Dog's quality of life in China?

@Isal91 Hi.  I too am American but have been living here in China since the 90’ Beijing specifically since 2011   You could say I have spent almost half my life in China as I am 60 now and was 35 when I moved here from NY and I’ve had dogs all of my life both there and here. 

This is a slightly complicated question to answer. Because a lot depends on where exactly you are going to live when you're here. Are you going to live in a Major City or a smaller one? How big is your dog or what breed? Yes this actually makes a difference here.

I'll use my own situation as an example.  When I first moved here I was working and living in Macao. Our apartment was on the top floor of the building. The 40th floor. But it was a pretty spacious 3 BR. We moved here first having come over in June leaving my dog Mo at my folk's house in New England.  We moved into our new apartment on Nov. 1st and I promptly got on a plane back to the States to retrieve my furry buddy Golden/Chow Chow mix. At our place, we'd left and at my folk's, Mo had been accustomed to climbing up on the sofa and looking out the window to monitor what the evil squirrel people were up to in the trees outside. When I finally got to introduce him to his new 40th floor digs the first thing he did was climb up on the sofa. He looked straight out the window into the sky, then slowly looked down 40 floors to the ground below, and then I will never forget the look on his face as he turned his face back to us with what was clearly an expression of WTF???

Anyway, he soon got used to it and settled in nicely.  Life in a city is not great for a dog but luckily for us there was a rather large park across the street and a few other open spaces and parks an easy walk away,

After a couple of years, we moved to the town next door, Zhuhai, which is mainland proper. This place was much more green, where we lived, and quite comfortable for Mo.

In 2011, we moved to Beijing and we lived quite far outside the city with a nice park. Two doors down literally from our front door and we have a backyard that isn't huge but it's something. Mo had passed away by the time we came to Beijing, but by then we had adopted a rescue dog and also had gotten ourselves a golden retriever puppy. 

I'm a dog person to the bone and I truly feel my pups have enjoyed their lives here.  In Beijing and down south I did not have much trouble finding a good Vet for them and there are pet stores galore selling whatever you need for them. Not to mention TaoBao (China's Etsy/Amazon) where just this morning I ordered some very good quality treats for them.  You can get local and imported stuff here and can get dog food from Purina to Eukanuba and Origen. You won't find those Superstores like Petsmart here but Taobao suffices

Of course, everything is not perfect.  When I said size matters it's because you have to remember that China is still developing.  People having dogs or cats in their family is still a relatively recent thing. Because of this, I feel a lot of people here don't understand dogs.  I mean people here are oftentimes afraid of dogs here, especially bigger dogs.  They think a Golden or a Labrador is a big dog whereas in the US we would refer to them as a medium-sized breed. When I was living in apartments there would actually be people who would refuse to let you get into the elevator if they were inside or they would not enter if I was there first because they were so scared and Moe was the sweetest, gentlest Golden Mix you would ever see.

Now, because they are so afraid of dogs, and I'm talking about the vast majority of people here,  larger breeds are forbidden from the inner parts of the city in most cities of China.  As I said, we live outside the city so it's not an issue for us but I could not move us downtown even if I wanted to do so because family is first and dogs are family .  Dogs must strictly be kept up to date on their vaccinations and licensed. Cat's on the other hand seem to be ignored.

Then there are or aren't dog parks. They do exist here.  There was one in the last neighborhood I stayed in and I know of a couple of other ones but generally they're not really used much.  As I said these people don't understand dogs yet. They can't really understand or recognize the difference between play fighting and/or posturing when new dogs meet each other for the first time and an actual fight so they tend to not let their dog socialize which is a shame. Occasionally you might meet somebody that does but they're really nervous about it and it's all done on the leash.

So to make it a little nicer, we always have at least two dogs in our house.   We currently have Sammy, a two-year-old, male golden, and Lucy, another rescue dog that I found outside a Temple Shanxi province on the edge of the forest.   She was only maybe 5 weeks old and definitely homeless so I took her home and fixed that. She is adjusting nicely.

Smaller breeds are accepted much easier and people tend to be less afraid of them but bigger dogs are here too. In our neighborhood, a gated community, besides our puppers there's a Rottweiler and two German Shepherds, a few Goldens, and a variety of small breeds and Mutts like our Lucy.

Sorry for the long-winded reply but I thought you would want a more comprehensive view of how things actually are.

Feel free to reach out if I can clarify further or if you have other questions about having Dogs here.

Bob

@BeijingBob @BeijingBob Hi! I deeply appreciate your reply, thank you so much and I hope Sammy and Lucy are doing well!! Tell them I said hi! I have a smaller Icelandic Sheepdog named Antonio and I plan on heading to Beijing or Shanghai! About dog parks, do people who frequent them understand a little more about dogs? I also must ask, is the licensing process complicated? Thank you again and I really appreciate hearing all of this, it's eased my anxieties a lot!

-Isa

No worries.  I’m not to sure about the people who frequent them only because out of the ones I know of, I rarely see anyone there.  There was one in the Sanya area who would let his dog mingle with ours so maybe

Licensing couldn’t be easier. You take your dog to the Vet once a year for a Rabies vaccine and you walk out with a new license tag.

Bringing a dog into the country can be a headache though.  Once you decide where you’re going to move to you will need to check with someone there as each place has different rules

I’m curious about your situation.  I’ve spoken with people in the past who were planning to move to China but didn’t realize it wasn’t that simple.  You say you are undecided between Beijing and Shanghai.  Most people don’t have a choice.  Are you working for a foreign company that’s giving you a choice of which office you want to go to? That was our situation.   Or do you plan to move here first and get a job after. Because if it’s the latter, it might not be as easy as you think. You certainly can’t import your dogs into the country without being on a work permit already 

just curious. I wish you luck

Bob