Short Stuff: Shar Pei

Today we dive into the lovable folds of the Shar Pei.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Fin'd shar Josh
the shark Chuck shark. Jerry's here too, and we're just
paying around and this is short stuff. Is that off
the top of your head? Please tell me you don't
prescript these? No, not something that terrible. Okay, No, let's
see like furiously scribbling. Now he's crossing it out. Uh,

(00:28):
you want to talk sharpay? Yeah? I do, I shar do.
It sounds like you gotta stop. It sounds like and
I didn't look it up, but Sharpay's sounds wrong and
it just seems like the plural sharpay is probably sharpay.
That's what I take it as. Sure, okay, Yeah, and
it came from China originally the sharpay breed did. Yeah.
This is a dog, by the way, Yeah, we should

(00:49):
probably say that. I think every single person who's ever
been familiar with dogs is also familiar with sharp pay
because they're one of the most unique and unusual looking
dogs on the planet. Because they have huge, floppy, folding
skin flaps all over their head and neck and shoulders
that differentiates them from basically every other dog. They make

(01:10):
bloodhounds hang their jowls in shame. They have that many
folds and flaps of skin. That's right. Uh. And by
the way, this comes from Patty Rasmussen and how stuff
Works dot com. And you said it came from China
originally the breed uh. And in Chinese that translates to
translates to sand skin. The plural of translated is translate

(01:33):
to sand skin. Uh. And a fully grown Sharpei is
you know. They're they're pretty big, between forty five and
sixty pounds a couple of feet tall. Uh. Those folds,
like you said, are unmistakable. Uh. They're kind of light
brownish in color, although they can be apparently up to
seventeen different shades and different colors. Yeah. They also have
a really prominent, big stout muzzle too that really fits them.

(01:57):
It seems appropriate to the rest of their body size,
but it's also unique. But you only notice the muzzle
after you notice all the skin folds. And then after
you notice the muzzle, you'll notice they have these tiny, little,
kind of soft eyes that are made even softer by
the huge flaps and folds of skin hanging around them.
They just kind of have this sweet, kind of droopy

(02:18):
look about them that makes you want to just come
up and you know. Yeah, and as we'll see here
in a few minutes, those all the skin action around
the eyes can cause a lot of problems sadly. Yeah, yeah,
that's the problem. Is like it's super cute and super
sweet with the dogs, like please call the police. Uh,

(02:39):
so let's talk about these folds. They actually uh interviewed
for this article, Patty Rasmussen interviewed Dr Kirsten Lynn blad
Toe of Uppsala University in Sweden. That's some pretty good digging,
yeah for sure. And uh apparently doctor doctor Lynn blad
Toe knows all about these folds and where they come from.

(03:02):
And it comes from something called hia lauronin and this
is like a gel. It's described as a gel around
the cells and the skin and Sharpay's just have a
lot of this stuff accumulating basically in the skin. Yeah,
and that may sound familiar to you if you, uh
and have anything like a skincare regime, because hyaluronic acid

(03:24):
is having a real moment right now and has for
a few years. Yeah, but this is the actual stuff
that that is that kind of pads and makes um
the cells kind of floppy and elastic and gives them
kind of buoyancy and bountinus and vibrancy and youth and
um cover girl and all that stuff, and all of it,

(03:47):
all of it is produced at bottom by the hyaluronic
acid syntheses two gene. And it turns out that Sharpei
dogs no chuck. Now that I was about to say,
I think Sharpay's work work. So um. The sharp Pays
have hyaluronic senta's two jeans basically on steroids. That's right,

(04:12):
And so you're getting way too much accumulation of it,
and it's that's what produces the wrinkles. It's really they
figured it out. And this is the kind of thing
that sharp Pay lovers love. They buy these dogs for
a lot of money. And uh, if you want to know,
I guess, well, maybe we'll take a break and we'll
tell you a little bit about the breed. And what

(04:35):
they're like is dogs. Stop? Stop? What are they like? Josh?

(04:59):
You got h sharp as that's true, each one more
cuddly than the last. Uh. No, I have one momo
and she is in no way sharp Pay, although she is.
She's too, so I guess she's, you know, from the
same homeland to an extent um. Yeah. Uh so the
Sharpay is apparently a it's a good dog if you're

(05:23):
looking for a loyal dog that doesn't really play well
with other dogs and doesn't like strangers. That seems to
be one of the big tenants of the sharp Pay breed. Yeah,
it is a big tenant. And you know, I'm sure
we'll hear for from sharp Sharpay owners that will either
kind of verify this or tell us like we've got
it all wrong because their dog is nothing like this.

(05:45):
But one thing you're gonna want to be accustomed to
and up for is maybe a little more vet care
than you would your average mutt street dog because Sharpay,
because of the unique situation with the h as to gene,
there can be a lot of Um, there's sort of
a host of problems that can happen to the sharp

(06:05):
by Yeah, and a lot of them have to do
with the eyes. Yeah. Well yeah, and it's it ultimately
goes back to the skin folds. Like so the eyes
themselves can have all sorts of problems. But if you
really kind of look into it, it seems to be
from skin pressing up against the eyes, um, coming in
contact with the eyes, um, there's one where the dog
can actually go blind from the skin just pressing on

(06:28):
his or her retina for so long. Um that there's
also like, like, because they have that kind of sand skin,
it's kind of you know, course, a fold of that
turned inward onto their cornea over probably a very brief
amount of time is going to damage their cornea. And
that's another um issue you can have, so just from

(06:50):
skin coming in contact with the eyes, but they also
have other stuff that like the eyes themselves can just
be kind of weaker in sturdy um. And that's just
one very common, widespread problem that sharp Pays have. They
also have a lot of genetic disorders too, and again
it has to do with hyaluronic acid. Oh is the
is the fever disease linked to that too? That's what

(07:11):
I That's what I took it as. Yeah, okay, oh,
let's see that the study does link that gene um.
It is called periodic fever disease. They sometimes even call
it familiar familial Sharpai fever. And it seems to just
come out of nowhere. The dog will get feverish, feverish
and sort of listless and uh yeah, apparently that high

(07:34):
alert high a laurinon cheese is to blame for this
periodic disease as well as some like autoimmune issues. Yeah. Um.
And then there's also sharp pay auto inflammatory disease or
spade with an eye, and it has all sorts of
stuff in addition to fever, arthritis, dermatitis, ear infections, organ infections. Um,

(07:59):
just a whole host of problems. And again it has
to do with that mutation that you know leads to
these skin flaps that's been selected to for more and
more over generations and generations of Sharpay's. Um. I guess
the breeders had no idea that they were also selecting
for the most genetically unsound of the bunch too. As

(08:21):
far as this disorder, this autoimmune disorder goes, Yeah, it's
sort of like the bulldogs having like trouble breeding even
they've been bred so their noses have been bred so
smashed up against their face. I remember reading that that
long ago chuck that um. I believe in the nineteenth century,

(08:42):
the bulldogs had a reputation like pit pulls have today,
that they were brutal, vicious dogs, and there was a
big public outcry about them as a breed to basically
just destroy the entire breed, and uh, to avoid that
bulldog breeders bread them. They started selecting them to be

(09:02):
way more mellow, way less physically capable of like violence, um,
and just generally nicer and happier. And so we have
the bulldog today which basically no way resembles the bulldog
of the nineteenth century. Interesting, we should do something on
the pitbull at some point too, because those were nanny dogs.
Pit bulls are great. I love those dogs. I've had

(09:23):
those dogs. Uh. So as far as the sharpay being
a good dog in the house, like you said, they
are very loyal, so they're great in that aspect. The A. K. C.
Says that, you know, the puppies might be better if
you have older kids, so they might be a little rambunctious. Uh,
they're really smart. They're pretty independent, but they are loyal.

(09:43):
I think initially they were hunters and guard dogs, so
you know they're gonna take some training. They do suggest
obedience training, uh, and that they typically aren't great with
other dogs and strangers. So it's it sounds like one
of those breeds where you you know, you kind of
got your hands full. If you're a sharpay lover. I'm
sure that you know what you're getting into, but they

(10:04):
sound like they're not the easiest dog to have. No,
but I have a feeling that if you are a
sharp a lover, you don't care and love them entirely.
So that's exactly they're interesting looking animals. I will say that, yeah,
you did a call out for sharp pay owners, so
I want to second that if you have a sharp pay,
tell us all about your dog. We want to hear.

(10:25):
Please do And in the meantime, we're just gonna say
that short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is
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