The
Chinese shar-pei was and still is a multi purposes dog, with many uses
from its people. It was the dog that amused them with the dog-fights,
and the one that gave them some extra profit from it. And it certainly
was the one that helped them in the hunting and kill the pray in order
to feed its humane family. It was also the same dog that could protect
their stock animals, could kill the ruts from the fields in order to
protect the crop and guard the houses and its family. In difficult
seasons it was also a good food supply and its skin was for clothing.
The dog
fights buck then to China, were a very popular sport for the lower
class, and an easy way to get some extra cash from it, and be respectful
to the others for a wile, until next fight. Shar-peis are not born
killers , but can be easily get use to it and become an obsession for
them. Generally they are very territorial and dominant and they don’t
like to question them in this or loosing a battle.
All of
their body structure , help hem in the battles in the ring and in the
hunt too. Starting from their morphology, they have a unique in the
canine world coat. It is very very short and extremely harsh in texture,
so much that some times can be painful for as or make as an allergy.
The same was happening in the fights, when the opponent dog was trying
to grab the shar-pei .It was like having needles in their mouth, very
unpleasant, so most of the times the opponent had to leave it and search
for another area in their body, and then the shar-pei could have more
time to finish its fight.
The
next advantage of the breed in the fights was its elastic skin that can
be moved separately from its body. That doesn’t mean that must have a
lot of fold skin . the wrinkles must be only in face and some in the
neck. But its so elastic that when the opponent grab it , the shar-pei
could tern not only its head, but all its body if it wanted to and bite
buck. This is something that many vets from all around the world have
found out with a unpleasant way..
One
more plus for the breed is the really small ears and the short tail,
that can’t be couched from the opponent easily . the tail is also
powerful and set high because of the morphology of the shar-pei. This
can be a clean sight that the dog is fearless and ready to fight (in the
canine world this means a very dominant dog, dangerous and sure for it
shelf ready to fight).
The
eyes are clean and with a high level of vision, deep set inside the head
but not too much and with that way are protected from bites I hear many
breeders and owners to say that shar-pei hasn’t a good vision and view
(because of its fold skin to the head and too deep set eyes) and you
must be careful when you approach it from beside ,in order not to scare
it . this is a clear , ironic prove that we have guide the breed to a
wrong direction, and how different is the shar-pei of today from the
traditional, but is also a wrong criteria to buy and breed that type of
dogs (with eye problems).
One
more sight of its powerfulness is its strong jaws with the more rounded
canine teeth that many researches say that are more similar to these of a
hyena than a wolf . The teeth have a perfect scissor bite that ’’lock’’
the pray or enemy inside.
And at
last they have agile and speed to help them in the fight. The shar-pei
has the ideal temperament also for this. It’s a dynamic dog with courage
that don’t give up easily. The high dominance of the breed , has a
little settle down from the breeding today in order to fit this dog to
the city and its habits. And wile is still a very loving dog with its
family and can get along with other dogs and people, we must be very
careful with its socialization from the puppy age ,in order not to have
problems in the future. And we also have to keep in mind never to leave
our adult male shar-pei with another male shar-pei, or other dominant
breed , because this will certainty goes to a super dog fight.
But
none of these virtues couldn’t help the shar-pei with the new bigger
breeds that came in the sport later. Because the shar-pei may have a big
reputation for their technique in fight , but they don’t have a lot of
endurance when they have to do with more powerful and bigger breeds. And
so, this was the end for the shar-pei to the dog-fights.
And
wile the fights were just an entertainment, hunting was a survivor thing
for Chinese people. Shar-pei are capable to hunt almost everything.
From birds to rabbits and wild boards. Some reputations say that were
hunting tigers too. Shar-pei hunt in pack or single. They don’t
’’point’’ the pray or retrieve it (but many of them seems to have this
instinct), they just search for it, hunt it and kill it. Their owner
–hunter has nothing else to do than follow them. It might be in the
hunting pack more than one males but this will not be a problem, since
the shar-pei have so strong hunting instinct, that don’t care about
anything else wile they run to catch the pray.
They
hunt with their fine vision and smelling in a variety of grounds. Their
speed help them , especially with the rabbits. A shar-pei can be a
perfect friend with other pet animals if you teach it to, but it needs
some attention with the more ‘’game pets’’ such us ‘’pet bunnies’’. It
will be fine with your cats but be careful because once it will be in a
forest it will grab the opportunity to hunt every wild animal it see or
smell.
This
breed is also a spectacular rut killer (such us bull terriers and jack
rassels), and this strong instinct we can see it in modern and
traditional shar-pei too. They were guarding this way the fields and
rice from the little rodents that were eating the food supplies. Their
technique was to find them by tracing or hear them , digging the ground
and kill them in their nests or up in the surface. So if you have a
hamster or pet mouse it would be a good idea to keep it out of
shar-pei’s reach , because this friendship will never go well.
But the
basic competence in those days was to guard the house, the family, the
life stock and fields of their owner. They don’t need training for this
because they have high dominance, and ones they feel something us their
own, they will guard it what ever it happens. They guard from their bowl
to their master. And the thing that are not very friendly with
strangers make this more easy. But they are not barking a lot. Only when
its truly necessary. Because they think a lot and have a very good
judge they don’t act immediately in a situation. They think first and
judge, and then they act. This make them perfect for protection. And be
careful because a shar-pei will attack with no special warning..
And at
last , in difficult seasons, when they had a shar-pei with no use,
because of its low intelligent or instincts, this dog was becoming a
food supply and clothing. Only the strongest shar-pei survived in China .
The
shar-pei, traditional or modern, has still the same strong instincts(and
some modern are perfect sheepdogs too), and its not right to treat them
as a non use dog. It’s a dog that loves to work and need it too in
order to have a good mentally health and strong bond with its owner.
They don’t like doing nothing. So maybe that’s why your shar-pei is
sleeping all day, because it has nothing better to do!
