the hairless have bad detention, (they tend to loose teeth)
its due to a number of factors...1: being the basis of the breed, while they are not classified as a "paraiah" or "primitive" breed they do have all the characteristics of primitive breeds including shallow roots of the teeth, the coated veriety has better rooting making their teeth less suseptible to loss...
now to go further one must know a little about the crested genes.
EVERY chinese crested has the "space" for 2 codes dictating hair type...
there are the hairless (hl) and the powderpuff (pp) with the hairless gene being dominant (there actually the only hairless breed whos hairlessness is truely dominant)
a dog with 2 copies of the hairless gense is NOT viable, they are reabsorbed in the womb,
so ALL hairless dogs have both the HL and PP
being resessive all powderpuffs have only the PP gene.
so breed a hairless (hl/pp) to a hairless (hl/pp) you will fo course get some pups with a hl/pp, some pups with a pp/pp and some pups with a hl/hl...the hl/hl pups never develop into fetuses, they are simply gone.
the bad teeth is linked to the hl gene...
powderpuff however have good detention normally...
now in the early days of the breed (gypsy rose lee time)
the powderpuff was a MAJOR fault, and were killed at birth...
so of course the only dogs being bred were hailress to hairless which with a limited gene pool to begin with, combined with the existing link to hairlessness, the tooth detention simply got worse.
as time whent on some breeders kept the coated pups, and found that the powderpuffs didnt have the issues with the teeth that the hairless had and realized that they could strengthen the tooth issue in the hairless by including the powderpuff in the breeding program...
unfortunatly however by the time this caught on, there was alot of damage done to a breed with a pre-existing tendency to loose teeth making the tooth loss even more common.
now the powderpuffs are just as important as the hairless and most GOOD breeders are trying to strengthen the teeth in the hairless by using powderpuffs in ther breeding program and using hairless that have good teeth and good tooth history. (ie the grand dam, and dam both having their teeth untill their teens)
ontop of it all like all toy breeds cresties are also prone to plaque build up, which of course in a breed already prone to dental issues, just makes for alot more toothless cresties, especially those that come from mill and neglect cases.
i can ramble about the nekkid ones for hours and hours, i understand there not a breed for everyone, but even so their history and genetics are soooo unique and interesting.
i liek to tell people however that they are actually inteligent beings from another planet come to earth to observe our culture
ive had people belive me...
my favorite though was when i got stopped by animal control and the police in a petsmart because someone called in to the authorities that i had an african painted (or wild) dog puppy (jasper is spotted, but since hes DEFINALT not a dalmation, he must be some wild exotic animal...)
it took me almost 2 hours with law enforcment explaining that hes not a wild exotic animal but instead a chinese crested.
the AC officer told me, "that cant be a chinese crested, those dogs are ugly, hes not ugly...you cant have exotic canines in connecticut..." i actually had to have my sister bring his registration papers AND have my vet talk to the guy...
hed never seen a crestie beyond the ugly dog contest and just assumed all chinese creteds look like a mogwi thats been fed after midnight.
