Lhasa Apso is very small dog but contains a bundle of the cleverness. Regardless its appearance of a lap-dog, it holds strong energy and toughness. It is confident to operate alone in any circumstances. It is aggressive towards other dogs, strangers and other animals. It is friendly for the owner and his family members and love to remain in their vicinity. It has adventurous nature and keeps on doing new search.

The Lhasa Apso is a little larger then a normal sized cat with great energy. This is non-sport breed and was originally developed to safeguard the house or farms. The head is fully covered with long hairs and rest of the body is also hairy in straight angle. Look is sheep like, sometimes lion like. Heavy coat is long and hard expressing dignity. The gait is free, lively and watchful. Contrary to its size, Lhasa Apso can run quite rapidly and bark as loud as of a larger size dog may not be able to express.

This breed is named after its origin ‘Lhasa’, the capital of Tibet. The breed has the historic evidences in Himalayan Mountains hundreds of years ago. Initially it was bred as an internal sentry in the Buddhist monasteries, to alert the monks to any intruders who entered in the area. Symbol of sacredness, this breed considered as the element of luck and many personnel adapted these to attain the favor of the fortune. Some ethical belief was that, if owner pass away, the soul is transferred to Lhasa Apso dog and regains the life. The Buddhists were possessive towards this breed, as a result the breed was not commonly found. In 1933, Mr. C. Suydam Cutting, introduced the dog to USA for the first time as a present from 13th Dalai Lama. It was adopted as tradition to present this dog to foreign dignitaries on their visit to Tibet. Again in 1920s the Lhasa Apso presented to England and the breed became famous in USA in 1930. AKC recognized the dog in 1935 for the first time. The breed is lively and daring and can reactive on its self initiation. They were used as the perfect guard dogs, present watchdogs.

Temperament

This breed is polite with family members and pleases to spend and enjoy time with them. It is loyal and trustworthy towards the owner, it is territorial and dominating. It is of small size but courage is at its peak. It is fearless against its opponent regardless of his size. The loudness of its bark is quite impressing, a large sized dog cannot achieve this loudness for warning alarm, sometimes and the person would not believe the sound is coming from this small dog. This is an imperial-looking dog and is a fast friend of the owner and worst enemy for intruder.

Naturally the breed is intelligent and self sufficient full of bravery and confidence, however, its small size is exposed to harm when mishandled.