BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Zhang Pohu was puzzled when he used a brush to groom his newly bought Tibetan mastiff from Yushu, Qinghai province, because the brush got stuck in the dog's long hair.On closer look he found several knots in the hair, caused by artificial extensions engineered using hair from other dogs.As breeding and buying Tibetan mastiffs has become a lucrative industry, it has also attracted cheats who try to pass off crossbred dogs as pedigree ones."Purchasing a Tibetan mastiff is a big gamble. I'd rather go to a reputable breeder. At least it reduces the risk of losing money," says the second-generation rich Zhang, 25, who has raised mastiffs since childhood and opened his Baishi Tibetan mastiff kennel in Hebei province, in 2007.Instead of visiting the Himalayan plateau where the dogs are originally from, Zhang spends much of his time with mastiff experts who own large breeding farms."Because we know each other well, we carefully match our mastiffs and their bloodlines to guarantee their pedigree, so there is little chance of being deceived," Zhang says.Keeping a Tibetan mastiff has become all the rage among the affluent in China.In March and April last year, for example, there were more than 10 expos held around the country featuring Tibetan mastiffs.At the expos, mature mastiffs that are supposed to cost millions were in fact sold for about 100,000 yuan ($15,240) in under-the-table deals."One mastiff can fetch millions of yuan. But if you looked at the many stands around the expo halls, you could find mastiff puppies priced at just 800 yuan ($122)," says Hou Gaoliang, marketing manager of Petdog, a nationwide chain store selling pets and pet goods. According to China National Kennel Club (CNKC), there are around 4,000 registered Tibetan mastiff kennels in the nation, 700 of which are large-scale ones, with more than 30 dogs and good facilities.
A CNKC spokesman says there are more than 100,000 Tibetan mastiffs in the country, but not many of them are purebred."About 90 percent of quality Tibetan mastiffs are traded among professional mastiff kennels while the rest go to wealthy dog lovers, like coal mine owners, who buy a mastiff and treat it like a family member," Hou says.Baishi, a 57-kg dog, with dark orange hair and a fierce disposition is Zhang's favorite dog. He's worth 6 million yuan ($912,660) and Zhang charges 26,000 yuan as kennel fee.Hou, however, deems the whopping prices a publicity stunt to artificially inflate the market."Kennel owners are trying to get rich quick and overlook the fact that supply exceeds demand," Hou says.Unscrupulous breeders are churning out litters as quickly as possible and this leads to small kennels being left with packs of unsold mastiffs.A dog breeder, surnamed Pan, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, dipped his toes in the Tibetan mastiff market in 2006.He bought 10 1-3 month-old mastiffs from Tibet at a cost of over 500,000 yuan, according to hanghzou.com.cn.In the first two years, the 53-year-old had 39 mastiffs at his 3,000-square-meter kennel, only eight of which were sold."My customers were mainly businessmen. They needed a watch dog, not a pet, so they forced down the price to a mere 10,000 yuan for each dog," Pan says.Pan found it difficult to take care of so many dogs and pay rising rent. He tried to sell the kennel for 800,000 yuan but failed and had to move it to another village.To make things worse, some breeders deliberately produce mix-breed dogs and sell them as purebred Tibetan mastiffs.They crossbreed Tibetan mastiffs with Saint Bernards or Pyrenean Mountain dogs to make a hybrid that looks stronger and larger than the purebred Tibetan mastiff."But over time, only those kennels that persist in breeding quality mastiffs will survive," Petdog marketing manager Hou insists.
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