Khachaturian loved animals very much. A royal poodle was gifted to him in Germany whom he named Lado (by the names of musical notes la and do).
He enjoyed walking with Lado immensely. He doted on his dog so much that even dedicated to it a musical piece entitled “Lado fell seriously ill”.

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A performance of the ballet “Spartacus”, the last one in Khachaturian’s life, was on in Yerevan. An excellent production, a faultless ballet troupe and by Yan Chang and Y.Voskanyan conducting the orchestra were on the stage. However, in the middle of the first act Khachaturian suddenly got up and went away. The act finished, but Khachaturian wouldn’t show up. After a while, he was found in a street not far from the Opera House.
“If I had stayed, I would have caused a terrible scandal,” – said Khachaturian in a temper. To the puzzled questions of the people surrounding him, “What has happened? The production and orchestra are excellent, aren’t they?”, Khachaturian exclaimed, “They have cut 4 bars of my music!!!”
Though the audience naturally didn’t notice that, but such a fact just exasperated the composer (who was a very disciplinary musician, extremely exacting to performers).

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After the war, Yerevan hospitals were full of casualties. Having come to Yerevan, Khachaturian wished to give a concert in one of the hospitals. The music was punctuated by his interesting stories of musicians’ life during the war years. Among Khachaturian’s recollections there was the following funny story. Once during the evacuation, at a railway station, Khachaturian, Oistrakh and Shostakovich were terribly hungry. To get out of the critical situation helped Oistrakh who jokingly suggested giving a performance right there. Nevertheless, Khachaturian and Shostakovich found the idea attractive and agreed with pleasure. As a reward for the improvised performance, the great musicians got a dinner.

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When in 1944 a contest was announced for creating the National Anthem of Armenia, Khachaturian arrived in Yerevan with his music version written on Sarmen’s words. Once in the dead of the night, having sat in front of the piano surrounded by his family, he began singing and playing his anthem.
It was a summer night and everyone had their windows open. It turned out that lots of people gathered round and round (in the balconies, at their homes, in the street), and at the end of the improvised performance Khachaturian heard them singing his newly created music.