Also known as the Smooth-coat Chihuahua, or the Chihuahua Korthaar, this minute dog, with its apple-domed head, is named after the Mexican state in which it was first encountered by visiting Americans in the late 19th century. Earlier names include the Mexican Dwarf Dog, the Ornament Dog, the Raza Fina and the Pillow Dog.
The Chihuahua is famous for being the smallest breed of dog in the world. This is a slight exaggeration, as the record is held by a freakishly tiny Yorkshire Terrier, but it is true that the average Chihuahua is smaller than the average Yorkie, so in. general the claim can stand. The Chihuahua’s weight is only 2-6 lb (1-3 kg) and its height 6-9 in (15-23 cm). This remarkable breed has several key features: a molera (a soft spot on the top of the skull), a flattened, furry tail and a strange, talon-like foot with long curved nails.
There are several conflicting theories concerning the origin of this breed. The first sees it as a dwarf form of one of the ancient American Indian dogs. It is claimed that, during the Aztec period, tiny dogs were sometimes cremated with their owners, the idea being that these little animals would then act as guides to show their owners the way to the afterlife. Some of the more common Indian dog breeds were fattened for the pot, but it is conjectured that the tiniest ones would have had special ritual value or been kept as pets. From these, the Chihuahua is thought to have descended.
Supporting this view is the presence in Mexico of a number of small, short-haired breeds of Indian dogs, from any one of which the little Chihuahua could have been developed. In addition, there is an Aztec depiction of a cremation ritual which includes what appears to be the body of a small, reddish-coloured dog.
The second view sees the Chihuahua as a European breed developed from the small Comforter dogs of the Middle Ages. It is supposed that, after the conquest of the New World, the wives of high-ranking Spanish settlers, or colonial officials, would have taken their beloved pets dogs with them for comfort. Some of these dogs would have spread from the great estates and become pet dogs on a wider scale, eventually ending up as companions of the local Indians.
Supporting the second view is a Chihuahua-like dog depicted in a painting by Botticelli which he completed ten years before the conquest of the New World had occurred. Also, it is pointed out that the little red ‘dog’ shown in the cremation picture of the Aztecs was more likely to have been some kind of fattened rodent, taken along by the deceased as food for the journey to the other world.
Some other authors have pinpointed pointed the original homeland of this breed as being Malta, because there was supposed to be a tiny, short-haired lapdog there centuries ago, called the Maltese Pocket Dog. Still others have suggested China as the primary source, claiming that Chinese visitors brought their little flat-faced companion dogs to Mexico in the 18th century. This view is based on the fact that China has always favoured small, flat-faced dogs. There is little hard evidence to support any of these views and for the present it is best to favour the least complicated explanation, which is that the Chihuahua was a dwarf pet dog developed from some larger breed in ancient Mexico.
By the 19th century, the history of the breed is less confusing. In the 1880s American visitors to Mexico came across these tiny dogs and started buying them from local Indians for a few dollars, to take them back home as exotic pets. Many were delicate and badly nourished and soon died but enough survived to establish a breeding base in the United States. The first Chihuahua was registered there in 1903 and by 1923 the Chihuahua Club of America had been formed. The little dog gradually rose to become one of the most popular breeds in North America, ideal for urban living easy to house and easy to feed – and with a lively and endearing personality. In 1958 over 48,000 Chihuahuas were registered in the United States alone.
The Chihuahua has changed in appearance since its early days. Photographs of the first ones to be taken to the United States clearly depict dogs with longer, more tapering snouts, smaller eyes, and bigger, bat-like ears. (These were called `barribi’ dogs because they were more fawn-like.) Progressive selective breeding through the decades of the 20th century has gradually created a more juvenile-looking’ animal, with big baby eyes and a much more domed, rounded head. This anatomical shift increases the dog’s ‘infantile’ appeal and makes it even more attractive as a small companion dog to be carried in the arms.
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