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By JANE BANGLEY
BiyhMiwrk, New Staff Writer
Chinese Shair-pei. No, you will not find that name on a menu in any Chinese restaurant. Chinese Shair-pei is the name of a rare, 2,000-year-old breed of dog that was introduced to the United States in 1971.
A Chinese/American man, alarmed by reports that the breed was dying out in its native land, traveled through China’s southern provinces and found a dozen Shair-peis. He brought them to the U.S. and the dogs attracted national media attention.
Ylva Lindgren, a Rappahannock resident since 1967, was breeding Yorkshire terriers when she saw a picture of a Shair-pei in a magazine. “I was absolutely sold when I saw that wrinkly face,” Ylva said.
Wrinkles are the Shair-peis most striking difference to any dogs that Americans are accustomed to seeing. The dogs also have deeply set eyes, a large “meat mouth,” tiny ears and are sturdily built. The name, Shair-pei, means “sand skin” and refers to the fact that the dogs’ skin feels prickly.
“Some people think that they are very ugly, and others think that they are so ugly that they are beautiful,” Ylva said. “I personally see nothing ugly about them.”
Ylva became determined to raise Shair-peis after seeing the magazine photo, and she stayed on a waiting list a year and a half to get her first dog, which was a female. “I was very lucky because I had a friend whose husband had gone to China himself and brought back some Shair-peis that weren’t related to mine, so I was able to breed my female with a different blood line,” Ylva said.
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