My Ranch Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Selected

Translated by me, edited by Kai.

Hearing the girl’s words, Jiang Hai looked around at the hounds kept here. Due to previous work conditions, all the dogs here all have big frames. In addition, they are all pretty smart. Seeing Jiang Hai looking at them, they might have guessed that these people are here to adopt them. So they returned Jiang Hai and Robins’ looks with their own looks of curiosity.

Although Jiang Hai had never raised dogs before thus knowing next to nothing about them, this is not the case for Robins. He has raised cows for a long time and came to know a lot about them during that period of time. Hence, while observing these dogs, he also introduced them to Jiang Hai.

The majority of the dogs here are border collies. Although this breed comes from Scotland, they are not like the scotch collies. These dogs are much smarter, but also somewhat smaller. One of the best frisbee catchers out there, these dogs are best suited to herd around sheeps and a bit too weak to herd cows around. However, due to the experience they have, these veteran dogs are still able to herd cows around. Smart, good learners, good comprehension abilities, easy to train, gentle, loyal, and obedient makes these dogs the best to train.

Apart from this breed, there are also a lot of german shepherds here. These dogs generally are trained to become guard dogs. The third most numerous dog here is the ugly australian cattle dog. These dogs were specifically bred for cattle ranching, thus all 3 here were chosen by Robins on the spot. The other dogs are smarter, but when it comes to expertise of the trade, the cattle dog is the most reliable.

There are also a lot of other breeds here. Such as the smart golden retriever, but they are just too mischievous hence very little people use them as cattle dogs. If golden retrievers can’t do it then obviously labrador retrievers are also out of the question. The shelter also has rottweilers and doberman pinschers. These dogs are best suited to use as hunting dogs, but to use them as cattle dogs? You can forget about it.

This only covered a small amount of breeds here. Since Jiang Hai has no idea what to look for when picking for cattle dogs, thus everything fell on the shoulders of Robins. As for him, he went looking around for interesting breeds to adopt as pets.

The amount of pets people raise in America can be said to have reached crazy heights. This here is not a pets store but an animal shelter. However the completeness of dog breeds here covers all the breeds that Jiang Hai knows of and then some, it is even more complete than most dog markets in China. As Jiang Hai made a tour of the shelter, all the breeds he has heard of can be found here. However, of these dogs, some are aggressive while some are very pa.s.sive. Some face him with curiosity and favorable impressions while others react with barks, coldly or even ignore him.

After a while of touring the place, Jiang Hai’s eyes suddenly lit up. At the corner of the shelter is a huge steel cage containing a giant dog. This dog is currently crouching there and staring back at Jiang Hai. Solely from this position, it is already at his chest level. But as Jiang Hai walked towards it, it also stood up and walked towards him.

“Clang Clang. Clang Clang.” Seeing this almost as big as the bear dog, Jiang Hai had no thoughts of retreating. Rather he faced it with a face full of astonishment because he is very familiar with this breed of dog. His friend, Fu Yuan, has one of these caucasian shepherd dogs at home. Only, the one he owns is not as big as this one, but, Fu Yuan’s is still considered big in terms of family dogs. However, when compared to this beast, it is way out of it’s league because as soon as this beast moves, it is pretty scary to watch.

*Hong, HongHong.* The sound this dog makes is not a normal dog’s barking sounds. Rather it sounds more like the ‘hong’ sound from pulling a bellows. As it roared at Jiang Hai, he ignored it and continued forward.

“Seems like it really likes you.” Said the girl who led them in, as she walked over from afar and patted the dog on it’s head. These shepherd dogs can’t be considered a smart breed but they also aren’t dumb. It clearly knows this girl so it rubs her hand as soon as she came over.

“This dog is a very good pet since it hasn’t experienced much. It’s previous owner couldn’t raise it, so they left it here after it weaned along with a sizable donation. It was raised here since it was little so it has no grudges against humans.” The girl explained as she rubbed its fur. It also let out a low moan to display its happiness.

*Um…..* However this was all interrupted by a sudden growl from a nearby cage. As soon as it heard this sound, it’s misbehaving att.i.tude suddenly turned to that of well-behaved and sat down with a look full of fear. Following this sound, Jiang Hai found the cage and the source of the sound. In the cage is a dog lying down. It has greyish fur with tints of blue in it, it’s pair of eyes are like that of a wolf’s but it is much bigger than a normal wolf, although a bit smaller than the german shepherd over there. Seeing it’s eyes, Jiang Hai is stunned and let out a look full of curiosity.

“That one over there is a stray mastiff. It bit 4 police officers in Boston before it was caught. A chinese specialist that I requested identified it to be a Tibetan mastiff of the blue wolf species. Although I don’t know why it is called blue wolf since it is much bigger than normal wolves, but it is currently the alpha dog here. It seems like all the other dogs here are afraid of it.” The girl introduced it with hints of fear.

“Blue wolf mastiff?” Jiang Hai is clearly stunned upon hearing that awkward-sounding chinese p.r.o.nunciation.

Rumor has it that there are 3 quality species of tibetan mastiffs. The so called quality here is not the price, but its combat potential. Demon face, primal, and blue wolf (1). The demon face mastiffs is really the result of crossbreeding tibetan mastiffs with other large hounds. It has a non duplicative nature of being able to fight non stop, but it is also stupid to the point of being crazy.

Tibetan mastiffs are always said to be loyal mainly because these dogs are very stupid. Extraordinarily stupid. It is stupid to the point here they only ever remember one person. Hence the loyalness of the dog, but the demon face species is stupid to the point of no return. It can’t even remember one person. All it does it act upon it natural instinct. If it sees a dog grabbing his domain then it will attack. If it sees other animals, then they are just food. In its mind there is no fear. The proverbs say these mastiffs are afraid of everything, but the demon faces shatters this legend resulting in its low numbers.

Primal mastiffs are just wild mastiffs caught and tamed from the tibetan plateau. Hence the name ‘primal’ mastiff due to its savageness it gets from being wild. As for blue wolf, it is also like the demon face, a byproduct of crossbreeding. But it’s savageness is guaranteed. According to legends, if you leave 10 puppies without any food together then the only one who will remain will always be the blue wolf. Nine hounds, one mastiff is really talking about the blue wolf. However, if these really are purebreds then why would heardsmen let them fight each other? Since they are only half-breeds, they are not worth the effort to sell them.

“We are fellow townsman aren’t we.” Seeing this magnificent beast, Jiang Hai didn’t run away like that girl. Rather he squatted in front of the cage and stared back at it.

On the other hand, when this mastiff felt Jiang Hai’s stares, it immediately stared back. Just like that a man and a dog entered a staring contest, each displaying a different expression. Although there are bars separating them, but the girl is still afraid to get close even when it isn’t moving. However, this isn’t the case for Jiang Hai. If this was the previous him then obviously he would be scared, but now that he has the pearl and the dragon tattoo, although he is only at the python rank, but it is still better than nothing. If it is only simply facing a dog then the dragon force residing in him will not yield.

“Boss, I’m done choosing over here. 3 australian cattle dogs and 2 german shepherds. Since we’re also going to raise some sheeps so I also added in 2 more border collies. In total 7 dogs.” Said Robins suddenly as he walked over.

“Add on these 2 as well.” Jiang Hai said as he pointed to the mastiff in front of him and the german shepherd.

“The german shepherd is fine, but the mastiff won’t do. It’s just too terrifying, we can’t…” The girl immediately replied. The caucasus can be adopted, but due to the mastiff’s history of injuring people, it’s only choice is to live out it’s life within the cage.

“$100,000 as donation to the shelter and $1000 cash as tips for your service. Any other problems?” Jiang Hai replied without thinking as he stared at the girl.