Bow . . . Wow!
This 11-month-old red Tibetan mastiff has become the world’s most expensive dog after someone in China paid more than $1.5 million for him.
While specifics of the sale were kept confidential, the dog’s seller said it was a multimillionaire coal baron from northern China who bought the red-haired rover named Hong Dong — or Big Splash.
“When I started in this business 10 years ago, I never thought we would see such a price,” breeder Lu Liang, owner of the Tibetan Mastiff Garden in Laoshan, told London’s Telegraph newspaper.
“We have spent a lot of money raising this dog, and we have the salaries of plenty of staff to pay.”
Tibetan mastiffs are an ancient breed, long revered as skilled guard dogs — and they are huge. At 180 pounds and still growing, Big Splash is considered “a perfect specimen,” said Liang, who believes the buyer might be able to recoup his investment in just a few years by charging other breeders stud fees of as much as $15,000 each.