THE ORIGIN OF CHINESE CRESTED & OTHER HAIRLESS DOGS
The origins of the Chinese Crested are difficult to trace.
Every authority admits that its origin is unknown, but still has a theory. Unfortunately this leaves us with a number of totally different histories for the breed.
In fact the origin of the hairless breeds of dog in the world is steeped in myths and legends.
Archeological Evidence has shown that they have existed for thousands of years. A small hairless dog lived in Mexico for thousands of years. When tombs in ancient burial sites have been excavated, skeletons and clay figures of hairless dogs have been found. A 3400 year old statue depicting a woman embracing a hairless dog has been discovered by archeologists.
We know that there have been naked breeds in North Africa, Turkey, Manchuria, China, South America and Mexico, and it has been assumed that one of these countries was the original source from which the carefully-bred offspring were exported to the others.
This is no longer seen as likely. A more probable explanation is that genes for hairlessness have arisen independently in these different regions and have produced similar dog in each place, without any export/import trade being involved. In fact, hairless dogs seem to have arisen by mutation all over the world, in Central and South America, In North Africa, in China.
What seems to have happened is that hairless widely separate parts of the world and these isolated individuals have been confused with one another, relationships between them being mistakenly imagined.
There are today a number of hairless or naked breeds, including the Mexican Hairless, the larger Xoloitzcuintli, the Inca Orchid, Argentinian Perro Pila, the Abyssinian Sand dog and others.
