China's latest must-have luxury for the ultra-rich is a large, slobbery dog with massive amounts of hair best known for herding sheep in Tibet.
Breeders are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a mate for their mastiff.
The craze seems to defy sales patterns and common sense elsewhere, especially for a dog that is common, has thick, lion-mane-like hair, grows to 80kg and is known for being fierce.
"I can understand racehorses and diamonds, but I don't understand why someone would want to pay half a million dollars for a dog," said Martha Feltenstein, president of the American Tibetan Mastiff Association.
"They have a relatively short life expectancy and are not especially rare, so it's quite puzzling why they are fetching such a high price in China."
In the US, Tibetan mastiff pups can be bought for as little as several hundred dollars, Feltenstein said.
Breeders in China say adult Tibetan mastiffs sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and can even go for more than $US100,000 ($NZ140,404)
