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Short Stuff: Shar Pei · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Fin'd shar Josh
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the shark Chuck shark. Jerry's here too, and we're just
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: paying around and this is short stuff. Is that off
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the top of your head? Please tell me you don't
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: prescript these? No, not something that terrible. Okay, No, let's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: see like furiously scribbling. Now he's crossing it out. Uh,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you want to talk sharpay? Yeah? I do, I shar do.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you gotta stop. It sounds like and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I didn't look it up, but Sharpay's sounds wrong and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it just seems like the plural sharpay is probably sharpay.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: That's what I take it as. Sure, okay, Yeah, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: it came from China originally the sharpay breed did. Yeah.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: This is a dog, by the way, Yeah, we should
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: probably say that. I think every single person who's ever
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: been familiar with dogs is also familiar with sharp pay
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: because they're one of the most unique and unusual looking
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: dogs on the planet. Because they have huge, floppy, folding
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: skin flaps all over their head and neck and shoulders
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  Speaker 1: that differentiates them from basically every other dog. They make
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: bloodhounds hang their jowls in shame. They have that many
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: folds and flaps of skin. That's right. Uh. And by
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the way, this comes from Patty Rasmussen and how stuff
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. And you said it came from China
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: originally the breed uh. And in Chinese that translates to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: translates to sand skin. The plural of translated is translate
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to sand skin. Uh. And a fully grown Sharpei is
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you know. They're they're pretty big, between forty five and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: sixty pounds a couple of feet tall. Uh. Those folds,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: like you said, are unmistakable. Uh. They're kind of light
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: brownish in color, although they can be apparently up to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: seventeen different shades and different colors. Yeah. They also have
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a really prominent, big stout muzzle too that really fits them.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It seems appropriate to the rest of their body size,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: but it's also unique. But you only notice the muzzle
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: after you notice all the skin folds. And then after
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you notice the muzzle, you'll notice they have these tiny, little,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: kind of soft eyes that are made even softer by
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the huge flaps and folds of skin hanging around them.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: They just kind of have this sweet, kind of droopy
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: look about them that makes you want to just come
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: up and you know. Yeah, and as we'll see here
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in a few minutes, those all the skin action around
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the eyes can cause a lot of problems sadly. Yeah, yeah,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that's the problem. Is like it's super cute and super
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: sweet with the dogs, like please call the police. Uh,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: so let's talk about these folds. They actually uh interviewed
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: for this article, Patty Rasmussen interviewed Dr Kirsten Lynn blad
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Toe of Uppsala University in Sweden. That's some pretty good digging,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: yeah for sure. And uh apparently doctor doctor Lynn blad
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Toe knows all about these folds and where they come from.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And it comes from something called hia lauronin and this
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: is like a gel. It's described as a gel around
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the cells and the skin and Sharpay's just have a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: lot of this stuff accumulating basically in the skin. Yeah,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and that may sound familiar to you if you, uh
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and have anything like a skincare regime, because hyaluronic acid
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: is having a real moment right now and has for
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a few years. Yeah, but this is the actual stuff
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: that that is that kind of pads and makes um
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the cells kind of floppy and elastic and gives them
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: kind of buoyancy and bountinus and vibrancy and youth and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: um cover girl and all that stuff, and all of it,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: all of it is produced at bottom by the hyaluronic
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: acid syntheses two gene. And it turns out that Sharpei
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: dogs no chuck. Now that I was about to say,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I think Sharpay's work work. So um. The sharp Pays
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: have hyaluronic senta's two jeans basically on steroids. That's right,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: And so you're getting way too much accumulation of it,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and it's that's what produces the wrinkles. It's really they
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: figured it out. And this is the kind of thing
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that sharp Pay lovers love. They buy these dogs for
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of money. And uh, if you want to know,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I guess, well, maybe we'll take a break and we'll
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: tell you a little bit about the breed. And what
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: they're like is dogs. Stop? Stop? What are they like? Josh?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You got h sharp as that's true, each one more
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: cuddly than the last. Uh. No, I have one momo
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  Speaker 1: and she is in no way sharp Pay, although she is.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: She's too, so I guess she's, you know, from the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: same homeland to an extent um. Yeah. Uh so the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Sharpay is apparently a it's a good dog if you're
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: looking for a loyal dog that doesn't really play well
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: with other dogs and doesn't like strangers. That seems to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: be one of the big tenants of the sharp Pay breed. Yeah,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: it is a big tenant. And you know, I'm sure
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: we'll hear for from sharp Sharpay owners that will either
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: kind of verify this or tell us like we've got
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it all wrong because their dog is nothing like this.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: But one thing you're gonna want to be accustomed to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and up for is maybe a little more vet care
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: than you would your average mutt street dog because Sharpay,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: because of the unique situation with the h as to gene,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: there can be a lot of Um, there's sort of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: a host of problems that can happen to the sharp
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: by Yeah, and a lot of them have to do
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: with the eyes. Yeah. Well yeah, and it's it ultimately
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: goes back to the skin folds. Like so the eyes
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: themselves can have all sorts of problems. But if you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: really kind of look into it, it seems to be
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: from skin pressing up against the eyes, um, coming in
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: contact with the eyes, um, there's one where the dog
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: can actually go blind from the skin just pressing on
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: his or her retina for so long. Um that there's
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: also like, like, because they have that kind of sand skin,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it's kind of you know, course, a fold of that
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: turned inward onto their cornea over probably a very brief
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: amount of time is going to damage their cornea. And
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that's another um issue you can have, so just from
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: skin coming in contact with the eyes, but they also
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: have other stuff that like the eyes themselves can just
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: be kind of weaker in sturdy um. And that's just
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: one very common, widespread problem that sharp Pays have. They
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: also have a lot of genetic disorders too, and again
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it has to do with hyaluronic acid. Oh is the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: is the fever disease linked to that too? That's what
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I That's what I took it as. Yeah, okay, oh,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: let's see that the study does link that gene um.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: It is called periodic fever disease. They sometimes even call
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it familiar familial Sharpai fever. And it seems to just
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: come out of nowhere. The dog will get feverish, feverish
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  Speaker 1: and sort of listless and uh yeah, apparently that high
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: alert high a laurinon cheese is to blame for this
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: periodic disease as well as some like autoimmune issues. Yeah. Um.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: And then there's also sharp pay auto inflammatory disease or
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: spade with an eye, and it has all sorts of
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: stuff in addition to fever, arthritis, dermatitis, ear infections, organ infections. Um,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: just a whole host of problems. And again it has
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to do with that mutation that you know leads to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: these skin flaps that's been selected to for more and
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: more over generations and generations of Sharpay's. Um. I guess
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the breeders had no idea that they were also selecting
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: for the most genetically unsound of the bunch too. As
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: far as this disorder, this autoimmune disorder goes, Yeah, it's
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: sort of like the bulldogs having like trouble breeding even
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: they've been bred so their noses have been bred so
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: smashed up against their face. I remember reading that that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: long ago chuck that um. I believe in the nineteenth century,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the bulldogs had a reputation like pit pulls have today,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that they were brutal, vicious dogs, and there was a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: big public outcry about them as a breed to basically
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: just destroy the entire breed, and uh, to avoid that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: bulldog breeders bread them. They started selecting them to be
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: way more mellow, way less physically capable of like violence, um,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and just generally nicer and happier. And so we have
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the bulldog today which basically no way resembles the bulldog
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century. Interesting, we should do something on
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the pitbull at some point too, because those were nanny dogs.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Pit bulls are great. I love those dogs. I've had
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: those dogs. Uh. So as far as the sharpay being
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a good dog in the house, like you said, they
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: are very loyal, so they're great in that aspect. The A. K. C.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Says that, you know, the puppies might be better if
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: you have older kids, so they might be a little rambunctious. Uh,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: they're really smart. They're pretty independent, but they are loyal.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I think initially they were hunters and guard dogs, so
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you know they're gonna take some training. They do suggest
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: obedience training, uh, and that they typically aren't great with
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: other dogs and strangers. So it's it sounds like one
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of those breeds where you you know, you kind of
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: got your hands full. If you're a sharpay lover. I'm
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: sure that you know what you're getting into, but they
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: sound like they're not the easiest dog to have. No,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: but I have a feeling that if you are a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: sharp a lover, you don't care and love them entirely.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: So that's exactly they're interesting looking animals. I will say that, yeah,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you did a call out for sharp pay owners, so
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I want to second that if you have a sharp pay,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: tell us all about your dog. We want to hear.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Please do And in the meantime, we're just gonna say
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: that short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is
• 10:33
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