The Pug Dog

There is no better company on two legs or four than a pug dog. No friend is more loyal, no comrade more jolly, no confidant more trusty than this snuffling, comic bundle of joie de vevre. Indeed, such is the pug dog's zest for living that the breed has acquired its own motto - Multum in parvo, which in Latin means "a lot of dog in a small space."

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 namedPompey 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.