NAME: PER OBAMA DOG 20081112I TAPE: EF08/1142 IN_TIME: 10:06:41:24 DURATION: 00:01:51:17 SOURCES: AP TELEVISION DATELINE: Lima - 12 Nov 2008 RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot of Claudia Galvez, director of the Association Friends of Hairless Dogs of Peru, with her dogs 2. Dog "Macchu Picchu" licking Galvez's face 3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Claudia Galvez, Director of the Association Friends of Hairless Dogs of Peru: "These dogs are very loving, very clean, very smart, and also very good guardians. And one of the pluses is that we know that the dog can cure asthma and based on information we got from other people, it can also cure arthritis and rheumatism. In my case it cured my asthma and the asthma of my son too, besides that (Barack) Obama would receive a dog that is a hairless animal. It's a pre-hispanic animal which has been depicted in ancient Peruvian ceramics and can also cure his daughter's asthma without her having to take medication that will harm her body." 4. Wide shot of pre-hispanic ceramics of the hairless dog 5. Zoom out of pre-hispanic ceramics of the hairless dog 6. Pan of Peruvian hairless dog playing with a toy 7. Wide shot of dogs playing with Galvez STORYLINE: Completely bald and older than the Incas, the Peruvian hairless dog seems like an odd fit for the White House. But Peruvians are mindful of US President-elect Barack Obama's preference for a hypoallergenic breed due to his daughter Malia's allergies, and say the dark, rough-skinned pooch with large ears and a pointy snout could be just the solution. At his first post-election news conference on Friday, Obama said choosing a pet dog for his daughters is a "major issue." He said it has to be hypoallergenic. The Friends of the Peruvian Hairless Dog Association responded on Monday, sending a letter to the US Embassy in Peru offering the Obama family a 4-month-old pup that responds to "Machu Picchu," the name of Peru's famed Inca citadel. The director of the association said on Wednesday that she believed the dog cured her and her son's asthma. Claudia Galvez also said the breed was loving, clean, smart, and makes a good guardian dog. Galvez, who has lived with six dogs of the breed for eight years, says being hairless has its benefits: the dogs are flealess and relatively odourless, too. They were kept as pets during the Inca empire and depictions of the breed appear in 1,200-year-old, pre-Inca artwork. The hairless dog was long scorned for its appearance before it was recognised internationally as the official Peruvian dog. Keyword animals wacky