Shar-Pei are not the health nightmare that they used to be, although, like all purebred dogs, they still suffer from a few health afflictions. Many of the earlier problems have been selectively bred out by concientious breeders, but have been replaced by new difficulties. Our beloved breed started out from a very limited gene pool of only a dozen or so dogs and it is believed that this is the cause of many of our problems.

In the past, skin problems plagued Shar-Pei, followed closedly by eye problems. These days there are a great many Shar-Pei with good, clear skin and problems with the eyes have been drastically reduced.

Without a doubt, our biggest concern today, is RENAL AMYLOIDOSIS, - a real killer and a very serious threat to the future of our breed. Again, due to the limited gene pool we started out with...this problem is in EVERYONE'S lines, to some degree. Since the method of inheritance is not fully understood yet, no breeder can safely say "it's not in my lines". At best, we can try to select dogs from parents which appear to be long lived. Since renal amyloidosis rarely strikes dogs younger than 4 or 5 years of age, we must look for dogs from sire and dams considerably older than this, whose parents are also still alive and well.