First off I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea: This farm is not a farm for raising dogs to be eaten. Thankfully this culinary option is dying in Vietnam and is for the most part, severely frowned upon. As a dog lover, I would never financially support any institution that was at all involved in that sort of thing.
Instead, this is a place that once it was mentioned to me by our taxi guide, I knew I had to go there. It is a place where a bunch of exotic breeds of dogs are kept, well looked after, and basically just get showered with love all day long. There is also a very boring strawberry farm there.
The first thing you will notice when you arrive at Puppy Farm is that it stinks. As someone who has just one dog I realize that they tend to poo poo and pee pee just wherever they feel like it so this was expected.
The ticket buying process was kind of humorous because we bought our two tickets in a very regimented fashion and then the same person that sold us the tickets walked around the counter to tear them up so we could pass by even though there was no barricade stopping us from just walking in. I suppose there was some sort of protocol that the person MUST do this even though it is remarkably stupid.
Once you get to the pens, there are these HUGE open areas where the dogs can all run around and mostly they follow the trainers or the people who have paid for these tiny cups of treats to get the dogs' attention. Because I cannot read Vietnamese I didn't know that there were cups of treats for sale until we were already leaving so I think I really missed the bus on that one.
Some of the little cuties are too tired from a busy day of getting loads of attention from tourists and they were just lying around all over the place, recharging their batteries until the next bus arrives with more treats to hand out.
While there were a lot of different breeds here the popular ones seemed to be Corgis, Golden Retrievers, and Pomeranians. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a single Shih-Tzu to be found here out of the 60 or so dogs that they had.
Although I thought it was very cute and this little girl had absolutely nothing to be afraid of, she was a bit scared of all the attention she was getting because of the cup of snacks that she had in her hand. I was only there for about 10 minutes but she was relentlessly pursued by the dogs who were all wagging their tails and in no way trying to hurt her. I guess she didn't understand that the reason why they were paying so much attention to her is because she is the one with the food and she is closest to the ground out of all the humans that were there.
The dogs were all extremely well-behaved and very well looked after. They all are clearly treated well and they were nicely groomed and very clean. Cleaner than Nadi normally is actually. This made me very happy because Vietnam isn't exactly known for their ethical treatment of animals so I was a bit concerned when we went here that I was going to be horrified by the treatment they received. The dogs all seemed to really love the trainers and all of them were in tremendous physical health, so this was absolutely excellent to see.
Everyone had a chance to sit with doggy Santa if they wanted to and of course I jumped at the chance to do so. This big dog, that could have probably removed my hand in one bite if he wanted to, just sat there for the camera and was rewarded with a small treat after each person that sat with him.
Now here comes the bad part: This place is really far away from all the other attractions of Da Lat and even though I really really really really love dogs, I don't think it was worth the near 1-hour round trip that it took to get to it. Once you have pet a dozen dogs and realized that they are only in it for the treats and then they walk away, you are kind of over it. I am happy to say that this place clearly takes care of the animals though and that was a relief. I was a bit apprehensive to go there at all because I was worried the dogs would be in small kennels and mistreated. They definitely are NOT in that situation.
So I guess if you really love dogs go ahead and go to see this if you are in Da Lat. Just know that there is basically nothing other than farmland in the vicinity and no matter where you are staying it is going to be really far from this place. I don't know if it is really worth it.
At this point in our travels we have already seen all the major sites of Da Lat and are realizing that the main reason why people come here isn't necessarily because of the jaw-dropping nature (it really isn't that special IMO) but because it is one of the few places in Vietnam that stays cool year round. It would say that at least by my tropical blood standards it was really cold. Dogs were great though :)
Oh man the things that go through my head are how much I would love to be surrounded by all that fuzzy playfulness, and the how I would not be able to breath after about 10 minutes of trying to pet them all. Damn allergies.
Glad to have visited this placecwith uou and know it isnt free range dogs who will visit a stew! I will have to be happy hanging out on my curation chair with my little buddy and maybe a trip to the park later to see some more dogs.
We have a friend with two daughters that we babysit from time to time. The youngest girl is always afraid of our dog at first simply because she is excited to see new people and she tends to bark. Then by the time she is ready to go home, we have to beg her to leave the dog alone! I was worried this was going to be some kind of puppy mill when I read the title, but it looks like a really cool place. What a great life for the dogs! All the love and food they can handle!
There are a lot of children here that are terrified of my dog. sure, she is 11 lbs of pure terror but I don't get it. I can only guess that they were traumatized by some rogue animal at some point in her life, which is understandable. I spent a lot of my life thinking that Golden Retrievers were awful and vicious animals because when I was around 8 years old and would ride my bike to school there was this one that would relentlessly chase me on my bike. I didn't have the wherewithal at that point in my life to realize that it was just playing and enjoys chasing things. If I had just stopped the bike it probably would have showered me with kisses.
Yeah, retrievers are interesting like that. I don't think I have ever met one that wasn't just looking for a whole lot of love. I can see how it would be a bit traumatizing as a kid. They funny thing with her is it happens every time. You would think she might have some capacity to remember that she loves Jovi. Instead we have to go through the whole timid hesitant phase for the first hour she is over every time.
By looking at the photos, the dogs' condition is much better than in some really small dog cafe where they're also treated similarly. At least here, the place is much wider and they could roam around more. It's also nice to know that they're all being taken care of. The place would have been much better if it were more accessible or near other tourist spots, wouldn't it? Thanks for sharing!
funny you should mention that because that exact topic came up while we were visiting. I like those animal cafes but I always end up feeling bad for the dogs when they have around a dozen dogs in a room the size of my condo.
Kind of weird and I don't think it would attract visitors in Western countries because most people have dogs of their own or choose not too. I get the idea of showing kids to be kind to animals and maybe inspire a family to go and adopt a dog or something like that.
This could do wonders for pet adoption but well, these are all rather expensive pure-breed dogs. I don't recall this being a thing when I Lived in the west either. It, like most other things, is probably illegal. Plus since many people in the west are terrible people we would likely have problems with people intentionally injuring the dogs or stealing them.
Thank you for sharing your visit to the Da Lat Puppy Farm. It's heartwarming to know the dogs are well cared for, though it's quite a trek to get there. Dogs bring joy! 🐶❤️
The journey to the park had me annoyed at one point but then I realized that I would have gone anyway even if the taxi driver had told me how far away it was before we set out.
The name confused us too! Lol. Anyway, it must be a good place to visit by people who are into puppies. Every dog seen in the photos looked adorable.
They were all very cute and like I said before, they seem to be extremely well looked after and very happy to be there. This attraction gets my stamp of approval!
It is really good to see animals well taken care of. I know the extra effort it must take, and it isn't hard to tell when animals are happy
well as someone who has been a pet owner for most of his adult life I can attest to the fact that these dogs seemed genuinely happy. I have seen the difference between a dog that does what it asked of it out of fear and one that does it out of love. These dogs are definitely in the latter category.
The title almost drove me to believe it's that kinda farm 😅
that was what I thought when I was told about it by the tour guide initially. I was getting my ideas of infiltrating the facility in my mind when he pointed out it was a place to go and pet the dogs
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