skin problems or breathing issues. To be honest, I've seen wrinklier bulldogs. Maybe I haven't come across "correct" examples of the breed, and that might be a good thing.

In temperament, I find them similar to Chows: in a word, aloof.

 

[genie]

I have a very good friend who is a very experienced dog owner who has a sharpei.

He has bad skin that she has spent thousands on..his temperament is really bad too and she daren't let him off the lead at all. The dog is 10 years old and she had him from a young puppy.

She is scared to death on the very rare occasions he has escaped from the house.last time he did this(about 2 years ago) he jumped the wall and mangled a couple of sheep......that cost her a small fortune too.

The dog rules the roost.can't have friends to stay over as the dog is a liablity...even worse with kids.......and if anybody turns up at the door, its a mad panic to remover the dog before he does any damage.

If this was my dog, would have had it destroyed years ago.,....friends attitude is its her responsibility and she can't kill a healthy animal.but she would never ever have another one.

This dog could be a one off....but I heard many similar stories about this breed too. Just knowing about this one would put me off them for life.

The dog does get along with other dogs though.

 

[kerilli]

prosefullstop, i've seen an adult one which only had a few wrinkled around its face and ankles. the rest of its body was totally unwrinkled, no loose skin, lovely compact fit-looking dog. the lady who owned it told me that that is what they are supposed to look like (she'd paid a fortune for him), the very wrinkly ones are incorrect.
of course, when people can get £900 a puppy, greed takes over.
poor dogs.
i know they are supposed to be 'aloof' with people they don't know, not a bad thing really as long as they have an underlying good temperament.
thanks so much for replies everyone. i consider myself warned off.

 

[Bosworth]

I had a friend who was a breeder. She had some of the old fashioned ones - which have very few wrinkles on their body and their faces also have very few wrinkles. The newer type are really wrinkled and were developed as a fashion item in the USA. Avoid the black ones - lots of rogue genes in them. My friend had a black one which was seriously nasty with people - totally unpredictable. Her brown ones were all lovely. But they were prone to bloat which could be fatal, prone to ear infections which required operations, prone to inward turning eyelashes which required plastic surgery. Not a happy healthy breed of dog.

 

[Vicki1986]

my friends brother has one (this its uncastrated? not too sure) and its played with my chinese crested (toy/tiny dainty dog) and was fine - they both got a bit rough but good as gold.

lady on our yard has 4. her uncastrated male and my tiny dog are firm friends and run around and my dog tries to play rough but the shar pei is very gentle with him. he also plays a little with her bitches and they seem fine too. She breeds them i believe.

Nice dogs. If i was into big dogs i wouldnt say no.