Peruvian Hairless Dog

SouthAmerica September 17, 2018November 21, 2019 Chancay, Chimo, Chimu, Inca hairless dog, Mochica, Perro calato, Perro Inca, Perro sin pelo, Peruvian dog, Peruvian hairless dog, south america, south america to the world, southamericatotheworld.com, Vicus, Viringo, Viringo Peruano

How often do you hear about a Peruvian Hairless Dog? The answer is probably not very often, and you are not alone. Therefore, we are sharing a post today about this distinct dog, which is popular now among hypoallergenic breeds. Peruvian hairless dogs are a purebred and considered “primitive” for this reason. They are native to the Peruvian Coast, which is amongst the world’s driest deserts. These dogs have been part of pre-Inca cultures, as they are depicted in ceramics dating back to 300 A.D. made by the Mochica, Chimu, Vicus, and Chancay cultures. These dogs were a well part of the Inca culture, and they were known as “allqu”, the Quechua word for a dog. Due to the many cultures these dogs belonged to they were given different names such as Viringo Peruano, Chimu, Chimo, calato (Quechua word-means hairless), sin pelo (Spanish phrase-means hairless), Viringo, and Inca hairless dog. These days they are simply known as “Peruvian hairless dogs.”

These dogs are fun and very agile. They behave as any other dog would, except that they look funny. Some people don’t like them based on their looks calling them “feos” (ugly in Spanish), but if you think about it and take in consideration, their ancestral history you learn to appreciate them for what they are: a dog that was useful to the Incas but went nearly extinction during the Spanish conquest. Having these dogs now as part of your family is like owning a relic from the Inca Empire.

southamericatotheworld.com — Peruvian hairless dog

Peruvian hairless dogs are medium to large size with a skin that looks like elephant skin. Most that we have seen are black to a grayish color with some very coarse hair on their heads, legs and tail making them odder appearing. Others have only four strands of hair, and to make matters worse, their hair could each have a different color. Besides their special style, Peruvian hairless dogs have good behavior, they love to be with people, and they love to keep busy. Many times they have an expression of contemplating “travesuras”, meaning they are always ready to have some fun.

Many others beliefs that indigenous people hold is that these dogs were cared for as a medicinal cure to rheumatism thanks to their warm bodies. We cannot make any comments in that regard, but we could agree that their body temperature is warm, and they could be cuddly while being free of fleas and ticks. Mainly thanks to their hairless characteristic.

In 2001 the “Peruvian Hairless Dog” was declared by the Peruvian Congress to be Patrimonio Cultural de la Nacion, a Peruvian Heritage native to Peru, these dogs do not know that they are ugly and they behave just like any other dog would do.