The American community loves Vietnamese dogs.

It took Anny Yang seven months and a series of expensive procedures and costs to bring her Mong Coc dog from a farm in Hanoi to Washington.

"I lost sleep for months because of anxiety and excitement. The day we met is a day I will never forget in my life," said Anny Yang, 32, a graphic designer in Vancouver, Washington, recounting her first encounter with her Mong bobdog on November 4th. 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 in early November 2023. Photo: Provided by the subject.

Anny is a Hmong woman born in the United States. Her ancestors migrated from China through Laos to the United States. A few years ago, she stumbled upon a picture of a puppy in Vietnam circulating online. Upon further investigation, the designer was shocked to discover it was an ancient breed of dog belonging to the Hmong people in Vietnam. "I decided to import a Hmong Bobtail from Vietnam to the United States," she recounted.

During this process, she met Kira Hoang , an American passionate about Vietnamese dogs, and connected with dog breeders across the ocean. Anny began tracking Hua when she was three months old, but bringing her to the US was a difficult and expensive journey. Hua needed regular vaccinations and a health certificate from a US lab, had to be transported in a specialized cage, and flew for over 20 hours.

"The total cost to bring Hua to the US was over $3,000, but the hardest part was not knowing her personality and the 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 passionate about purebred Vietnamese dog breeds.

Dog lovers around the world began paying attention to the native Vietnamese dog breed in 2015, when Catherine Lane, 42, from East Sussex, England, brought a pair of black Phu Quoc dogs from Vietnam. The pair produced four puppies, each selling for £10,000. The high cost and the unique characteristics of this rare hunting dog breed spread, making it famous and sparking a movement to breed Vietnamese dogs.

According to Jean Lieu, a breeder, trainer, and rescuer of Phu Quoc dogs in the US, there are over 1,000 in California alone, with hundreds in neighboring states. There are also dozens of Phu Quoc dog breeding community groups on social media.

Kira Hoang, president of the Phu Quoc Ridgeback Association in the US, said her group has about 200 Phu Quoc dogs. There are also communities raising Mong short-tailed, Bac Ha, and Lai dogs, although they don't have many members yet.

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 over five years. Photo: Provided by the couple.

Buying a Phu Quoc dog from Vietnam and bringing it to the US costs between $2,000 and $3,000, while in American flea markets the price ranges from $800 to $1,500. Lieu Jean stated that her trained dogs cost from $4,000 and require a contract prohibiting breeding. If you want a dog that can be bred, you would have to pay $10,000.

Lieu, a doctor himself, has been raising Phu Quoc dogs since 2015. Later, Lieu and his wife trained, bred, and rescued dogs, and now they have become a reputable address for families wanting to train their dogs. Hundreds of customers bring their dogs for in-person training alone, and online learners come from many countries in Europe, the US, and Canada.

Lieu said that raising purebred Vietnamese dogs in the US, especially Phu Quoc dogs, requires proper training; otherwise, serious problems can arise. Phu Quoc dogs are hunting dogs by nature, intelligent but also wild. Without training, they will do whatever they want. "The cost of buying a dog is one thing, but the training costs can be ten times higher," Jean said.

Dan Khanh, 26, a Vietnamese-born game artist, says that Kairos, a Phu Quoc dog capable of carrying out over 100 commands, was initially a little shy when she first brought him home. However, she discovered that Kairos is very intelligent, learns everything quickly, and can even execute two commands at once. "He's smarter than I expected and always does things that surprise me," she said.

Kairos's loyalty and intelligence inspired Dan Khanh to connect with the Vietnamese dog breed community. Leveraging her research skills, Dan Khanh has spent years scouring online archives for historical records of Vietnam's "four great national dog breeds," building a resource library and disseminating information to the public. Together with Kira Hoang, she researches and maintains the pedigrees of hundreds of dogs, helping to create a standardized system that provides a better understanding of purebred Vietnamese dogs for Americans.

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

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

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

Kamiko said her family is raising two dogs, a Chow Chow and an American Pit Bull, purely as pets . But when she adopted a native Vietnamese dog, her goal was higher: to contribute to the preservation and increase of well-bred dog breeds in the United States.

"Preserving purebreds has long been my goal. When I learned about breeds of Vietnamese origin, I found the breed I wanted to help preserve. I also intend to keep them as guard dogs, because I heard that Vietnamese dog breeds are very good at this," said the mother of two.

Lieu Jean's work in training and rescuing Phu Quoc dogs in the US is a way for her to protect this breed from being stigmatized. In 2019, she collaborated with world-renowned geneticist Elaine Ann Ostrander at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Dog Genome project to collect DNA samples from purebred dogs. Jean returned to Vietnam to collect DNA samples from over 200 Phu Quoc dogs for this project.

In January 2023, Kira Hoang also made a trip to Vietnam to collect over 100 DNA samples of native dog breeds, in order to ensure the accuracy of breeding records. She said that a scientific paper on these results would be published soon and there would be much good news for Vietnamese dog lovers.

"Many Americans are interested in purebred Vietnamese dogs, but because they haven't been recognized by the FCI (World Canine Federation), many people are hesitant to own one," Kira said.

Currently, she and other Phu Quoc dog enthusiasts in the US are coming together, firstly to help the dogs participate in beauty and sports competitions; secondly, they want to have the Vietnamese dog breed's name included in dog associations in the US and around the world.

Kamiko Kourtev and her husband from Chicago, Illinois, visited Kira Hoang's Hmong Bobtail dog in Hawaii in early November 2023. Photo: Provided by the subjects.

Under the ginkgo trees in Vancouver during the fall, Anny takes her short-tailed Mong dog for a walk every day. She says it's a wonderful time living with Hua and learning about her personality. She plans to conduct more genetic tests on her and research any potential health issues before breeding healthier dogs.

"I also want to contribute to the process of gaining global recognition for the Mong Cộc dog breed, and I believe Hua will pave the way for this future," she said.

Phan Duong

Vnexpress.net