Poongsan Pup for Dad

For my dad's 70th birthday which was in March, he requested a Poongsan puppy as his last dog to raise.  In Korea and in the US, he had raised Jindo gaes, but he had never raised a Poongsan gae.

Since I was eager to raise one as well, I was all for it.  But I wanted a domestic dog first rather than an import.  If I were to import a Poongsan, that would set us off onto the road of importing SEVERAL Poongans.  I'm not quite ready to do that when I haven't even met one before. **   

In the US, there was an attempt in the late 1990's  to form a new breed, the 'American Pungsan' from just the first import group from North Korea.  They did so because later dogs from other sources were very different looking than them and there were people "making" Poongsans.  Unfortunately, several months into my research I found out that the 'American Pungsan' lineage has faded out in the US with no breeders left.  I would have to import from South Korea if I wanted to get a dog from the first import group.

So instead, we opted to get a Poongsan from southern California from a lineage that comes from via China.  My dad and I visited two sets of adult Poongsans and I was startled to see how big they were.  These Poongsans are considerably bigger than the first import group which were barely bigger than a Jindo.  These new Poongsans are thigh-high while Jindos are knee-high.  Still, we plodded on and evaluated the Poongsans as dogs.

Friendly towards people.  Not obnoxious.  Very quiet.  Respectful of the 4 ft fence.  Loves the land.  Decent physical structure.

We ended up with the last pup of the second set of Poongsans, but are leaving open the option of a pup from the first set.  We'll see how things go with just one.

Here is the Poongsan pup on the day we picked her up, which was two weekends ago.  My dad named her PoongSoon.

 

**edit:  Forgot that I did meet one male Poongsan before at a Jindo show.  He was a nice dog though a bit goofy.