Also recorded as the Pekinese, the Peiching Kau, the Pekin Spaniel, the Pekinese Spaniel, the Chinese Lion Dog, the Dragon Dog, the Sun Dog, the Mandarin Pug, the Peking Palace Dog or the Peking Palasthund, this is an ancient companion dog created exclusively for the Chinese nobility. In earlier times it varied in size and the Miniature Pekingese was often called the Sleeve Dog, or Sleeve Pekinese. To its friends today it is known simply as the Peke.
The origin of the Pekingese is unknown. It has existed in China for many centuries, although in earlier um’ es it did not look like the extreme form seen in the show-ring today. Up until the 19th century, it was closer in appearance to the Tibetan Spaniel than to the modern show Peke. Its ears were shorter, and its legs long enough to see daylight beneath its body. During the 20th century the demands of show-ring competition saw its body get lower, its neck shorter, its ears longer, its face flatter and its coat even more luxuriant.
In their heyday, the royal Pekingese were treated with enormous respect, and amazing tales are told of the pampered lives they led. Only the Chinese nobility were allowed to own them, and anybody found guilty of stealing one faced death. Eunuchs were employed to care for their every need.
When the British stormed Peking in 1860, the royal court fled, taking most of their dogs with them. According to romantic legend, three young British officers an army captain, John Hart Dunne, and two naval officers, Lord John Hay and Sir George Fitzroy entered a shuttered room in a deserted pavilion in the Summer Palace, where they found five royal Pekingese noisily protecting the corpse of the Emperor’s aunt, who had committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner by Western vandals. Dunne took one of the dogs, and Hay and Fitzroy a pair each. Dunne’s dog, insensitively named Lootie, was taken back to London by him and presented to Queen Victoria. The others followed a few years later.
That is the endlessly repeated tale, but unfortunately the captain’s diary tells a different story. In reality, he went to a French army camp to buy ‘trifles’ (that is, looted goods) and while he was there also purchased ‘a pretty little dog, smaller than any King Charles, a real Chinese sleeve dog. It has silver bells around its neck: When he later offered it to Queen Victoria, he improved on this story, saying that the dog ‘was found by me in the Palace of Yuan-Ming-Yuan near Pekin’. In this way are canine fables born.
As for the other four dogs, they were probably acquired in a similar manner at a later date because, at the time the palace was being sacked, the two naval officers, Hay and Fitzroy, were in reality on duty on board their vessels, guarding the Peking River.
Because of its rarity, its exotic origins and its royal patronage, the breed aroused great interest in. the British press, and efforts were made to find additional examples. A few more did manage to filter through, nearly always with great difficulty, to England, Ireland and France in the late 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. (One of them cost a eunuch his life he was stoned to death for selling it.) Together these dogs formed the foundation stock for what was destined to become one of the most popular of all small breeds. It prospered both as a lapdog in the home and as a star of the show-ring, and was soon spreading around the world.
In China itself, following the sacking of Peking, the royal court returned and re-established itself. The Palace Pekin’ gese now entered an important new phase, under the patronage of the extraordinary Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi. She introduced new rules for the care of the dogs and made a serious attempt to fix the breed. She even wrote a breed standard for it, a poetic document which included phrases such as: ‘Let its eyes be large and luminous; let its ears be set like the sails of a war-junk; let its nose be that of the monkey-god of the Hindus.’ When she died in 1908 her royal kennels were destroyed and the history of the Pekingese dog in China came to an abrupt halt.
In personality, the Pekingese belies its soft appearance. It may luxuriate on silk cushions, but it is a remarkably confident, fiery little dog, with a stubborn streak and a fearless dignity more appropriate to a mastiff It has also been variously described as wilful, aloof, independent, fastidious, sensitive, courageous and bold. To paraphrase an owner of these remarkable little animals, ‘a Pekingese is to other dogs what a goldfish is to other fish’.
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