A Pekinese is a very small companion dog with a short flat nose, a round face, and long silky hair that often hangs like a mane. The breed came from China, and the English name is from Peking, the old English name for Beijing. You will also see Pekingese; that is the same dog, and in many English-speaking places that spelling is now the more common one. It is a pet, kept for company, not a working dog. Though actually, a pug is also small and flat-faced, but a pug has short hair — so the long silky coat is the easy way to tell them apart. In English the word can feel a little old-fashioned if you only know the Peking spelling; both spellings still point to this one breed.