Loose skin, prickly coat, small ears, unquestionable courage at home and outside.... The shar pei dog is all this and more! The Shar-Pei is an ancient breed that has called its home for centuries the southern provinces of China. Certain similarities make it a probable relative of the smooth-coated Chow Chow and the Tibetan Mastiff. This remarkable breed is now all over the world, but its odyssey started out at home simply enough with tasks like cattle herding, property guarding, and hunting assistant.

1. The Shar Pei are a brainy breed. They also make good in obedience training. The best way to maintain their interest is to vary their training routine.

2. The shar pei dog has a bluish-black tongue, just like its likely relative the Chow Chow. But if you are into show dog competitions, you may have hear many times over that spotted and all-pink tongues are "undesirable" or do not have much chance, from the judges' point of view; lavender, on the other hand, is permissible.

3. Aside from seeing extra yummy food, the only other way that a shar pei dog will get slobbery is when water gets trapped in the folds of their muzzle.

4. Just because a Shar-Pei is somewhat exotic in origin does not mean it can also live in exotic temperatures. This means that a Shar-Pei is in danger of overheating if left under the sun for long periods of time, and will also suffer if kept as an outdoor dog during cold weather.

5. Finally, let's go over this dog colorful history. Did you know that at some point, these dogs were even on the brink of extinction?

We have already mentioned the dog's peasant roots. When Communism rose to power in China, raising dogs either as pets or for fighting were considered an excessive activity. By 1950, the breed's low numbers were in big trouble.

Somewhere along the way, a few breeders in the British colony of Hong Kong acquired a few of these Chinese Fighting Dogs. Chinese businessman Matgo Law was one such fancier of the wrinkled dogs, and in 1973 he and fellow breeder C.M. Chung began a campaign to save the breed with a plea for help in Dogs magazine.

Incredible as it may seem, the founding batch sent to the US from Hong Kong were of an inferior quality than the Shar-Pei observed today. More specifically, some of the original 12 dogs imported to the United States that make up the breed's genetic foundation in this country were actually street dogs with nasty dispositions! Just the same, most Americans responded positively to the campaign. Soon enough, the Shar-Pei was like a fad in its early years in the US, with pups commanding prices that reached thousands of dollars and dog breeding ballooning without any regard for the breed's overall temperament, health, or structure.

While Chung and Law ended up with more than 2000 responses and requests, they only sent puppies to some breeders they tried to select as much as possible. Eventually, some of these early breeders would organize the Chinese Shar-Pei Club of America in order to formulate a breed standard and collaborate to improve the breed. The breed's numbers are now currently a far cry from their status when the magazine plea was put up; in 1994, the registration of 15 thousand individuals and 6600 litters was able to make the breed the 25th most popular in the US, out of 137 breeds.