The Longcoat Chihuahua has become twice as popular as the Smoothcoat. These three Longs represent three generations of well-bred Chihuahuas.

The fennec fox, Fennecus zerda, a desert animal quickly becoming extinct, may be linked to ancestors of the Chihuahua even though it comes from North African desert lands.

While there may not be an evolutionary connection between the two tiny desert-dwellers, there are surprising similarities between the Chihuahua and the fennec fox. With his huge eyes and ears, the tiny Chihuahua is every bit as appealing as the endangered fennec fox, which sadly is now on Appendix Two of the CITES list. As the origin of the Chihuahua remains a much-debated mystery, it may be fun to hold in your mind these fascinating similarities.

Fennecus zerda has long, thin, well-furred and somewhat flat feet that enable it to scoot about on top of the shifting sands. So did the early Chihuahua. The fennec is native to the desert zone from southern Morocco to Egypt and the Sudan. Many breed experts believe that this is exactly where the Chihuahua’s ancestors originated. The little dogs are noted for not only recognizing but also needing other Chihuahuas. Totally unlike other foxes, the fennec chooses to live in groups of eight to ten.

The Chihuahua prefers a varied diet. Given the opportunity, he seeks precisely the same food as does the fennec: vegetation, (very!) small rodents, lizards and insects. Ask any Chihuahua owner about the breed’s irresistible, irrepressible urge to chase and eat bugs! Like the Chihuahua, the little fox has weak dentition, a very rare condition in a wild species, yet unfortunately a common one in small dogs.

Who knows what may have occurred a thousand years ago? We do know that in the 1980s, the fennec was successfully crossed with a domestic dog breed. Need you ask which one? Such matings continue in California where, coincidentally, in the 1970s, the Asian leopard cat was mated to domestic cats. A medical researcher from the University of California discovered that the leopard cat is immune to leukemia but he was unable to handle or breed the small leopard for research purposes. Working with cat breeder Jean Mill, they achieved the allegedly impossible feat of combining the different number of chromosomes and overcoming other species incompatibilities. The spectacularly spotted result is the Bengal, a popular show cat and house kitty!

The Chinese Crested has been linked to the Chihuahua as one of its possible “naked” ancestors. This toy breed is the most popular hairless dog in the world.

So come, let’s have a look at some of the theories, legends and facts that contribute to the appeal of the world’s smallest member of Canis familiaris.

Some breed historians believe that the ancestor of the Chihuahua was a hairless dog that came from Asia, across Russia, through the Bering Straits and into what is now Alaska. Hairless dogs existed in China, Africa and Turkey, and another theory has it that the Chinese Crested was “Americanized” as early as the seventh century BC when Chinese vessels reached Central and North American shores. Perhaps, but common sense makes one wonder if the Chinese had brought dogs with them, why would they give space and food to small, delicate, hairless pets rather than to the fat, hardy Chow Chows that could have fed the crews during a very long voyage? And what would they have had to sail in order to bring enough dogs to have influenced the genetic base in America? A doggy Noah’s Ark?

Other researchers point to ancient hairless dogs that existed in Mexico and Central and South America. Evidence suggests that they were always domesticated; well, at least since they became hairless! Folklore surrounding the Xoloitzcuintli has become confusingly interwoven with that of the Chihuahua, but the smallest size Xolo recognized by the Federacíon Canofila Mexicana and the Fédération Cynologique Internationale is twice the size of the largest Chihuahua! Only in America, where it is not recognized by the American Kennel Club, is a toy-sized Xolo described in a breed standard.

SMART LAP-WARMER

Since dogs have been inbred for centuries, their physical and mental characteristics are constantly being changed to suit man’s desires for hunting, retrieving, scenting, guarding and warming their masters’ laps. During the past 150 years, dogs have been judged according to physical characteristics as well as functional abilities. Few breeds can boast a genuine balance between physique, working ability and temperament.

If we continue this circular logic, then why not suppose that the Peruvian and Mexican hairless dogs influenced the Chinese dogs and not the other way around? Small hairless dogs, some with a “top knot” of hair, are depicted in ancient Mayan figurines. Perhaps captains of Chinese vessels were fascinated by the hairless dogs of South America, where they first made port, or, subsequently, the tiny ones discovered in Mexico. Why would they not have taken a few back to China and other parts of the world? One-way traffic makes little sense and, as you shall see, there is evidence to the contrary.

Additionally, any seasoned dog breeder would reject a connection between hairless dogs and the Chihuahua based on major differences in conformation. The rectangular head shape of all hairless dogs is absolutely unlike that of the Chihuahua. All hairless dogs have long, round, whippy tails whereas the Chihuahua has a flattened, stiff, furry tail. The long claw-like feet of the early Chihuahua are not seen in any other breed. As we noted earlier, the Chihuahua doesn’t resemble the St. Bernard either, but then we aren’t trying to convince anyone that they were ever the same breed at some point in time!

If we accept that there is simply no evidence to substantiate that the Chihuahua is descended from hairless dogs or from Chinese dogs brought to South and Central America in fifth-century sailing vessels, then we must look for some other explanation.

It seems to me that there are more plausible theories that place the breed’s ancient roots in Egypt or the Sudan and that it migrated across the Bering Straits or was carried through the Mediterranean countries and thence to Malta. Physical evidence connects the Maltese “pocket dog” to the Chihuahua, but it could be that its American ancestor was dropped off on the island by the ancient mariners. The singular but easily verified characteristic shared by the pocket dog and the Chihuahua is the presence of the soft spot in the skull known as the molera. The cranial gap closes in other canines just as it does in the human infant, but in most adult Chihuahuas, the gap can be easily detected. The significance here is that the Chihuahua is the only breed that has the molera!

Ballybroke Lollipop, owned by Graham and Margaret Foote, typifies a lovely Longcoat Chihuahua.

As with all speculation, there are interesting discrepancies in the theory that focuses on China or Europe as the origin of the Chihuahua. Small dogs of North America were revered by the earliest humans as evidenced by Indian Knoll, a two-acre site in Kentucky. In a single dig, Dr. William Web found 21 small dogs interred in graves dated 3000 BC. Among the 900 human graves, certain dogs obviously had special status and meaning to the community.

The Kentucky dig provides irrefutable evidence that dogs were domesticated in North America long before they could possibly have arrived on Chinese vessels making port in Mexico. Mexico adjoins the United States from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific. A journey from Kentucky to the region of Chihuahua, Mexico is less than 1,500 miles, “a walk in the wood” compared to the migratory route from the Far East to Alaska.

Furthermore, as recorded in the authoritative publication Walker’s Mammals of the World, Fifth Edition, Volume II, the oldest documented remains of domestic dogs, dating from 11,000 and 12,000 years ago, were found, respectively, in Idaho and in Iraq, which borders Turkey and Arabia!

No dog historian awaited the migratory Asians, so we know not whether the Chihuahua ancestor arrived with them or if, having first met the Eskimo, the migrants moved south to Idaho and were greeted by the American Indian and his little dog. I can accept that theory as easily as I speculate that what might have come across the land-bridge with them was an evolutionary offshoot of the fennec fox. The only certainty is that the North American Indian had domesticated the dog thousands of years before the Chinese sailed into Acapulco. So, as I said earlier, perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps, when the earliest explorers arrived from China, they took back with them the darling little dogs of Mexico that had continued the southward migration.

In any case, it seems certain that the Toltec Techichi is the more recent ancestor of today’s Chihuahua. Some believe that the Techichi was actually a rodent, and language barriers preclude proof. The Toltecs created a splendid civilization dominating much of Mexico. They were the builders of the great Pyramid of the Sun, only 30 miles from where Mexico City stands today. One of their cities was Chichen Itza. When my husband and I stood there amid the ruins, we were moved not only by how advanced they were but also by how in tune they were with the seasons, the sky and the universe, as was evidenced by remains of astrological tracking. The Toltecs worked in metal and clay, spun cotton and spread the cult of their gentle god Quetzalcoatl. Their empire reached its zenith around 900 AD but was destroyed by foreign and civil wars.

The Toltec dog is represented in stone carvings that are part of a monastery known as Huejotzingo. Building parts include materials transported from the Aztec pyramids of Cholula. The monastery, constructed by Franciscan monks circa 1530, is situated between Mexico City and Puebla.

The Toltec reign gave way to the Aztecs, who seem to have adopted the Techichi and the hairless ones and used them for religious sacrifice. The Aztec used rattles and two types of ceremonial drums, the huehuetl or tlapanhuechuetl (vertical drum) and the teponaztli (horizontal drum). One interesting museum piece is a Moche rattle, wherein the head of the rattle is a perfect likeness of a modern Chihuahua head. A human head completes the handle. The little dogs were ascribed great religious significance by the Aztecs and, thus, they were a persuasive token of esteem given to the gods.

As social advances occurred and staying alive became easier, the people had more time to spend upon such matters as breeding dogs. Archeological evidence shows that selective keeping of dogs progressed from possible edible interest to one of spiritual significance and, finally, to the ultimate luxury of providing nothing more than companionship to early man.

This bonding is clearly demonstrated in a figurine dated over 3,000 years ago. It depicts a little dog kissing a human face. It is understandable that Chihuahuas were interred with their masters, and archeologists have found remains of the breed in human graves in Mexico and the United States. A Mayan example of the pet Chihuahua is found in a model of a woman walking with a child, holding his hand, while in her other arm she holds a tiny dog. It is dated about 750 AD and resides at Tulane University in New Orleans.

The hairless dog known in Mexico as the Xoloitzcuintli occurs in three sizes; the Standard is shown here.

So whether existent dogs of North America were the ancestors of the Chihuahua, whether they were brought in on Chinese trading vessels, or whether they originated in the Egyptian desert, we know that dogs closely resembling today’s Chihuahua thrived in what is now northern Mexico.

Mexico claims this authenticity by having furnished a name for the breed and, in fact, the Mexican Natural History Museum offers what many consider to be indisputable proof that the Chihuahua was native to northern Mexico. A skeleton measuring only 7 inches in length is clearly that of a Chihuahua-type dog, right down to the domed skull and several molera (openings) in the skull.

These two American champions were exported to Britain where the Smoothcoat, Marjax’s Jamie Windwalker at Ballybroke, owned by the Footes, became the first American dog to become a British champion.

So we have come full circle, history having brought us back to Mexico and the southern United States. It is unfortunate that the many dialects of the American Indian afforded little in the way of meaningful descriptions of native dogs. An incredibly creative artist, the Indian used symbolism more than realism and relied on the spoken record, the Story Teller, to pass the past from one generation to the next.

One such story clearly relates to the Chihuahua. It was believed that the little dog not only could be a companion in the next world but also could fulfill an even more serious responsibility for his owner. It was thought that the sins of the master were transferred to the dog so that the human could gain safe passage to the other world. Getting there was no easy task, even for a sinfree soul.

Fr. Bernardino de Sahugun, a Franciscan friar during the time of the Spanish Conquest, greatly admired the Aztecs. He made extensive writings and consequently recorded one version of a common legend that may account for a couple of modern-day oddities…. First, the story.

Writing of the little dog’s spiritual assistance he said, “The deceased were burnt, encircled by all their clothing and belongings, but he who had nothing among his wretched belongings went bare, and underwent much pain and suffered much in order to pass the place of the obsidian-bladed wings. And also they caused him to carry a little dog, a yellow one, and they fixed about its neck a loose cotton cord. It was said that he (the dog) bore the dead one across the place of the nine rivers in the Land of the Dead.”

“X” MARKS THE SPOT

The Chihuahua is not the only purebred dog to hail from Mexico. The Xoloitzcuintli is a unique Mexican dog that has no hair (or hardly any at all).

This sighthound-like dog appears in three sizes, Standard, Miniature and Toy; this latter is known as the Mexican Hairless.

A Story Teller speaks of “a yellow one that wore a strand of slackly spun cotton for a collar. Men say that he takes the dead across the ninefold river to Meitlantecutli. There the waters are wide, dogs are the ferrymen, and when he recognizes his master, he leaps into the water in order to take him across.”

Color is significant to every culture, and for the Aztecs, yellow is the color of death. So it was that the little yellow dogs were sacrificed that they might precede their masters to the other side. There they waited to aid their loved one across the ninth river.

When one experiences the utter devotion of a Chihuahua, it is easy to understand how such a highly developed culture could believe that a dog such as that would gladly assume the sins of his beloved person. Furthermore, that same little dog would faithfully await the arrival of his master and then act as courier to get his loved one into Aztec heaven.

Perhaps that is why Montezuma II, last of the Aztec rulers, is said to have had hundreds of Chihuahuas in his incredibly modern palace. Records describe the molera, so there is little doubt that the tiny dogs were pure Chihuahua.

More recently, is that why General Santa Ana (the dictator of Mexico who sold northern Mexico to the US in 1848) also kept large numbers of golden fawn Chihuahuas? They went with him into battle, no doubt to guide his soul across the ninth river should he be slain. In fact, they were in his camp when he was finally defeated and captured in 1836.

The theory that places the Chihuahua’s development in Europe, with the assumption that it arrived in the New World in the arms of Spanish explorers, totally ignores recorded history. The Spanish had a singular use for dogs during that time. They brought horses to the Americas, not dogs. When there was no local game, when there were no injured horses to be slaughtered, they raided Indian settlements for food that included indigenous camp dogs and, in some tribes, the small dogs kept for sacrifice—or as pets.

An early explorer of North America, Hernando de Soto, wrote that dogs were a major source of meat for the hundreds of troops he led during exploration of the southeastern US. Spanish conquistadors not only decimated the Indian population from the Florida peninsula to Mexico but also wiped out thousands of dogs.

Spanish scribes recorded that male dogs were fattened on corn, castrated and used for food by the Aztecs. No doubt they were used in religious ceremonies but, perusing the Spaniard’s account, one has to wonder if, in fact, the Indians were forced to breed them in great numbers in order to feed the conquistadors who enslaved them.

There is no reliable pictorial evidence of a Chihuahua-type dog in Europe before Columbus discovered America and subsequent explorations occurred. There is a painting by Botticelli dated 1481, which is displayed in the Sistine Chapel fresco. Having long, claw-like toes, the dog is said to be of Chihuahua type, but fanciers of the Bull Terrier claim it is an early ancestor of the White English Terrier. Discussion has also centered about the Pietro Longhi painting in Venice because it too depicts a Chihuahua-like family pet. Speculation is that the little female is a descendant of a Mexican dog brought back to Europe by a kind-hearted conquering hero!

In fact, it is probable that the tiny smooth-coated dog was mated to European spaniels, thus producing other delightful small breeds. These newer types, when mated back to the Chihuahua, along with a dash of tiny Pomeranian-like spitzen and other lap-sized dogs of the day, produced the long-haired Chihuahua and may be to blame for shortening the previously oversized ears.

YOU SAY PODENGO, I SAY PODENGO

How does this terrier-type Portuguese dog figure into the origins of the Chihuahua? The Podengo Portugueso comes in three sizes, the smallest of which appears very similar to the Chihuahua, though he can weigh as much as 12 pounds. The Pequeño variety is used to hunt rabbits and to exterminate rats. All three varieties exhibit both smooth and wirehaired coats.

In addition to searching for the city of gold, the Spaniards tried to convert the Indian population to Christianity. They employed many barbaric means to accomplish this goal, including subversion of the deeply held religious beliefs of the people they enslaved. They prohibited the use of dogs for sacrifice and feasting but it was several decades before these practices were successfully abolished. Records from the Augustin Mission some twenty years after the Conquest of 1539 describe the Aztec dog market at Acolhuan. It is said that dogs were sold strictly for food, usually eaten as part of special ceremonies such as weddings, funerals and other religious feasts.

In 1578, Francisco Hernandez described a dog that he said was the Techichi. He wrote that it was raised by the Indians as a food source, stating that they ate the small dogs just as the Spaniards ate rabbits. Maybe scribes in the 16th century didn’t play around with the facts, only with the reasons behind those facts.

Having stood in the 17th-century church of San Esteban, high atop a 600-foot pinnacle called Acoma, or more commonly today, Sky City, I am inclined to think that the small quiet people so effectively enslaved by the Spaniards might have eaten or sold anything to survive! Not far west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Acoma is the oldest inhabited settlement in the US, well established when the Spaniards first found it in 1540. The people there are poor and primitive. Water is still collected in the baked clay depressions scattered throughout the tiny community. The few people who emerge from the shadow of their adobe dwellings to be photographed or to sell their beautiful pottery seem quietly indulgent of and very removed from the tourists. Very much remembering the reign of torture suffered under their white rulers, they were forced to shoulder massive timbers with which the church was built and carry them for a hundred miles across baked desert without allowing them to touch the earth. We saw no dogs, only the shadow of those that might have been….

Surely some were too small to be noticed by the cruel conquistadors or perhaps they were not considered worth the trouble to roast. The smallest and dearest would have been hidden in the high dwellings of the Pueblo people. Of this we can be certain: every Chihuahua owner is deeply grateful that the tiny desert-dwelling dogs escaped the voracious appetites of the Spaniards!

CURRENT HISTORY

The first record of the Chihuahua as a specific breed seems to have occurred about 1884 when enterprising Mexicans began selling them to tourists in the border markets. Tiny dogs were called Mexican, Texas and Arizona dogs, depending on whose soil one stood at the moment. Gradually, they became firmly associated with the Mexican State of Chihuahua just south of the border, and the little dog that knew no boundaries became known as the Chihuahua.

A dog show judge is said to have bought a dog in El Paso, Texas and, later, another from Tucson, Arizona. Mr. Watson authored a two-volume work on dogs but, even though the breed had been recognized in the US in 1903, he neglected to make mention of the Chihuahua in his book. So much for him!

The first Chihuahua to be officially registered was a dog called Midget, who entered the American Kennel Club Stud Book in 1904 along with three others. The UK was not far behind, with registration in 1907. Mexico entered the modern dog world a bit late but it granted registration privileges to the Chihuahua in 1934.

By 1915, 30 Chihuahuas were registered in the US and that number jumped to over 25,000 by the early 1970s! The breed is more popular in Europe and America than in Mexico, no doubt because anything “foreign” is always better than what’s always been right under one’s nose!

One of the first well-known sires was Caranza, possibly named for the President of Mexico. The red long-coated dog resided in Pennsylvania, where he met an untimely death in the jaws of a Great Dane, who, it is said, mistook him for a squirrel! Fortunately, this occurred after he had sired Meron and Perrito, both of which went on to become the foundation of two great American lines. The Perrito line died out in the late 1920s, but his influence was greatly prized in subsequent generations. Most breed authorities agree that Caranza, though registered, could not possibly have been pure-bred as there were no long-coated Chihuahuas in Mexico until about 1959. Indeed, it took 29 years after the Chihuahua Club of America was formed in 1923 before a separate Longcoat club came into existence.

What could be more delightful than a Chihuahua-filled bandana?

The long and smooth coats were shown together until 1952, when they were separated into two varieties for the show ring. They are still interbred in the US, resulting in both coat varieties appearing in the same litter.

Well over 20,000 Chihuahuas are registered each year with the AKC. Only a fraction of those are exhibited but they remain extremely, popular because they are such wonderful companions and because breeders strive to retain the breed’s unique characteristics for the world to enjoy.

Miss Lupe Velez, a famous actress of the 1930s, with her Chihuahua named King, being fed from his mistress’s eyedropper.

The famed Florence Clark with her Chihuahua champions that won prizes in the 1934 Westminster Kennel Club Show in New York, which attracted 2,462 entries. This was at the height of the Depression in America.

THE BREED IN ENGLAND

Representatives of the breed moved into England from the United States and directly from Mexico in the late 19th century. In 1897, a Chihuahua was formally exhibited at the Ladies Kennel Club Show. Registration privileges followed in 1907, which would appear to be a meteoric rise to fame except that it was 17 years before the next Chihuahua was registered!

Fewer than 100 were recorded by the beginning of World War II. The low breeding population was critically impacted by the bombing and devastation that followed. By 1949, there remained only eight registered Chihuahuas.

As families and homes were re-established, many turned back to dogs for solace and a logical choice was the Chihuahua. Easily fitting in cramped quarters during the rebuilding, he was inexpensive to feed and maintain, hardy, requiring few veterinary visits, and, above all, a grateful little soul to fill the empty arms and hearts of those who had suffered terrible losses. Numbers climbed rapidly and by 1953 there were 111 registered with The Kennel Club.

Due to a strike by electricians, the 1954 Crufts Dog Show had to be cancelled, so the first Challenge Certificates (awards needed to become a champion) actually were awarded by the Scottish Kennel Club at the Glasgow show. In a dead heat for the title of first Champion of Record, the breed entered the record books as the two top Chihuahua contenders actually attained their titles at the same show on the same day! And even more dramatic, Mrs. Fearfield’s Isabella and Mrs. Gray’s Diaz did so at the last show of the year.

Thanks to modern advances in veterinary Cesarean techniques, Chihuahua births became less risky for the dam and breeder.

By 1965, the breed was split into Longcoat and Smoothcoat varieties with 159 Smooths and 87 Longs entered at Crufts that year. Total numbers recorded had exploded to over 3,000 due to advances in veterinary Cesarean techniques.

The next few decades saw Chihuahua population numbers and popularity continue to rise in spite of its being a breed averaging so few pups per litter. From the UK, popularity spread to other European countries and, by the late 1970s, it was obvious that the little Mexican dog had found a welcome home in Europe!

A Chihuahua and a Bull Terrier can get along well together if they have been properly socialized.