The Tibetan Mastiff was officially recognized by the AKC in 2007,  but President Dwight D. Eisenhower was actually one of the first American owners of the breed much earlier, having received a 10-month-old male and an 8-month-old female as diplomatic gifts from the Dalai Lama in the 1950s (the Dalai Lama, himself, had eight Tibetan Mastiffs guard his summer home in Norbulinka). Eisenhower gave the dogs to a senator who raised them, then gave one of the dogs to the famous explorer, Lowell Thomas. The pair, said to “eat four pounds of fresh meat at each meal,” were the ancestors of many of the Tibetan Mastiffs found in the United States today.

Tibetan Mastiff by Judith Stein/
www.judithstein.com
https://www.etsy.com/shop/k9stein