Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Shar Pei

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

Today we dive into the lovable folds of the Shar Pei.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Shar Josh. There's Shar Chuck, Shar 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. Yeah. I see like furiously scribbling now. He's crossing it out. You want to talk Shar Pay? Yeah, I do. I sure do. It sounds like, you gotta stop. It sounds like, and I didn't look it up, but Shar Pay's sounds wrong. And it just seems like the plural Shar Pay is probably Shar Pay. That's what I take it as, sure. Okay. Yeah. And it came from China. Originally, the Shar Pay breed did.

Yeah, this is a dog, by the way. Yeah, we should probably say that. I think every single person who's ever been familiar with dogs is also familiar with Shar 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 bloodhounds, hang their jowls in shame. They have that many folds and flaps of skin. That's right. And by the way, this comes from Patty Rasmussen at howstuffworks.com. And you said it came from China originally, the breed. And in Chinese, it translates to sand skin. The plural of translate is translate.

To sand skin. And a fully grown Shar Pay is, you know, they're pretty big, between 45 and 60 pounds, a couple of feet tall. Those folds, like you said, are unmistakable. They're kind of light brownish in color, although they can be apparently up to 17 different shades in different colors. Yeah, they also have a really prominent big stout muzzle, too, that really fits them. 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 look about them

that makes you want to just come up and just, 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, but the dogs like, please call the police. Right. So let's talk about these folds. They actually interviewed for this article, Patty Rasmussen interviewed Dr. Kirsten Lindblad Toe of Uppsala University in Sweden. That's some pretty good digging. Yeah, for sure. And apparently Dr. Lindblad Toe knows all about these folds and where they come from. And it comes from something called hyaluronin. And this is like a gel. It's described as a gel around the cells

in the skin. And Sharpays just have a lot of this stuff accumulating basically in the skin. Yeah. And that may sound familiar to you if you have anything like a skincare regime because hyaluronic acid is having a real moment right now and has for a few years. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But this is the actual stuff that is, that kind of pads and makes the cells kind of floppy and elastic and gives them kind of buoyancy and bounciness and vibrancy and youth and cover girl and all that stuff. And all of it is produced at bottom by the hyaluronic acid synthase II gene. And it turns out that Sharpay dogs, no, Chuck, now that I was about to say it, I think Sharpay's work, Sharpay's work. So the Sharpays have hyaluronic synthase II genes basically on steroids.

That's right. And so you're getting way too much accumulation of it. And that's what produces the wrinkles. It's really, they figured it out. And this is the kind of thing that Sharpay lovers love. They buy these dogs for a lot of money. And if you want to know, I guess, maybe we'll take a break and we'll tell you a little bit about the breed and what they're like as dogs. Thanks. me in this situation. If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh, God, seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there

for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael, um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikulur. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're

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Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. What do they like, Josh? You got eight charpets. That's true. Each one more cuddly than the last. That's right. No, I have one Momo and she is in no way sharp pay, although she is Shih Tzu. So I guess she's, you know, from the same homeland to an extent. Very interesting. Yeah. So the sharp pay is apparently a, it's a good dog. If you're 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 Sharpe breed. Yeah, it is a big tenant. And, you know, I'm sure we'll hear from Sharpe owners that we'll either kind of verify this or tell us like we've got it all wrong because

their dog is nothing like this. But one thing you're going to want to be accustomed to and up for is maybe a little more vet care than you would your average mutt street dog. Because Sharpe, because of the unique situation with the HS2 gene, there can be a lot of, there's sort of a host of problems that can happen to the Sharpe. Yeah. And a lot of them have to do with the eyes. Yeah. Well, yeah. And 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, coming in contact with the eyes. There's one where the dog can actually go blind from the skin just pressing on his or her retina

for so long that there's also like, because they have that kind of sand skin, it's kind of 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 issue you can have. So just from 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. And that's just one very common widespread problem that Sharpe's have. They also have a lot of genetic disorders too. And again, it has to do with hyaluronic acid. Oh, is the fever disease linked to that too? That's what I took it as, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. Let's see that. The study does link that gene. It is called periodic fever disease.

They sometimes even call it familial Sharpe fever. And it seems to just come out of nowhere. The dog will get feverish and sort of listless. And yeah, apparently that hyaluronon is to blame for this periodic disease as well as some like autoimmune issues. Yeah. And then there's also Sharpe 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, just a whole host of problems. And again, it has to do with that mutation that leads to these skin flaps that's been selected to for more and more over generations and generations of Sharpe's. I guess the breeders had no idea that they were also selecting for the most genetically unsound of the bunch too,

as far as this disorder, this autoimmune disorder goes. Yeah. It's sort of like the bulldogs having like trouble breathing even they've been bred. So their noses have been bred. So smashed up against their face. I remember reading that long ago, Chuck, that I believe in the 19th century, the bulldogs had a reputation like pit bulls 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 to avoid that bulldog breeders bred them, they started selecting them to be way more mellow, way less physically capable of like violence and just generally nicer and happier. And so we have the bulldog today, which basically in no way resembles the bulldog of the 19th

century. Oh, interesting. Yeah. We should do something on the pit bull at some point too, because those were nanny dogs. Pit bulls are great. Okay. Love those dogs. I've had those dogs. So as far as the Sharpe being a good dog in the house, like you said, they are very loyal. So they're great in that aspect. The AKC says that the puppies might be better if you have older kids. So they might be a little rambunctious. They're really smart. They're pretty independent, but they are loyal. I think initially they were hunters and guard dogs. So they're going to take some training. They do suggest obedience training and that they typically aren't great with other dogs and strangers. So it sounds like one of those breeds where you kind of

got your hands full. If you're a Sharpe lover, I'm sure that you know what you're getting into, but they sound like they're not the easiest dog to have. No, but I have a feeling that if you are a Sharpe lover, you don't care and love them entirely. So that's cool. Exactly. They're interesting looking animals. I will say that. Yeah. You did a call out for Sharpe owners, so I want to second that. If you have a Sharpe, tell us all about your dog. We want to hear. Please do. And in the meantime, we're just going to say that short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.