American community loves Vietnamese dogs

It took Anny Yang 7 months, a series of procedures and expensive expenses to bring Mong Coc dog from a farm in Hanoi to Washington.

"I couldn't sleep for months because of anxiety and excitement. The day we met was a day I will never forget in my life," said Anny Yang, 32, a graphic designer in Vancouver, Washington, about the first time she met her dog, Mong Coc, on November 4. She named the 10-month-old dog Hua, which means "cloud" in Mong.

Anny Yang, 32, with her 10-month-old H'mong Bobtail dog, which she bought from a farm in Hanoi, early November 2023. Photo: Character provided

Anny is a Hmong born in the US. Her ancestors migrated from China to Laos and then to the US. A few years ago, she happened to see a picture of a Vietnamese puppy circulating online. After researching, the designer was shocked to discover that it was an ancient breed of Hmong dog in Vietnam. "I decided to import a Hmong Bobtail dog from Vietnam to the US," she said.

During this process, she met Kira Hoang , an American who was passionate about Vietnamese dogs and connected with dog breeders across the ocean. Anny began following Hua since he was three months old, but bringing him to the US was a difficult and expensive journey. Hua needed regular vaccinations and health certificates from a US lab, had to be transported in a specialized cage, and had to fly for more than 20 hours.

"The total cost of bringing Hua to the US was more than $3,000, but the most difficult thing was not knowing the personality and potential risks of adopting a dog from halfway around the world," she said.

Anny Yang is a member of a community of thousands of Americans who are passionate about purebred Vietnamese dogs.

Dog lovers around the world began to pay attention to Vietnamese native dogs in 2015, when Catherine Lane, 42, from East Sussex (UK), brought back from Vietnam a pair of black-haired Phu Quoc dogs. The pair gave birth to four puppies, each of which sold for up to £10,000. The high cost and characteristics of this rare hunting dog breed spread, became famous, and formed a movement to raise Vietnamese dogs.

According to Lieu Jean, a breeder, trainer and rescuer of Phu Quoc dogs in the US, California alone has more than 1,000 dogs, and neighboring states also have hundreds. There are dozens of community groups raising Phu Quoc dogs on social media.

Kira Hoang, president of the Phu Quoc Ridgeback Association in the United States, said her group has about 200 Phu Quoc Ridgebacks. There are also communities raising Mong Coc, Bac Ha, and Lai dogs, although they don’t have many members.

Peter Jean (Lieu Jean's husband) trains Phu Quoc dogs at their home in California in the summer of 2023. The couple has been training, breeding and rescuing Phu Quoc dogs for more than 5 years. Photo: Character provided

A Phu Quoc dog bought from Vietnam to the US costs 2,000-3,000 USD, while at flea markets in the US, the price ranges from 800-1,500 USD. Lieu Jean said that her trained dogs cost from 4,000 USD and must sign a contract not to breed. If you want a dog that can be bred, you have to pay 10,000 USD.

Lieu, a doctor, has raised Phu Quoc dogs since 2015. After that, Lieu and his wife trained, bred and rescued them, and now they have become a reputable address for families who want to train dogs. Hundreds of customers have brought their dogs to learn directly, and online students come from many European countries, the US, and Canada.

Lieu said that raising purebred Vietnamese dogs in the US, especially Phu Quoc dogs, requires proper training or else you will get into serious trouble. Phu Quoc dogs are hunting dogs by nature, intelligent but also wild. If not trained, they will do whatever they want. "The cost of buying a dog is one, but the cost of training can be 10 times higher," Jean said.

Owning a Phu Quoc dog named Kairos that can perform more than 100 commands, Dan Khanh, 26, a game artist of Vietnamese origin, said that at first he was a bit shy when he brought him home. However, she discovered that Kairos is very smart, learns everything quickly, and can even perform two commands at the same time. "He is smarter than expected and always does things that surprise me," she said.

Kairos' loyalty and intelligence inspired Dan Khanh to connect with the Vietnamese dog breed community. With her research strengths, over the years, Dan Khanh has scoured online archives to find historical records of the "four great national dogs of Vietnam", thereby building a resource base and spreading it to everyone. Together with Kira Hoang, she researched and preserved the pedigrees of hundreds of dogs; helping to create a standard chart, as a basis for Americans to better understand purebred Vietnamese dogs.

"My goal is very simple. I want people to love and cherish Phu Quoc dogs and all Vietnamese dog breeds like me," she said.

Dan Khanh with a Phu Quoc dog, during a visit to a dog farm in Gia Lam, Hanoi, October 25, 2023. Photo: Phan Duong

Having learned about Vietnamese dog breeds online since late 2020, Kamiko Kourtev, 26, and her husband in Chicago (Illinois), have grown to love them more and more. She is waiting to buy a puppy from Kira Hoang's farm.

Kamiko said her family is raising two Chow Chow and American Pit Bull dogs purely as pets . But when adopting Vietnamese native dogs, her goal is higher, which is to be able to contribute to the preservation and increase the number of well-bred dog breeds in the US.

"Preserving purebreds has been my goal for a long time. When I learned about the breeds originating from Vietnam, I found the breed that I wanted to help preserve. I also intend to raise them to guard the house, because I heard that Vietnamese dog breeds do this very well," said the mother of two.

Lieu Jean’s work training and rescuing Phu Quoc dogs in the US is one way she protects this breed from being discredited. In 2019, she collaborated with world-renowned geneticist Elaine Ann Ostrander at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Dog Genome project to collect DNA samples of purebred dogs. Jean returned to Vietnam to collect DNA samples of more than 200 Phu Quoc dogs to include in this profile.

In January 2023, Kira Hoang also made a trip to Vietnam to collect more than 100 DNA samples of native dogs, to ensure the accuracy of breeding records. She said a scientific paper on these results will be published soon and there will be good news for Vietnamese dog lovers.

"There are many Americans interested in purebred Vietnamese dogs, but because they are not recognized by the FCI, many people do not want to own them," Kira said.

Currently, she and Phu Quoc dog lovers in the US are gathering together, first trying to get them to participate in beauty and sports competitions; more importantly, they want to include the names of Vietnamese dog breeds in dog associations in the US and the world.

Kamiko Kourtev and her husband in Chicago (Illinois) visited Kira Hoang's H'mong Bobtail dog in Hawaii, early November 2023. Photo: Character provided

Under the ginkgo trees in Vancouver during the fall, Anny walks her dog, Mong Coc, every day. She says it’s been a wonderful time living with Hua and getting to know his personality. In the future, she wants to do more genetic testing on him and study any potential health issues before breeding healthier dogs.

"I also want to contribute to the process of the Mong Coc breed being recognized worldwide and I believe Hua will pave the way for this future," she said.

Phan Duong

Vnexpress.net