Meet the World’s Most Expensive Dog

Thursday, 17 March 2011 | by Pat's Picks

This guy looks a little sad…guess he doesn’t know how much he’s worth. The New York Post says this 11-month-old red Tibetan mastiff is now the world’s most expensive dog, after being sold to a Chinese millionaire for a record $1.5 million. Named Hong Dong (Big Splash in Chinese), the seller says the dog is 180 pounds and growing. Tibetan mastiffs have a reputation for being great guard dogs, and the seller says Hong Dong’s new owner will “be able to recoup his investment in just a few years by charging other breeders stud fees of as much as $15,000 each.”

In 2009, another Tibetan mastiff named Yangtze River Number Two was named the most expensive dog in the world, after it sold for $585,000. Seems like quite a deal, in retrospect. Apparently, the breed has become something of a status symbol among the Chinese elite.