tibetan mastiff / How much is that doggie in China? A cool $600,000

tibetan mastiff / How much is that doggie in China? A cool $600,000

The rattling steel-link chain was starting to freak us out. At each rattle, we glanced nervously over to where the sound was coming from.

The source? A giant Tibetan mastiff, standing at least 3 feet tall and weighing somewhere between 130 and 150 pounds. Inexplicably, he was chained on a platform right at the entrance of the Tianjin dog fair, guaranteeing a rude welcome for every individual wandering into the event in this large city in northeastern China.

There was no missing this dog. And if he didn’t bark the fear of God into you, there was a heavily made-up woman in heels and a miniskirt firmly steering you away: “Be careful. He’s a little temperamental.”
When his chain wasn’t anchored to a steel cage, it was held by a guy reclined on a folding chair. Somehow, only his arm, not his entire body, jerked up whenever the mastiff jumped up to bark at a new entrant.




‘A holy animal’ The stuff of legend, the Tibetan mastiff is considered the guardian dog of the former Himalayan kingdom of Tibet and reputed to be the original source of many large dog breeds today.

“In China, people think of the Tibetan mastiff as a holy animal … a blessing to their health and security,” said Wen Li, a spokesman for, a website about Tibetan mastiffs, who helps organize dog fairs like the one in Tianjin.

In recent years, as China’s middle class has expanded and dogs have become more popular household pets, the appeal of Tibetan mastiffs has grown exponentially — so much so that fairs just for this breed take place several times a week during the three-month show season (the dogs shed during the summer, so the best time for breeders to present them is in the spring.) And as their popularity has grown, so have prices for top breeds — 500 percent a year.

All of it apparently driven by Chinese millionaires. “Most buyers are wealthy people, like entrepreneurs,” said Wen. “The newly rich want to show off their status by owning such a precious dog, which makes them feel really confident and powerful.”

In that case, Cai Li and his wife must be brimming with confidence. Last November, the couple from the provincial capital of Xi’an forked over $600,000 for a purebred Tibetan mastiff called Yangtze River Number Two, and organized a fleet of twenty Mercedes-Benzes to bring the slobbery black-haired beast home.
“I like Tibetan mastiffs, because they’re really loyal to owners and they’re ferocious,” said Cai, a fortysomething-year-old businessman who was coy about his source of income. 

Yangtze River Number Two cost so much, according to Cai, because of his pure bloodline. With their overwhelming popularity and the high prices they fetch, it’s increasingly rare to find a purebred Tibetan mastiff. Breeders told us there were permanent scouts in places like Yushu, Qinghai (a western Chinese province on the Tibetan Plateau struck by a huge earthquake in April), looking for mastiffs to poach.