A Few
Words About the Pug's History
The first
recorded appearance of pug in the English language
occurred in 1566. Pug was a term of endearment then applied
to persons but rarely to animals. It had gathered additional
meanings - courtesan, bargeman, demon, imp, monkey, sprite
and ape - by November 1688 when the Dutch prince William III
of Orange and his wife, the English princes Mary, landed in
South Devonshire, accompanied by several pug dogs. William
and Mary became co-rulers of England the following year, and
their dogs acquired subjects of their own. By the middle of
the next century, according to "The Oxford English Dictionary"
(OED), pug had come to mean "a dwarf breed of dog resembling
a bull-dog in miniature."
Many observers
believe that pug acquired this meaning because of certain
facial similarities between a kind of monkey that was already
called a pug and the little dogs with curly tails. Other observers
believe that pug was derived from the Latin pugnus,
meaning fist, because the pug's profile resembles a clenched
fist. Still others believe pug is a corruption of puck, the
mischievous fairy in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream,"
but the OED cautions that pug "is not easily accounted for
as a mere phonetic variant" of puck. The reader is free, of
course, to believe any or none of these accounts. The writer's
money is on the got-it-from-the-monkeys theory because pugs
were always called pug dogs at first, as though to distinguish
them from pug monkeys.
Orange
These Dogs Nice?
The Dutch
are usually credited with being the agents of the pug's importation
to Europe, and by the time William, Mary and their pugs arrived
in England, the pug had been anointed the official dog of
the House of Orange in the Netherlands. The pug's elevation
occurred after a dog named Pompey had saved the life
of William IIIs grandfather, Prince William the Silent, when
he was sleeping in his tent at Hermigny during a campaign
against Spanish forces. While assassins approached the tent,
Pompey began barking and scratching to warn his master, finally
jumping on William's face to wake him.
"Although
[Pompey] is described as a 'white little hounde,'" one writer
has observed, "it can reasonably be thought, from other parts
of [Pompey's] description, that [he] actually was an ancestor
of the modern pug."
Pugs
in Other Places
Pugs arrived
in France around the time they arrived in England. The breed
was known as the Carlin in France, after an actor who
was famous for play the role of the harlequin (or buffoon).
The term Carlin, though it probably refers to resemblances
between the actor's black mask and the pug's, is also an apt
description of the pug's amusing disposition.
The best-known
pug fancier in France was Josephine Bonaparte, wife of the
emperor. Josephine's pug, Fortune, bit Napoleon on
the leg on their (Napoleon and Josephine's) wedding night.
Fortune survived that encounter, but he did not survive a
challenge to the cook's English Bulldog.
Literary
and artistic evidence indicate that the pug was well-known
in Italy and Spain during the 18th century, and the Freemasons'
use of Mopsorden (Order of the Pug) as a nom de guerre
after they had been excommunicated by the pope in 1736 serves
to date the pug in that country.
The
Pug Dog's Origin
Although
no one knows for certain, most authorities agree that the
pug originated in China around 2,500 years ago, give or take
a few centuries. Chinese drawings and scrolls suggest that
three types of small dog predominated at the time - the lion
dog, the Pekingese, and the Lo-sze. The Lo-sze, from which
modern-day pugs are thought to have descended, was distinguished
by its short face and short coat, its elastic skin and the
prince mark on its forehead. A prince mark - not to be confused
with the mark of the artist formerly known as prince - comprises
three wrinkles and a vertical bar on the forehead, which together
form the Chinese character for prince.
Pugs
in America
The first
pug imported to the United States arrived shortly after the
War Between the States. The breed was accepted by the American
Kennel Club (AKC) in 1885, but after a promising start in
this country pugs were overshadowed by longer-coated toy breeds
such as the Pekingese and Pomeranian. From 1900 to 1920 only
a handful of breeders worked with pugs, and many shows drew
no pug entry at all. As this century nears its end, however,
the pug's popularity is dogged established. There were 15,927
new pugs registered by the AKC in 1995. Only 25 of the 137
breeds then recognized by the AKC ranked higher.
The
Real Meaning of Pugs
Throughout
the centuries pugs have been bred for one purpose only: to
provide companionship to a species that desperately needs
them. Pugs are good at this work - so good, in fact, that
a friend of ours is fond of saying, "A dog is a dog, but a
pug is another person in your house." And what good people
they are. Pugs are comfortable holding court in town or country.
Their spirit can warm a drafty, old mansion. Their simple
requirements can be accommodated in a modest flat. Fame, wealth,
power, accomplishment, or social status makes no difference
to pugs. Home is where the heart is, and their hearts are
with their masters.
The
Pug Owner's Operating Manual
Pugs are
a low-maintenance, wash-and-wear breed. They travel more easily
and are accepted more readily in hotels or motels than are
larger breeds. Pugs will not eat a hole in your discretionary
income. They get all the exercise they need by running a bit
each day in a fenced-in yard and the taking a nap. They can
be washed quickly and allowed to drip dry, and best of all,
because they are small you can have more than one.
Grooming
Pugs should
be brushed two or three times a week with a slicker brush
or a pin brush with stainless steel bristles. (The only comb
you need for a pug is a flea comb, and you will need that
only during flea season.) If you do not have a regulation-model
grooming table, be sure to put a rubber mat or a piece of
carpet with nonslip backing on your table to give your pug
secure footing.
A pug's
nails should clipped weekly. If your pug has not been acclimated
to nail clipping by the time he comes to live with you, this
may be a two-person job at first. Be careful to clip the hooked
end of the nail only. Avoid cutting into the quick, the vein
inside the nail. Have some styptic powder handy to apply to
the nail if you cut the quick and it begins to bleed.
A pug's
ears should be cleaned weekly with a cotton swab or a cotton
ball that has been dipped in mineral oil. Do not try to clean
farther down in the ear canal than you can see, or you might
do some damage.
A pug's
facial wrinkles, which contribute to his singular appearance,
may also contribute to a certain clam-bog odor about him if
they are not cleaned regularly. Once a week - or whenever
your pug's face begins spelling boggy - steady his head gently
with one hand and, with a cotton swab that has been dipped
in warm water, clean any dirt or caked tears from your pug's
nose wrinkle. Clean the smaller wrinkles under your pug's
eye in the same manner. After you have minded your pug's wrinkles,
spread a little Vaseline in them with a cotton swab. If you
notice bald spots or a rash in your pug's wrinkles, take him
to the vet to determine whether he (your pug) is growing a
fungus.
Absent
any close encounters with mud, skunks or a horde of fleas,
these dogs need a bath only when they begin smelling doggy,
which is in frequent for a pug. Some people bathe their pugs
in the kitchen sink. Other prefer a bath tub. Whichever you
choose, a spray attachment is a helpful option.
Feeding
You need
not take a home-study course in animal nutrition to feed your
pug a balanced, nourishing diet. Nor do you have to know a
dispensable amino acid from an indispensable one. All you
need is the ability to spot the following statement - or one
similar to it - on a dog food label: "Animal feeding test
using AAFCO procedures substantiate that Bowser Bits provides
complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages of the
dog."
No matter
how this kind of statement is worded, as long as the food
you are contemplating as been feed tested, provides complete
and balanced nutrition, and is suitable for all life stages
of a dog, you virtually cannot go wrong. It is easy to go
wrong, however, by feeding your pug too much. Outside every
pug there is a fat pug trying to get in. If pugs were Elvis
imitators, they would mimic the bloated, Las Vegas model.
(Which, come to think of it, is the model favored by most
two-legged Elvis imitators.)
Excess
weight is often a contributing factor - and is almost always
a complicating one - in many health-compromising situations.
In addition to aggravating locomotor problems, excess weight
will aggravate collapsing trachea, an inherited condition
common in toy breeds, in which the rings of cartilage in the
windpipe collapse. Excess weight also makes it more difficult
for pugs to dissipate heat in sultry weather, a problem already
common to all members of the breed. (Pugs should not be left
outside for more than five or ten minutes when the temperature
is about 85 degrees.) Moreover, dogs like people are subject
to an increasing litany of troubles as they grow older; and
pugs that are overweight when the specter of old age comes
calling are addled with an unfair handicap in fighting disease
and infirmity.
It is
difficult to specify the point at which a pug's health could
be compromised by excess weight, but there are certain indications
that a pug is becoming fat. If your pug has an hourglass figure
or if you cannot find her ribs without a search warrant, she
is too fat. Additional bouquets of fat are likely to blossom
on the brisket (the area below the chest and between the forelegs),
the neck, the abdomen and the point at which the tail meets
the body. If any of these spots seems too well padded, perhaps
your pug is too well fed.
Because
metabolism varies from one pug to another, generalizations
about how much to feed a pug are imprecise. A 23-pound, 17-month-old
neutered male who does not possess a gram of fat might wolf
down a cup of dry puppy food and four ounces of canned food
a day, divided between two meals. A spayed female going on
five, who was a svelte 18 pounds when she was a year old,
could grow past 20 pounds on two thirds of a cup of regular
dry food and two or three ounces of canned food a day. In
general, pug girls that top 20 pounds and boys above 23 pounds
are candidates for more exercise and fewer calories. And invariably,
the older pugs get, the fewer calories they need.
The
Last Word
A pug
possesses the heart of a giant, the bravery of a terrier,
the intelligence of a herding dog and a face that looks as
if it just received bad news. Pugs are as loving, constant
and devoted as the day is long, as dependable as the sunrise,
and excellent with kids. They are the best medicine when you
are sick, an antidote to illness when you are well and the
greatest conversation starters anywhere. If you tire of pugs,
you tire of life.
The
Unwanted Inheritance
In pugs,
as in all breeds that are produced in search of a physical
ideal, the quest for the dramatic is shadowed closely by the
growth of the detrimental, which usually manifests itself
as an inherited disease condition. The following are the conditions
most frequently encountered in pugs:
Legg-Perthes,
an inherited degeneration of the head of the femur, the long
upper bone of the hind leg, caused by an insufficient blood
supply to the femoral head. Usually occurs before a pug is
ten months old. Can be corrected by surgery.
Luxating
patella, a dislocation of the small, flat, moveable bone
at the front of the knee. An inherited tendency, luxating
patella can be aggravated by excess weight. The condition
can be corrected by surgery.
Pug
dog encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain unique
to pugs. Seizure is the primary symptom of pug dog encephalitis,
which tend to affect young to middle-aged pugs and which cannot
be cured.
Progressive
retinal atrophy (PRA), the wasting away of the vessels
in the retina. Initially manifested as night blindness in
young dogs, as PRA progresses, its victims become totally
blind.
Entropion,
an inversion of the eyelid, usually the lower lid. Can be
corrected by surgery.
Pigmentary
keratitis, the deposition of pigment or melanin on the
surface of the eye by the cornea in response to unrelieved
irritation and/or inflammation. Its progress can be slowed
but not arrested. Does not always cause blindness in the affected
eye.
Elongated
soft palate often results in some degree of obstruction
of the dog's airway, thus causing snorting, snoring and breathing
through the mouth. In sever cases the palate partially blocks
the opening into the voice box and surgery is necessary.
Because
not all breeders are as conscientious as they should be, persons
acquiring a pug should ask the seller who will be responsible
for the vet bills if a pug should be victimized by an obviously
inherited condition later in life.
Back
in Black
In addition
to the seemingly ubiquitous fawn, pugs are available in black.
At least one researcher believes that black pugs were developed
in Japan in the late night or early tenth centuries. From
there the black dog's fortune shadowed that of its fawn relatives.
A British writer reports that serious interest in black pugs
did not develop until the last 19th century. Perhaps Queen
Victoria's black pug or the queen herself contributed to this
solemnity.
Phil Maggitti is a freelance wordsmith living happily
ever after in southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, six
pug dogs and eight cats.
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