A Big Hairy Dog

At my local doggy park, there are dogs of all shapes and sizes, and many weird and wonderful breeds.  There are of course the ubiquitous Poodle, Labrador and Jack Russell, but there are also unusual breeds such as this big guy:

He looks like a bear! You know what he is? Give up? Well he's a Tibetan Mastiff.

I've never heard of them before. At first I thought it must be a furphy, like the infamous Kenyan Giraffe Dog, but I came home and googled and sure enough, it is a fair-dinkum breed, and an ancient one at that. Apparently they were bred to be guardians of home and flock in the high mountains.

According to what I read, their origin in Tibet is 'hidden in the mist of time', kind of like Gary's favourite comic hero, the Phantom. Mmmm...

King George IV of England had a pair (of Tibetan Mastiffs, that is).

The big fella in the pic is 'Quan', by the way. He usually lumbers around the park, like a bulldozer in low gear, but every now and then, without warning, he'll break into a canter. He's not a lot of fun to play with, but I like him.

There you go...you learn something new everyday.