#Tova the Shar Pei

[elfdragon12]

As winter approaches, I was remembering how Tova goes from "toasted marshmallow" to "touch of red" in the winter/against the snow.

For contrast:

I think it's mostly an effect of the light and/or her coloring. There is a red tint to her darker places regularly, but it does seem more pronounced in winter. Maybe her winter coat makes the red more vivid?

Anyway, I was reminded of how the first person that recognized her as a husky mix said that her coat coloring was what tipped her off. I looked up red huskies and got to "light red" huskies and

Yeah, I have a decent idea of what her husky ancestor looked like.

The closest to her coloring among shar pei is the middle of red and fawn, but still doesn't match that well.

[elfdragon12]

When she's locked onto a critter to chase.

This particular time, it was a cat.

[elfdragon12]

I just really love Tova. She is just... Such a good dog. She's got her foibles like pulling (half husky), she can be real stubborn when she wants something, and she wants to chase critters big and small, but she's also my perfect dog. She does like to be near me and rest her head on my lap, but she also likes to have her own space. She relaxes at home, but is an enthusiastic hiking partner. She's quiet and confident. She can be protective, but also knows to be calm around kids and helped me notice an older woman who'd fallen and needed help. She's a well-formed and lovely looking dog and, though she does have allergies, she generally has good health.

I'm pretty sure she probably came from a breeder and I wish I knew them because of what a fantastic dog she is!

[elfdragon12]

As I'm returning to my apartment complex to finish up Tova's daily walk, Tova wanted to go through the ramada and sniff around (I do have to be careful as not everyone is good about cleaning up their food waste). Some people were sitting at the table (I think teens from the neighboring high school). I avoid letting her walk right up to them, but one of the guys asked if she was friendly. I said yeah and let her approach.

Then he saw her eyes and went (paraphrasing) "I respect you, dog, but those eyes scare me".

Her eyes, for reference.

A striking and lovely golden brown, gold to brown ratio depending on lighting and pupil dilation.

Out of curiosity, this time I decided to look up wolf eyes for comparison and

Not too different, actually! Especially as this is not the most brown a wolf's eyes can get (finding good *real* eye closeups for wolves from a basic image search is kinda difficult). But Tova's eyes are brown around the pupil and the out rim of the iris as well, with that warm gold in the middle.

Interesting stuff! To me, at least. XD

[elfdragon12]

Tova loves getting a little pup cup from the local Italian ice place. She was enjoying it so much that I had to get a little video.

(Note: I try to keep these indulgences to about once a week.)

[elfdragon12]

Tova seems to always know when I'm pulling out some cheese.

[elfdragon12]

It's been a while since I posted a picture of Tova, so here she is as she enjoys some chest scratches (her favorite spot).

[elfdragon12]

Tova in the snow

Beautiful, majestic, ready for any challenges!

Me in the snow

A total mess, please, my sweet girl, let me go inside!

[elfdragon12]

So I mentioned a while back how I splurged and got a dog DNA test kit?

So. Is this girl

part lab or pit like I thought?

I got the results and--WHAT? SIBERIAN HUSKY WITHA STEEL CHAIR?!

This does make certain things make sense, like why she enjoys the cold and snow so much, as well as why she has such a tendency to pull and loves hiking. Like, yeah, bonemouth shar pei are much more active than the meatmouth variety, but I figured it was unlikely she was just straight bonemouth because of how uncommon they are in the west.

Thankfully as an apartment dweller who gets home late at night, she has the vocal tendency of her shar pei parent and not the husky.

This is very interesting to see how genetics are a grab bag (like how the percentage isn't just 50/50)... Also makes a great case for the husky as a viable option to bring back the bonemouth as other shar pei mixes in the "dogs like mine" look similarly.

[elfdragon12]

I took Tova to a dog park and, since she wasn't clicking with any of the other dogs (she's an introvert that prefers to play with a dog that focuses on her), we went for a walk along the neighboring river.

On the way back, I saw a pair of raccoons climbing up a tree and went "ooo! Raccoons!"

Of course Tova saw them. I gotta tell ya, she doesn't sound like a husky until she's trying chase a critter and I won't let her. Also, some twigs were in her face while she's trying to get to the tree and she was like >8V >8V >8V chomping them out of her way.

[elfdragon12]

"The risk I took was calculated, but man am I bad at math."

We were doing a short hike around a reservoir? Lake? And, because we got a ton of snow this season, there's a lot of water. Tova was sniffing around some logs and went to step between them, I guess thinking that it was just a puddle. Nope! Girl got full dunked! She managed to pull herself out in before I was ready to haul her out myself.

She didn't enjoy it. Water is for wading and drinking. Not swimming or sprinklers.

[elfdragon12]

I think I'm getting the hang of drawing Tova.

[elfdragon12]

So I gave into curiosity, splurged and bought a dog DNA kit, swabbed Tova, and sent it in.

The best visual matches I've seen for Shar Pei mixes are labs and pit bulls. But she also looks really similar to bonemouth variation of Shar Pei.

Here's a bonemouth Shar Pei:

Here's a Shar/Lab:

And a Shar/Pit:

And here is Tova:

While she loves to greet other dogs, she's not overly playful. For the most part, she doesn't care too much about other people unless they have food or a dog with them... Unless it's night time and she doesn't trust them. She does get protective at night. She's very quiet. She's also got quite a prey drive, especially around deer.

Along with all that, she's pretty athletic and loves a good hike. She does have allergies. Plus, she has a winter coat--only thing that softens her prickly Shar Pei coat.

Any thoughts?

[elfdragon12]

I don't know if dogs can enjoy the scenery like humans do, but here's multiple shots of Tova staring out over the scenery.

The first two pictures are from the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. It snowed that morning, so it was a wide expanse of white. (This is also the location where she found coyote tracks.)

The next three pictures are from Bryce Canyon. Note: dogs are only allowed on paved trails there. I think only the Sunset/Sunrise trail advertised being dog friendly, but my sister asked inside and was told any paved path was okay for dogs.

The last five were from a trail in Kanab, Utah. The name of the trail... Is a derogatory name for Native women. If you know, you know. If you don't, I don't want to be the one to tell you. It was a very pretty trail though, however, I tapped out before reaching the end. It was getting a bit harder than I was wanting to tackle for the first hike of the day.

[elfdragon12]

Finally got a nice view of Tova's eyes! They're one of my favorite features of hers!

Dark brown around the pupil before immediately turning a golden yellow and shifting to a warm brown.

[elfdragon12]

The cheese tax.