Chortens Tibetan Mastiffs - Caring for your TM

"The Times" TM Article response

So now we all know. According to an article in Thursday's The Times, Tibetan Mastiffs are now, what must be, the most expensive dogs in the world. Who would have thought that someone or more than one person presumably, is now prepared to pay the equivalent of Ł250,000 for a Tibetan Mastiff. This is, not at all surprisingly, not happening in the UK nor even in America but in China where money these days seems to be no object for an increasing number of wealthy Chinese. In fact revelations of this sort are not at all new and rumours of huge amounts of money being paid for the finest specimens of the breed have been around for many years. Those rumours also included similarly huge amounts of money being paid for stud fees from the self same dogs. Good luck to anyone who wants to pay that sort of money but how do revelations like these actually reflect the true position of the Tibetan Mastiff in the West at this time? The Tibetan Mastiff is not an easy dog to sell and I fear articles such as these do not help promote a better understanding of what should be a truly magnificent breed of dog. This is especially so when it comes to them being bred to fulfil the role of a guard dog and when most people who do know something about the breed prefer the term 'guardian dog'.

There is, in the article, a bold statement that the dogs weigh up to 18 stones. To those of us who have made it their business to research the breed and try to sift fact from fiction and outright exaggerations or untruths, the thought of a Tibetan Mastiff reaching anything like 18 stones in weight simply beggars belief. Certainly no dog of anything like that size has been bred in the West and I would say that not one photograph of a Tibetan Mastiff in China or Taiwan, now easily found on the Internet, proves that such a huge dog has ever been bred. The article states that this huge size helped the dogs adapt, over the millennia, to the thin air in Tibet and the freezing temperatures encountered there. Before accepting such statements at face value, perhaps it should be remembered that although indeed there are very low temperatures in Tibet during the winter, in the summer the temperatures are very high. Can it really be the case that an 18 stone dog would be able to adjust to such variations in temperature? Or be able to move effortlessly between the summer and winter pastures with the nomadic herders who are the original breeders of the Tibetan Mastiff, or Dho Khyi as it is known to the Tibetans? Apart from excess mouth watering which is often found in the more heavily built dogs and the resultant problems which would be found during freezing conditions, I very much doubt that the thin air could ever provide such a huge body with enough air to allow it to function properly, particularly in the heat.

The next mention of something of note in the article was the tired old reference to Marco Polo. If one bears in mind that the report of Marco Polo's travel in China and other countries along the old Silk Road, was not a daily record of things he found whilst on his travels but was in fact the result of something he dictated in poor French to a man named Rustician whilst both were in prison in 1296/97. The reports of what Polo encountered during his travels must therefore be read with a degree of scepticism and possibly, incredulity. It should also be remembered that Himalayan donkeys are nowhere near as large as the donkeys one would see today. The following is from the book by R.F. Johnston "From Peking to Mandalay" written in the early 20th century :-

"Marco Polo who only touched the fringe of the Tibetan countries, describes in his naive way some of the peculiar social customs of the people of those lands 'as a good story to tell, and to show what a fine country that is for young fellows to go to' ( this quote is from Yules - Marco Polo vol ii p.45)"

Polo also refered to the Tibetans as "an ill conditioned race" and on the subject of Polo's comments that [the Tibetans] have mastiff dogs as big as donkeys, Johnston says " This further remark of Messer Marco's is nearer the truth if we take 'ill conditioned' to mean 'unclean' and allow for a certain exaggeration about the size of the dogs".

Interestingly Johnston goes on to say "No Tibetan household is complete without one or two of those uncouth animals. The breed has changed since Marco's day, for the dogs are not mastiffs (though these are still well known throughout Tibet proper), but a large long-haired dog that somewhat resembles a collie. They are exceedingly savage towards strangers and of great value as watch dogs. Their physical strength is enormous. The usual custom is to let them go loose at night and to chain them up in the yard or in front of the house during the day, the theory being that anyone who wanders out of doors after nightfall must be a knave, and deserves any ill-fate that may befall him. Their bark is most peculiar: not crisp and sharp like that of most European dogs, but with a sepulchral and 'far away' sound as if each dog kept his own ghost in his stomach and it was only the ghost that barked".

So, Johnston could differentiate between a Tibetan Mastiff and one of the more common dogs owned by Tibetans to guard their homes. A pity that more people cannot recognise this. It is also a pity that remarks like ' they will attack a bear or a tiger to protect their owners herds..." can be made without realising that there are no tigers in Tibet and never have been. Such remarks are also usually accompanied by references to fierceness or aggression and indeed the article in The Times does just that. Once again someone could be left with the impression that the Tibetan Mastiff is a naturally fierce or aggressive dog, always ready to bite. This is not so and no wanton aggression should be tolerated in the breed. The fact that in Tibet historically the Dho Khyi was left to guard the encampments and in the absence of the males, looked after by the remaining children and old women, gives the lie to any argument that the Dho Khyi is fierce, in the sense it is out of control, or uncontrollable. A child could not control such a dog but they did control the Dho Khyi as it was barking out its warning of the approach of strangers to the encampment or, perhaps, other dwelling and their entrance into the encampment. Indeed this function is still witnessed on a daily basis by those of us who share our lives with the dogs we call Tibetan Mastiffs. A dog looking ferocious, especially a tied dog, should not be mistaken for a fierce or aggressive dog.

Another point about the description of the breed as found in The Times article, is, perhaps, the biggest conundrum to solve when thinking hard about the Tibetan Mastiff and what was its real purpose. We are now being told that the dogs can weigh up to 18 stones, live 20 or 30 years, will protect their owners herds of sheep and yaks,and, according to some, actually herd those flocks although this is not mentioned. This poses two questions for me to answer, the first is how does an 18 stone animal actively chase down a lithe predator, and secondly, if the Tibetan Mastiff is doing that, what is protecting the nomadic encampment? Could it be that the fierce dog which makes a good guard dog is not actually a Tibetan Mastiff at all but the lesser type of Tibetan dog noted by Johnston? Could it be that the dogs which actually guarded the Tibetan nomad's encampments and the homes of nobles and the monasteries, were in fact the Dho Khyi, or Tied Dog, and were indeed, large, impressive animals, did bark furiously to warn of the approach of strangers and, yes, could attack a predator or unwanted visitor if necessary but does this make them something akin to a recognised guard dog? My experience of over 20 years in the breed tells me 'no' and those who continue to promote the breed as guard dogs do it no service whatsoever.

And finally I'll finish with the remarks of Zhilang Zhibang when asked about his dogs "They're worthless. They are here to guard my home" For those who know anything about Tibetans, that is the way it has always been and why so few Dho Khyi ever found their way outside the nomadic encampments. It was always said that no Tibetan would ever charge money for a Dho Khyi no matter how hard they were pressed to do so. Some of the really finest dogs did leave the nomads however, when offered in Tribute.

I thank Jane Macartney for an interesting article but would ask those who read it to think carefully about some of the things that have been stated and if anyone is interested in owning a Tibetan Mastiff to talk to as many people as possible for not all Tibetan Mastiffs look like the one pictured in the article and not everyone has bothered to learn much about the breed they own or use for breeding. Indeed if that is how a Tibetan Mastiff should look, then many breeders have a lot of soul searching to do for not many dogs do look like that. One should ask why that is the case.