Bear joined Miller and Cody a month or so after their first birthday - she is a mischievious bundle of fun and although just past her fifth birthday now herself, she shows no signs of slowing down! The big girls tolerate her remarkably well, even ignoring her attempts to nip at their ears while they are trying to walk away from her... she is always the instigator of playtime and thoroughly enjoys rough-housing with both bullmastiffs, who instinctively know how rough they can be with the now not so fragile baby Bear.
Bear and her bearcoated brother Archie at 6 weeks old, her non-bearcoated siblings can just be seen in the background!
The bearcoat is an occurrence of the recessive Chow Chow gene and can occur in any litter where the gene lies dormant regardless of whether the parent are horse, brush or bear coat.
Baby Bear is a very unique looking dog (lots of heartless folk would say ugly!!) and she turns heads and starts conversations wherever she goes.
The pedigree shar pei world frowns upon her long bearcoat, but it was her fluffy teddy bear appearance that stole my heart, so she may be banned from the show ring, but that, I feel, is definitely their loss, not Bear's!
Bear gets very hot when her dense coat is fully grown and I have had her clipped once or twice. The above snaps show her 'naked'!
Neither bullmastiff or shar pei are breeds to be walked by wall flowers... if you're considering adding one of these gorgeous breeds to your family, prepare to become a whole lot more sociable when you are out and about walking with your new friend.
I find everyone - young, old, male, female, dog lovers, non-dog lovers - everyone wants to stop and meet Bear!