Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Tibetan Mastiff Tidbits

I was thinking about that Tibetan mastiff... he/she reminded me of someone else.

Tibetan mastiff
Then it came to me...

Lara and Yuri in Doctor Zhivago (1965)



This got me wondering about Tibetan mastiffs. Do they all look morose and fashionably bedecked in a Russian fur hats? Not so much... But I learned some interesting things along the way. 

Tibetan mastiffs come in all sorts of colors and weigh 150-200 pounds.

Tibetan mastiffs are not actually mastiffs. But then Tibeten terriers aren't terriers and Tibetan spaniels aren't spaniels. Those darn Westerners just make stuff up on sight. 

Big Splash, a red Tibetan mastiff, is the world’s most expensive dog, sold as a pup for 1.5 million. Read more about that. 

Big Splash, the most expensive dog in the world.

But buyer beware when shopping for Tibetan mastiffs: Wikipedia explains, 

"There have been other similar reports of dogs sold for astronomical prices; however, most of these appear to be breeders' attempts to drive up the prices of their dogs. Photos of dogs shown on web sites are frequently Photoshopped to exaggerate color intensity, size, and "bone". Buyers have reported getting their dogs home only to find that bathing removes both color and "hair extensions" from the coat."

Can you imagine me in hair extensions? 

I feel like a million bucks.

The last tidbit that I know my friend DN3 will appreciate is that Harry Dresden's dog Mouse is a Tibetan mastiff. Funny though, I always pictured Mouse more like a Neapolitan mastiff.

Neapolitan mastiff

The final fact I learned about Tibetan mastiffs is that they "don't smell bad like other dogs." Huh. 

5 comments:

  1. I never looked up what Mouse, as a Tibetan mastiff, would look like. But I think I conceived of him as pretty similar to the third photo above -- though maybe without the lighter markings. And bigger. Much bigger.

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    1. Yes, much bigger. I guess I never thought of Mouse as so wooly.

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  2. Carmella? I can't believe your remark that Tibetan mastiffs "don't smell bad like other dogs". Are you a traitor to your species? I've always thought that dogs must smell lovely to other dogs given the greeting ceremonies I've observed on so many occasions.

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    1. I know! I think I should become a Wikipedia editor. I would change it to say Tibetan mastiffs are sad because despite their large size, they have a very small smell.

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