Even if your shar pei looks totally unlike any other dog, he will still encounter most of the bugs and critters that give other breeds a hard time. Let's have a look at some of these top concerns.

The first thing we need to know is that the skin of a shar pei dog contains large amounts of mucin, making the skin wrinkly and very flexible. A healthy shar pei dog has no need for special care to its skin save that of regular baths and the regular brushing that goes with changing seasons.

One concern that can actually grow into a serious skin problem is caused by the demodex mite, which all dogs happen to have getting by under their skin. Among healthy animals, both the parasite and host get along without anything significant going on since the dog's own immune system maintains the balance. What changes this and leads to a boom in the mites' population are adolescence, or times of stress which temporarily impairs the dog's immune system. The result is small patches of hair loss (generally circular) around the head and also the trunk. Veterinarians usually advise that these patches be left alone since the immune system will be back to normal soon in a healthy puppy or dog. But when the immune system is somehow overwhelmed by large numbers of mites, the condition is then called generalized demodex. In any method used, veterinary supervision must always be part of the treatment.

Let us now turn to food allergies, which happen to regularly affect many dogs. Signs of the condition are hair loss, intense itching and infected ears, and the tender state of the skin between the toes of the feet. Finding the offending substance is usually through hit or miss, using various allergy tests like the regualar "skin scrape" method or by blood tests.

The upside to a bout of food allergy is that they are relatively easier to treat - removal of the critical food, or chemical, from the dog's diet. In order to completely take no chances when it comes to allergies, feed your dog high quality, premium dog food, which does not include soy, corn or wheat among its ingredients.

One more important source of skin problems are fleas. There is more to fleas than just the bite; some dogs actually have negative allergic reactions to the saliva of the flea. Sometimes, even one bite on a severely allergic dog is enough to send it to a scratching frenzy. As regards remedies, prevention is still the best answer to fleabite allergies. Among the many effective flea preventives sold on the market, Program is interesting since it does not actually kill the fleas that are biting your dog but sterilizes them, therefore stopping reproduction. If fleas are a problem, then you also have to treat the environment your shar pei dog lives in by removing fleas from your house and yard.

Richard Cussons knows that the shar pei dog is associated with some dermatological issues. Check out sharpeisavvy.com to know more about shar peis and discover effective shar pei training tips.