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Wendeis Chihuahuas
A Little History
The Chihuahua was discovered in Mexico in 1850, and was named for the Mexican state in which it was found. (Chihuahua, by the way, borders Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.) The first Chihuahua registered as a breed by the American Kennel Club was "Midget" in 1905.
Little is known for sure of their origins or history, but there are a great many theories and deductions. It is widely believed that they descended from a very similar-looking type of Mexican dog called the Techichi. These small dogs, companions of the ancient Toltecs, were first recorded in the 9th century, but it seems likely that their ancestors in turn were frisking around with people prior to the Mayans. They were apparently long-haired and mute.
Dogs that look rather like Chihuahuas are described in archaeological finds from the Pyramids of Cholula. The Monastery of Huejotzingo, located along the road between Mexico City to Puebla, was built by the Franciscan monks around 1530. The stones they used had been taken from the pyramids, and these stones bear carvings of the Techichi, both in profile and in full. Other archaeological proofs have been found at Chichen Itza on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Mexico City area yields the largest concentration of depictions of the dogs in stone carvings and artifacts. Their bones have been found in graves in Mexico and the southwestern US, and they are mentioned in tomb writings in Mayan, Toltec and Aztec.
It is suggested that both the Toltecs and their conquerors, the Aztecs, regarded the Techichi as having some abilities beyond the veil of death. The blue-colored dogs, unusual and rare, were considered sacred. Red-colored ones sometimes served the unfortunate role of scapegoat, sacrificed and burned with deceased humans to take on the burden of the humans' sin and diverting the Gods' anger from them. They also served as guide dogs, leading the soul among the confusions and darkness of the vast realm of death and protecting it from evil spirits.
From what we can tell, it seems that the Techichi were favored as companion dogs by the wealthy and the clergy of these ancient cultures. The lower classes did not care for them particularly, and it was possible that a dog could end up being dinner!
The Techichi were larger then. Some scholars have suggested that Chinese hairless dogs came across the Bering Strait and interbred, rendering the Mexican native smaller over the generations. Others point to a dog from Malta that was small and had the "molera," or open soft spot on top of the skull, that is a very rare trait common in Chihuahuas, and suggest that this dog was brought to Mexico from Europe and crossbred. Some argue that as the Chinese had a long history of breeding miniature dogs, a diminutive Oriental breed may have been introduced through Spanish collectors trading in the exotic East as well as in the New World to the west. Of course, human breeders have deliberately reduced their size since.
Christopher Columbus mentioned this tiny dog in a letter to King Ferdinand of Spain. He may have brought some back to Europe, as Chihuahuas have been known there for centuries.