Chinese Cresteds are a fabulous and unique breed of dog. Though officialy accepted as a recognized breed by the American Kennel Club in 1991, this breed has existed for many centuries and is thought to have first been naitive to Africa and has been referred to as "The African Hairless Terrier" before becoming domesticated and refined by the Chinese where it was given the reference "Chinese Crested" due to the hair about it's head.

 

The Chinese Crested were considered to be precious objects, almost exclusively owned by royalty. The breed eventualy made it's way to Europe on trade ships as it was traded for luxury items between China and various European countries.

 

Though many are unaware of this - the breed comes in two distinctive varieties: the "hairless" - with silky, non-shedding hair only on the head, feet and tail and the "powder puff" - which is fully coated with a double, soft, silky, non-shedding coat of moderate length. Most people are at least vaguly familiar with the hairless Chinese Crested due to it's recent popularity stemming from its use in Movies such as "102 Dalmations" and in commercials, but most have never seen or heard of the powder puff!

 

The powder puff Chinese Crested is born in the same litters as the hairless Chinese Crested; the powder puff is a recessive gene off of the dominant hairless gene. If two hairless Cresteds are bred together, Statistically 1/4 of the litter will be powder puffs, however, if two puffs are bred together - the entire litter will be powder puff as both parents are lacking in the hairless gene. To explain this further - there are three gene expressions in the Crested breed; Hp, pp, and HH. "Hp" is a hairless Chinese Crested (One dominant hairless gene and one recessive puff gene - one gene inherited from each parent) This gene expression can occur if one or both parents are hairless. "pp" is a powder puff (two recessive puff genes - one gene inherited from each parent) This gene expression can occur if one or both parents is a powder puff. "HH" is a hairless puppy born from two hairless parents that inherited a hairless gene from both parents. There is a 1 in 4 chance of this occurance in puppies from two "Hp" parents as one gene is inherited from each parent (this gene expression only occurs in puppies born from two hairless parents) when this occurs, the reult is fatal. Puppies who have inherited a hairless gene from both parents (HH) either die before birth, early in the embryonic or fetal stage and are reabsorbed by the mothers body (thought to be the most common occurance), die later in the fetal stage, sometimes resulting in the premature birth of the entire litter or die shortly after birth or are stillborn - regardless, a puppy who inherits a hairless gene from both parents will not survive.