Talk:Tibetan Mastiff/Archive 1

Colors
The article said that Tibetan Mastiffs are typically all black, I'm not sure thats true seeing as I've only seen one solid black Tibetan. The tan markings mentioned usually occur. Is there any source for the "usually all black" statement? They are very few that are all black. They also come in other colors such as every shade of gold, red and sable that you can imagine. More rare are the gray and gray with cream points. This portion of it is certainly incorrect.

Lion Head/Tiger Head
This refers to the two types of TMs popular in China. The Tiger is the larger, mastiff type with more size, bone, longer ears, wrinkling folds of skin on the head with a moderate lion pattern coat, a family guardian dog. The Lion type is the shorter, longer bodied, almost Chow coated variety, cleaner in muzzle, shorter in ear, a shepherd dog.

In traditional Chinese categorization of Tibetan Mastiff, Lion Head refers to those Tibetan Mastiffs who have thick coat around their neck like those in lions, whereas tiger head refers to those who do not have. As for skin, a term "golden coin leopard" refers to Tibetan Mastiff who have rather dark skin with yellow spots, like the spots you find in leopard. This of course is not actually found in the breed.

The article says something about the almost extinction which is not true. In China in 2008, there are an estimated 3000 Tibetan Mastiff kennels with 50-100 dogs each. There are still original bloodlines being bred in Tibet. They were used by Biao Ju (the security guard companies employed by the Government and merchants for protection of the transfer of precious goods). For example, Da Sheng Guai was the largest armed logistic company in China and had tradings as far west as Moscow. They bred their own Tibetan Mastiffs, and the dogs had their company shares. This company had four types of stock shares: of the two owner families, the employers, the so-called "God of Fortune", and the dogs. Two gentlemen from Shanxi Province in northern China found the company in 17th century in Inner Mongolia doing Russian trade, and one mysterious customer asked them to look after two boxes and said he would return the next day. He never came back and after ten years they opened and found out there were silver coins. They used this silver coin and called it "God of Fortune" stocks and the company kept it till mid 1900's. The origin of Mastiff stock was at one time in the 17th century their caravans were intersected by a bandits. The Mastiff dogs guarded them and one doy was send to ask for help and eventually helps came and they were saved. From then on the dog share was created and the profit was used to provide the best training and food to the dogs.

Dog is really the mirror image of God.

Karolus 2006/5/26

Fair use rationale for Image:Tibetan Mastiffs1.jpg
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BetacommandBot 04:44, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

TM Types
From what I can find on various breeder websites, it appears there are two archetype Tibetan Mastiffs - the huge mastiff type (Tsang-khyi) and the smaller (still large) shepherd type (Do-khyi). Tsang-khyi are a true "mastiff" (i.e. similar characteristics to other mastiffs) whereas Do-khyi are finer featured (although still very large). Do-khyi breeders don't mention this difference (by and large), while Tsang-khyi breeders are keen to suggest that Tsang-khyi are the only true Tibetan Mastiff breed. Whichever the case, there is certainly a discernable variation in the size and features of Tibetan Mastiffs. Georgia 00:30, 4 May 2006 (EST)

It seems quite clear that many types of TM can be found in native land, but there is still a discussion amongst researchers about which can be the correct names for different types. Anyway being "do khyi" the word tibetan people use for tibetan guarding dogs, this should be the name for the whole "breed", including all sub-types.

lion and tiger types are actually described in chinese breed standard, which probably soon will became adopted as the official international standard.

--- In Tibetan, Mongol and Mandarin usage, Tsang-khyi refers to Zang Ao or Tibetan Ao, whereas Do-khyi refer to working dog with Tsang-khyi blood. Traditionally in Inner Mongolia Tsang-khyi was crossed breed with dogs whose father were wolves raised by human and mother other large working dogs in Northern China. These dogs are called Er Dai Ao or Second Generation Ao. Ao is an Classical Chinese word meaning Big Working Dog, and is usually translated as Mastiff in English.

Karolus 20080403 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.190.32.7 (talk) 12:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Needs Photos
This article is in serious need of more photos. I don't really like the one in the infobox, it's covered in dirt, and has something around it's neck. I'd love to see one of the dog standing up and cleaner. Some puppy photos would be nice as well. I don't own one so I can't contribute, but if any one who is a breeder, or at least has a better photo, could you please post one? Mokoniki (talk) 16:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)Mokoniki