Chow chows and shar-pei are from China.
Both have black tongues.
Both carry their tails over their backs.
Both are normally solid-colored.
And both can come in smooth and long coats– although long-coats (“bear coats”) are fault in shar-pei.
The truth is these dogs likely derive from a single landrace that is found throughout China. With this landrace, as with the landrace that includes the tazis, taigan, saluki, and Afghan hound types, there always was a bit natural variance and muddled fuzziness between types.
In the West, we like the concept of breed over landrace.
But that’s not how the dogs have existed in their native country.
The image above is a smooth-coated chow chow from 1904. I don’t know its source, but both Nara Uusihanni and Pai have this dog displayed in their historical dog photo collections.
The dog almost looks like a transitional form between chow chow and a “bonemouth” shar-pei.
Most Western show shar-pei don’t look very spitzy, but the truth is they really should always be classified as a type of East Asian spitz.
In the West, we’ve got ga-ga over wrinkles. These excessive wrinkles cause the dogs lots of health problems. The eyelids of puppies are often surgically tacked up to prevent severe entropion. In adult dogs, the skin of the eyelids may have to be removed to correct the condition.
And the wrinkles themselves are caused by the same gene that causes periodic fevers. The more wrinkles the dog has, the higher the risk for the fevers. The fevers are almost as much a trait of the breed as the wrinkles.
And although the fevers aren’t necessarily life-threatening, there is an ethical question about whether we should be breeding dogs that are so predisposed to them.
If we know that excessive wrinkling increases the chances of the fevers, should we be breeding for the wrinkling in the first place?
Shar-pei have been modified from the chow-type in order to have a better fighting dog. They do have looser skin than the typical chow, and this looser skin allows the dog to move around when another dog holds onto its hide, allowing it greater range of motion in a fight.
But it is not ethical to breed dogs for fighting.
The shar-pei phenotype is a great historical legacy.
But it never existed independently of the greater chow chow-type landrace.
It’s very likely that there always were outcrosses to chow chows, even during the days of the dog fights.
A bear-coated shar-pei. Another transitional form.
Our concept of “breed” in the West is one of the most blinding notions we’ve ever divined.
We put breeds into boxes. We declare them an “ancient” heritage, as if they always existed in a pure form.
The story of dogs– especially those from non-Western landraces– is much more complex.
There is a fuzziness and a blurriness that the modern dog fancy cannot handle.
It cannot comprehend it.
It conflicts with the blood purity dogma.
And it conflicts with the historical framework in which the breed clubs like to cast themselves.
Breed clubs really don’t do anything but capture a type that they happen to like and cull away what they don’t.
They never fully appreciate how a particular breed developed or how it really relates to others.
Much of the thought that goes on in dog breed clubs is a sort of “species-ization” of a particular breed.
The worship it as a phylogenetically distinct entity, when the truth is no dog breed is that distinct.
They’ve all developed with close cousins. “Foreign blood” has always trickled in.
It does not matter if the breed is Western or non-Western.
This concept of breed is very new, and even when it was first contrived, it was always fuzzy and muddled.
Too many dog people don’t want to understand these simple facts.
Much to the dogs’ detriment.
The part of the chow-type that the shar-pei was derived from was called the Tang dog:
http://www.hkshar-pei.com/index.cfm?pageid=116
Here you can see dogs that have a mixture of chow and shar-pei traits.
Thanks to Nara for passing this link along!
That Bear-Pei looks a lot like the early Chows pictured in the old 1800-1900s-era dog books I’ve read.
Wonderful post! I would like to print this and show it to my mother’s friend who is a chow buff. BUT…this lady actually was once told Chows are the only dogs that evolved from bears and not wolves. This misinformation really blew my mind!
I’ve owned both chows and shar-pei and have loads of books on both breeds. I have a book (The Chow Chow by C E Collett) by a lady well known in her time as a breeder and show judge of chows. She goes into a whole florid chapter of the book, complete with phylogenic tree, on explaining how the chow chow is descended from bears not dogs. Sadly, I’ve met more than one person in real life and online that repeat it. One lady online a few years back was adamant that chow chows had an extra joint in their rear legs and didn’t appreciate a bunch of us contradicting her with the truth.
Great information thank you.
Great post, Scotty. I’ve been saying this for years. I’ve always said that a Shar-Pei is nothing but a Chinese pitbull. In fact, I have books where they are referred to as The Chinese Fighting Dog. Interesting that, altho unrelated, they have evolved several characteristics in common with our Western fighting breeds, like loose skin and a heavy muzzle. Form follows function everywhere. Except in dog shows, that is!
Holy Cow! Thank you. The Tang dog answers some questions. First, it looks like the Kintamani. Much is made of the K’s genetic similarity to the dingo. But the K does not look like a dingo. It looks like a Tang Dog, however. Tradition has it that it is descended from Chow, but fanciers don’t like that and prefer to emphasize relation to dingo (which confers antiquity, guaranteed).
A question: does the Tang dog have a blue tongue?
Another question, where in the picture does the Thai Ridgeback go? It looks like a Shar-Pei to me.
Another question: how is the Tang dog related (if it is) to the Jindo?
A pet peeve: we love to lump the far eastern dogs. But I think there are ancient differences, not because I like the concept of “breed”, but because I think there are more than one ancient land race in the Far East. For example, the spitzes rear ends vary from the properly angulated dingo all the way to the straight leg and stilted gait of the Chow. My opinion here: as we proceed toward Chow, the tail goes up over the back. Another thing: I’ve read that the Japanese breeds stand further over their front feet than the Jindo. Functionally and historically, these could be important differences.
Gosh, this if fun!
About that smooth Chow: has that dog’s ears been cropped?
I dont think they are cropped, Chinese didnt crop their dogs ears, not even if they were fighting dogs
Thank you.
No, those ears are not cropped. They are natural.
That black dog is my Phoebe! Nice to she’s illustrating an informative internet post long after her demise. She was a little shit but I loved her more than any other animal I’ve ever known.
Anyway, I digress. The first dog’s ears are not cropped. Another fault that’s common in shar-pei are pricked ears and that’s exactly how they usually look due to the ear shape – they twist inwards and look cropped from a distance as shar-pei ears are relatively small even in the pre Western dogs. The rounded tip is a giveaway they are not cropped.
Thank you. I wonder how they ever happened upon the Shar-Pei type. Also, how they came upon the Chow. There are similar looking guard dogs in Formosa. There’s a breeder there who is trying to reconstruct them. But the Shar Pei is the most extreme of them. Would you agree?
To me, they are not spitzes. Much has been made of the bad temperaments of the Shar-Pei and Chow. Spitzes are always friendly; that’s their reputation.
Would be nice to know how these ancient types are related to one another.
From what I’ve seen of shar-pei, they typically aren’t a super aggressive breed. I mean I’m sure there are individuals that are, but it’s not been what I’ve seen.
I have no idea what the original chow temperament was like. I’ve never met one from China. In the US, there are lots of chows with bad temperaments. They used to be notorious for it, but there also chows that are aloof but aren’t particularly aggressive at all.
Chows were used to hunting and guarding. They weren’t always food, so they might have a different temperament over there than they do here.
I read somewhere that the Shar-Pei has a horrible temperament. Maybe they are just inconsistent.
The very early Chinese and American imports to the UK had a bit of a bad reputation, but they were so rare back then it was never a perception the general public had. I’ve dealt with countless shar-pei over the years as my best friend used to show and breed them. I can honestly say that I’ve never been close to being bitten even with the odd rescue she used to take in. They are different to deal with than a collie or retriever of course, but I’ve always found them quite predictable and stable even if stressed to the point of showing aggression.
Obviously, then ones still in China are probably quite different as they are not generally bred or kept as family companions.The four shar-pei I’ve personally owned have been everything from very aloof with strangers to loving everybody, including the vet. Some bloodlines can be sharper than others, but the biggest variable in their attitude to people and other animals tends to be the amount of early socialisation they get. I used to own a chow before the shar-pei and from what I’ve read and experienced, they are pretty much identical in behaviour and motivation.
I find people on the street tend to feel safe to get closer than they ever would than if my dogs looked like a pitbull. I suspect that’s part of why chows have a bad rap in the USA. Both owners and strangers forget that just because a dog looks like a teddy bear, it doesn’t mean they are one.
Like all dogs, those which are poorly bred, poorly brought up or suffering from breed specific illnesses and always in some sort of pain, , all have the propensity to have questionable or undesirable temperaments. . The Asian dogs are all known for their tenacity, independent characters and williness to be brave, standoffish and assertive. That doesn’t make them bad. Bad owners make them bad.
That’s funny, as a kid in 1950′s Chicago, I was always told that Spitzes were people-aggressive overall. Maybe the breed has been toned down in the intervening years (or maybe that was just BS).
Also, I suspect that many of the early Chow imports were from lines intended as food–w/ no selection for or against aggression. Breeding and later–wiser–imports have probably toned down some of those earlier tendencies. That having been said, some breeds simply need more socialization when young–Chows, Akitas and Sharpeis being among them. (Training the dog’s owners in responsible ownership would also help a lot.)
Any breed can produce aggressive individuals–including my beloved Saints. But, whereas aggressiveness in small breeds such as Toy Poodles or Chihuahuas is often overlooked, it can’t be in large breeds. Lets face it, you’re more likely to be bitten by your aunt’s cute little Yorkie than by Peewee, the 200lb Mastiff in your neighbor’s back yard. But if Peewee does decide to bite you’re in big trouble.
“That having been said, some breeds simply need more socialization when young–Chows, Akitas and Sharpeis being among them. (Training the dog’s owners in responsible ownership would also help a lot.)”
Amen to that! Too many people choose a breed purely on looks and totally disregard what they were traditionally bred to do.
I agree, they are at the extremes of spitz type, but I do think shar-pei are very much an Oriental spitz breed in their nature and genetics. I’ve long thought that shar-pei were just a regional variety of chow that got a little shot of one bull breed or another and maybe some hound genes from when Hong Kong was part of the British Empire. The British who colonised brought bulldogs/terriers with them and shar-pei were reportedly no match for them in the pit. It’s often said that they used to have to drug or get the shar-pei drunk to make them fight. Some bonemouths can look rather hound like and as they were bred to be useful rather than pretty, why wouldn’t the Chinese breeders added in a bit of what they thought would improve the dog’s performance? It would explain where the particoloured “flowered” dogs came from. And the genes flowed to/from the mainland until Mao’s dog cull.
Shar-Pei were never as rare as Matgo Law claimed/thought when he sent out a plea to America to save “the rarest dog breed on earth”. But they certainly got clobbered hard and reduced to a small number. Who knows the exact truth as people have always liked to spin a yarn and make up illogical things to add to the mystique of their chosen breeds. Especially if there was monetary gain on the line. The truth is even more fuzzy and muddled than the breed divide. Incidentally, there is a badly kept secret about modern chow blood finding it’s way into the early shar-pei gene pool in the USA via a smooth chow or two. It would certainly explain their rapid transformation of the breed.
I was very surprised when the mitochondrial DNA study said shar-pei were an ancient breed. There are so many photos of dogs that could pass as either breed right up to now with some of the purely pet bred dogs. The tang dogs are the not exactly missing link. I wonder if the small size of the modern shar-pei gene pool could have skewed the data?
This is my theory of how chow chows came about as a breed in the West. They were just another very rare, very expensive, very fashionable Oriental curiosity for the more money than sense Victorian aristocrats to one up their friends with – he-he! The entrepreneurs filling their ships with silks, pottery, carved ivory, etc… that were all the rage in Britain back then probably picked up the prettiest/friendliest tang dogs off the street for free. A scowling, blue tongued real live temple lion statue – how exotic! Breeds have had more tenuous beginning than that, so why not? They became such a hit, even the Queen herself had one.
Oopsy – what I meant about the tang dogs is they aren’t the missing link as they aren’t missing at all rather than not being related! They’re what chows and shar-pei were before they were given a name.
There were once a lot of dogs in China of this type, but I recall that during the ‘Red Guards’ era there was an dictat from the Chinese government that all dogs should be destroyed. I don’t know how effective this was, but do the older ones among you also recall the time when that country’s government instructed everyone to bang pots and pans to stop sparrows (and presumably other small birds) from roosting. This worked and millions of sparrows etc fell exhausted to the ground where they were presumably killed.The idea was no sparrows therefore more grain left for human consumption. Unfortunately it had not been anticipated that one unintended consequence was that insects which ate the crops then proliferated and this caused a degree of famine.
Remember also the one child policy which has gradually led led to a shortage in the proportion of Chinese girls.
One wonders whether the great movement of people to the cities now coinciding with lessening demand for chinese industrial products will also cause a few problems. These are just a few examples. One dreads to think what may happen if there is a ‘chinese spring’ as the people increasingly talk to one another via modern means of communication. Who knows…
The direction things are going, I think we should be looking toward a World Spring.
In the retriever breeds at least, I think most of those folks are fairly well aware of the backgrounds of the breeds (which is pretty well documented), that they are certainly not “ancient”, that they were developed for very similar purposes and should be considered cousins of a sort. As to inter-breeding, a certain amount is being done, specifically for the production of working dogs (guide and assistance dogs particularly).
Of course, one could argue that all dogs have “ancient” background, as all must have had ancestors going back to the earliest days of wolf-becoming-dog. None sprang from the earth fully developed, as some folk myths might have it!
As a Shar Pei owner I really enjoyed this post. I always thought that Chows and Peis had to be closely intertwined.
I would be curious if the Chongqing Dog has any part in what makes the traditional Shar Pei as there are some visiual similarities between the two types.
I am often saddened by the health struggle that Shar Peis go through. Like many other people in the Pei community I am still hoping that we can fix what has been done to them. There are proponents for trying outcrossing as a way to help improve the breeds health.
My first reaction when I saw photos of chongqing dogs is that they are a totally made up breed. There’s nothing natural looking about them to my eyes and not one primitive feature with their short, wide wrinkly heads, sparse coat, short legs and barrel shaped body. They look like someone has taken modern smooth chows and shar-pei, staffordshire bull terriers, french/english bulldogs and made up their own designer breed and history for it. A bit like the foo dogs in the USA. I wonder how much they would set you back if you enquired on the Chinese website? Harsh I know, but I’m naturally cynical.
I never wanted a shar-pei until Phoebe’s mum chose me, believe it or not. Now I would never be without one, despite being aware I’m playing Russian roulette not knowing if I will lose them young. All my past/future pei have been second hand or rescues. Phoebe was only 7 and died of acute kidney failure. My friend stopped breeding that line due to the health – both Phoebe and her mum had fevers, though her mum reached 11 years old and died of liver problems due to her age. Shame not all breeders are so honest and ethical. There is finally a test of sorts, but only time will tell if it’s accurate and if breeders will test and breed accordingly.
I wonder what people are thinking of outcrossing them with? Hopefully something a little less extreme in type than some show winning chows as IMHO that will just add to the breed woes.
Not sure what breeds they are thinking to outcross with…it is something that has been discussed by people though. I do not think they are sure yet either.The breed clubs are bound to make it problematic.
I think this might be a good idea in several breeds. It worked in Dalmatians with English Pointers.
Menchi is our first Shar Pei. I am happy that the community in this breed is so strong and supportive. They are amazing dogs :)
Very cool vintage picture in the beginning of the article! Nice to know that those ears weren’t chopped
I enjoyed your article, although, I think it should be re-named to:
NORTH AMERICAN sharpei are modified chows.
One can easily see the influence of smooth show in the North American brush coat version of shar-pei. A traditional bone mouth sharpei with the original horsecoat mostly likely has NO chow influencee in it at all – in fact I wrote to Eric Omura at one point asking him if tradional sharpei ever threw a bearcoat.
This seems( the bearcoats), to be limited to the North American varieties and not the traditional varieties, which as we know, is the original Chinese Sharpei., so I think it’s only appropriate to point out that the chow was used to influence the brush coat sharpei ( which is not the original sharpei to begin with)
Are you denying that shar pei are derived from Tang dogs?
I’m calling the Tang dog a chow chow. The Tang dog is an obvious spitz, and there are also a lot of chows that were imported at an earlier time that look somewhat shar-pei-ish.
I’m using the landrace definition, not the Kennel Club definition.
Chow-chow in the West is a cleaving off of a general landrace, some of which are shaggy and spitz-like and some of which look like shar-pei. It’s the same with Afghan hounds, taigan, tazi, salukis, and the various Indian and Pakistani sight hounds. All one landrace, and it’s only recently that people started pick them apart and arbitrarily defining them as breed.
This dog has features of both the chow and the shar-pei: http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com/templates/ContentPages/More_Info/ClinicContentPage.aspx?guid=e49da45d-3712-4c03-9bf7-ef31e25bace7
Let’s think in terms of evolution. Yes, dogs evolve, but they evolve through both natural and artificial selection. In China, there is a general landrace of mid-sized, black-tongued dogs. Historically, there was no hard dividing line between chow, chongqing dogs, and shar-pei. They were just an interbreeding landrace.
The same actually goes for Japanese dogs. The Japanese native spitzes are all named for or associated with regions, with the exception of the shiba inu, which seems to have been more universally distributed.
Let’s think in terms of landrace– the dogs as they existed before all these half-assed dog taxonomists got their hands on them and started contriving and carving them up into something we’d call a “breed,” which is not a biological entity but something that someone made up in the past 150 years. And with these breeds, much later than that.
oh no! I am not. Yes, to me a sharpei is a decendant of a Tang dog, but the meat mouth, brush coat sharpei is a “made up affair” of smooth chow, boxer, and apparently weimeraner.
Okay. Got it.
I’m defining chow-chow as “Tang dog.”
Most people don’t know what a Tang dog is, so I’m using chow chow as short hand.
If we were biologists who were trying to find out if two species were related and we came across something like some of these early smooth chows and modern Chinese dogs with shar pei and chow features, we would say that have discovered the transitional form.
What I’m saying is something more along the lines of “golden retrievers are actually modified St. John’s water dogs.” St. John’s water dogs were retriever-sized working dogs on Newfoundland, some of which were feathered and some of which were smooth. They came in a lot of colors, but the Newfoundlanders wanted to get rid of the long-haired ones. So they would send them to England, where they would be sold as pets or used as retrievers. All the British retrievers derive from this dog, as does the large Newfoundland, which was probably never a major working breed on the island but was something they occasionally produced to sell to dog buyers from Europe or the United States.
All they did was cleave and carve up this working dog landrace into breeds. This may have been a Western dog, but it existed as a relatively diverse landrace for centuries.
Same goes with coonhounds and foxhounds, and with all the things we call collies.
Oh I see! Gotcha! Tang dog is the foundation of a variety of breeds however.
I have a nice comparison picture ( if you are on facebook) at:
http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/527747_10151054741572000_1295055852_n.jpg
Here are some posts on the St. John’s water dog. Very similar story:
1. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/lambert-de-boilieu-on-the-labrador-dog/
2. http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/teasing-apart-the-history-of-the-newfoundland-dog-the-st-johns-water-dog-and-the-retrievers/
and who would have thought….. I’ve never even heard of a St. John’s Water dog until today! A real good read. Thank you!
Also, here is a nice illustration of the various coats
http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/564929_491123567579671_218947365_n.jpg
Thank you for the intelligent comments regarding the shar-pei deriving from the chow. I have studied this and have the same conclusion. It appears that the dog genome is very complex, so that this type of specific data is slow in becoming available.