Chihuahua
The chihuahua is named for the Mexican state where it was found in the 1850s, and is generally taken to descend from the Techichi, a small companion dog kept by the Toltec and later the Aztec.
It is the smallest recognised dog breed.
Both smooth and long coats occur, and the head may be apple-shaped or the longer deer type. What is consistent is the temperament: chihuahuas are alert, opinionated and startlingly bold for their size, typically devoted to one or two people and reserved with everyone else. Much of the breed's reputation for snappiness comes from small dogs never being trained as dogs.
- Origin
- Mexico
- Size
- 1.5–3 kg
- Lifespan
- 14–18 years
- Coat
- Smooth or long
- Temperament
- Bold, alert, devoted to a chosen person
- Exercise
- 20–30 minutes daily plus indoor play
3 chihuahua photos, newest first
Living with a chihuahua
Smooth coats need a weekly once-over; long coats a brush two or three times a week. Small mouths crowd their teeth, so dental care is the most neglected and most important routine job — brush them.
Train and socialise a chihuahua exactly as you would a large dog. Carrying one everywhere and excusing the growling is how the stereotype is made.
They feel cold genuinely and benefit from a coat outdoors in winter. Watch for luxating patellae, collapsing trachea — use a harness, never a collar — hydrocephalus in some lines, and low blood sugar in very small puppies.
Merle occurs in this breed and is contested within it — several registries will not accept it, on the view that it was introduced from elsewhere. Whatever the history, the rule is the same: never breed merle to merle, because a puppy with two copies is commonly deaf, blind or both. Ask what colour both parents were.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual dogs vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
Worth reading alongside this
More dogs by breed
Every dog breed somebody has posted a photo of.
- Labrador retriever18
- Afghan hound3
- Airedale terrier3
- Akita3
- Alaskan Klee Kai3
- Alaskan malamute3
- American bulldog3
- American eskimo dog3
- American hairless terrier3
- American pit bull terrier3
- Aussiedoodle3
- Australian cattle dog3
- Australian shepherd3
- Basenji3
- Basset hound3
- Beagle3
- Belgian Malinois3
- Bergamasco sheepdog3
- Bernedoodle3
- Bernese mountain dog3
- Bichon frise3
- Biewer terrier3
- Black and tan coonhound3
- Bloodhound3