A Dream Four Years in the Making: Finding Bao Den, Our Phu Quoc Ridgeback

🐾 FEATURED PUP STORY OF THE MONTH: Meet Báo-Đen from Germany 🐾

 Each month, we shine the spotlight on a standout Vietnamese Phu Quoc Ridgeback dog. This month, we travel to Germany to meet Báo-Đen and her family. Here is her story, as told by her Mom:

A dream come true ...

Báo-Đen’s story started four years before she was born, when I met her sire-to-be in Hanoi.  Ancient breeds – I don’t like to call them primitive – have fascinated us ever since we owned a wonderful and sweet Basenji.  A few years later, a beautiful black Thai Ridgeback girl moved in with us.  As the only female in a litter of 5, she had adopted some male characteristics from her brothers, was rather fierce and overly protective, but super intelligent.  Both of our dogs lived a long and happy life with us. 

Sometime ago, we heard about a third ridgeback breed rarer even than the TRD – the Phu Quoc Ridgeback – and started researching.  We found Jean and Peter’s Dogumentary and immediately got hooked.  The PQR seemed to fit in somewhere between the Basenji and the TRD.  To get an idea about their behavior towards people and to see them in real life, I decided to hop to Hanoi during a vacation in Thailand in 2019.  With the help of a Vietnamese friend, I had found a translator and set-up visits with two breeders, a meeting with a third breeder was facilitated by Jean (Dr Jean Lieu of Vietnamese Phu Quoc Ridgeback Dogs of Southern California and Co-Founder of the Phu Quoc Ridgeback Kennel Club - PQRKC).  Within a single day, I probably got to see nearly a hundred PQRs, all ages, all sizes, all colors – except there was only one single black PQR that crossed my path.  All of them were amiable towards people and curious to meet a new person.  And yes, my impression was that they should be easier to handle than TRDs and still have that ancient blood that lends them an independent mind.

The decision was made, our next dog would be a PQR.  We were reluctant to import a dog from Vietnam, not knowing what kind of events would prime a puppy there during its first seven months of life – the minimum age to import a dog from Asia to Germany.  So, from that time on we had a closer eye on Jean & Peter’s upbringing of puppies.  When watching their posts, we were pretty surprised to see that Jean & Peter imported exactly the black male PQR I had admired in Hanoi.  As our TRD was afflicted by a mammary tumor, but miraculously clung to life for quite some years, we would not get a puppy to upset her.  About a year after our TRD’s passing at an age of almost 16 years, Jean & Peter were caring for a litter of 3, sired by exactly the black PQR I had seen in Hanoi (pictured above).  His little black daughter named Hope had not been claimed yet.  So, one summer evening I contacted Jean and asked.  After a zoom meeting and a filled questionnaire, Jean told us that we may adopt little Hope, if we wanted – Jean unknowingly made her offer exactly on the day that our black TRD had passed the year before.   

So, I started planning my journey to Jean & Peter’s ranch.  Jean organized all the paperwork required for the import, and everything fell into place.  When I got on the airplane, it felt like I would enter into a dream.  When I arrived at Jean & Peter’s ranch and met sweet little Báo-Đen (= black panther, the name we chose for her) for the first time, that dream came true.  She was a bit wary at first, but connected with me rather quickly supported by the strategy that Peter had developed.  The five days I spent on the ranch to bond with Báo-Đen and learned to train her felt like walking in my own dream, almost unreal.  I had a fabulous time, learned a tremendous amount and cherished every moment with Báo-Đen, Jean & Peter. 

The travel home with Báo-Đen on board went smoothly, she discovered her new surroundings day by day and made friends at her new home quickly.  As of this month, this was two years ago.

Báo-Đen is a marvelous PQR.  She is amiable and cuddly.  She is alert, but warms up to new people, if given enough time.  She learns new tricks quickly, if she likes them.  Báo-Đen is talkative, but never growls.  She has a special interest in hedgehogs and rodents.  Báo-Đen lets me clean her teeth and pull ticks without ever flinching.  Only car rides are no fun for her, although she has learned to accept them.  We love her attentiveness and curiosity, her self-dependence and problem-solving ability, her sportive look and agility, her short silky jet-black coat and proud stature.  We are so happy and grateful that Báo-Đen is part of our every-day life making our dream reality.