Day 39 - 326 days to go


On Saturday night, a privileged few were in Albury to meet Matgo Law.


The crew found Mr Law fascinating, a genuine advocate of the breed. 


Mr Law, now in his 70's spoke of his first involvement with shar pei and of the history which he has lived through.  From the export of the last of the shar pei in China to the USA in the early 1970's, and then the import from the USA of a "new" breed of dog.

He gave a unique and personal history of this breed, from the time of his very first shar pei in his early 1970’s which was "payment" from a dog fighter for tutoring his son in maths.Telling us how the only “breeders” to speak of at the time were dog fighters who were breedingfor the fight in the dog, not the dog itself.  Cross breeding with staffordshire terriers, mastiffs and bull dogs. And how he believes that the traditional “bone mouth” pei died out because of this.

We have all read and heard that our western pei originated from a small gene pool, and from the kennels of Dawn-Homes of Mr Law, but he pointed out this was not actually the case.

With the interest and demand for these unsusual puppies in the early 70’s the dog fighting breeders themselves exported many pups to the Americas at this time. These pups were not of the standard as those of Mr Law.

Mr Law spoke at length about the breed standard and what he himself looks for identifying 5 key points.

1.      Most important the coat. Should be really harsh, straight and off standing from the body. The ability to jab your hand is preferable. This is what we know as the “horse coat”

He spoke of talking to the American breeders at a seminar similar to this in the late 70’s, about the ideal breed standards. the harsh coat and the breeders response which was......
“We believe what you say, but, in America it is difficult. If all the Shar Pei jab your hand and cause an allergy, the shar pei cannot survive in our country. This is because of our lifestyle, for example our kids hold their dog on the sofa to watch TV and cuddle them in Bed”.   He accounts this to the introduction of the “brush coat” a softer flatter coat, And agrees that with the western culture it is a much more desirable coat texture.

2.      Head shape and size. Large but not “too” large. Top of the head should be flat under the wrinkles. Length from the nose to the stop is more or less the same distance from the stop to the occiput.

3.      Muzzle. Be it bone mouth or meat mouth should be square with no evidence of tapering. Created by the width of the jaw not the padding.

Mr Law challenged the breeders present when talking of the dogs muzzles and heads.

“Sorry to tell you, how many of your dogs in the show today [have] that feature. You have short muzzle and wide. It is what I call an exaggeration. The squareness is not necessary to create by the padding but by the width of the jaw".

4.      Ears. Triangular and small in shape. Should be set high on the head, under no circumstances should they be on the side.
5.      Tail. Should be set as high as possible, and evenly tapering to a point. Should curve to wards back either in tight “coin” or an arch.

Mr Law spoke of how the breed has changed since the pei he knew in the 60’s and 70’s when he began.

“Shar Pei have entropion right? Shar pei have skin problems and others? But, with the fighting type Shar pei they don’t have it. Because they have big eyes, so no entropion. They have very tight skin, muscular. So they don’t have issues.
For the show shar pei these days, you need to breed entropion out, very slowly over generations. Provided you don’t go to extreme. If you want bigger heads, more wrinkles, heavier bones you are bound to look for trouble.”
Mr Law also noted that in his experience of breeding shar pei in Hong Kong. he never did see an example or symptoms of FSF ( Shar Pei Fever) or in fact many of the issues we see now in the modern Pei

He praised a movement of European breeders to try and bring back the “Traditional” Shar Pei what Mr Law calls the “fighting type” (In look only, Mr Law was quite vocal on his disapproval of dog fighting).  Mr Law is all about breeding for the health of Shar Pei to try and eradicate the genetic conditions now associated with the breed.

The attached link is that of the breed standard of the Australian National Kennel Council.

Please give special attention to :

eyes (free from entropion)
neck (some excess skin but should not be excessive)
forequarters (completely free from wrinkles when mature)
body (Adult dogs should display moderate wrinkling over shoulders and base of tail. Excessive skin on body when mature highly undesirable).
hind quarters (without excessive wrinkling or thickening)
coat (extremely harsh coat, straight and off-standing on the body but flatter on the limbs)

http://www.ankc.org.au/Breed_Details.aspx?bid=199

Enjoy


Amanda