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 :)