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Chihuahua types

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The founders of Chihuahua standard, famous experts Thornton, Howl, Editor and others
recognized two types of body: stumpy, robust so called heavy type - cobby type and lighter,
elegant, long-legged so called deer type. The present standard accepts both but cobby type
is more preferable. Here we describe the two.

COBBY TYPE

Head: well-rounded with considerable breadth between eyes and ears
Eyes: saucy, expressive
Ears: not too large but wide at the basis
Muzzle: full
Neck: massive, slightly shorter
Body: ribs rounded and well sprung
Extremities: more compact
Elbows: more flexible
Backline: level
Topline: firm
Angulations: well shaped
Paws: shorter and more compact
Gait: swift, with good reach in front equal to the drive from the rear
Tail: thick with flatness and thickness in the middle
Coat: thick with undercoat preferred

DEER TYPE

Head: smaller
Ears: large, baglike
Muzzle: longer and lighter
Angulations: slightly leveled
Body: rib cage not too big, tarsal joints not clearly cut
Tail: thinner
Paws: more narrow and thinner
Gait: lighter and more elegant as the jolt of the rear legs is not strong enough the dog has to make more steps to cover the same distance
Coat: for both smooth and long not too thick, no undercoat

Until now both types were equal. The breeders had both and mated them. As a result we have a mix of the two and it cannot be referred to either one. They are semi types.

Dear colleagues, this was a short introduction into the types of Chihuahua recognized by
cynologists. Recently there appeared different other types which can be described as "folklore of sellers of live goods". They are: aboriginal, English, American,extreme,classic, dwarf (!), Pekinese, perspective etc.
As we know the above are not mentioned in any serious cynological literature. Invention of
these new types is an attempt of unsuccessful breeders to access highly poor results of their
work. I'll describe these types shortly.

ABORIGINAL: brought from the country of origin; head not well rounded, narrow shaped with long pointed muzzle; small closely set, pointed ears; small closely set eyes; tail heavily curled and lean on the side; they are not small in size and do not fit the Standard.

ENGLISH: strange as it might seem here we find roughly shaped, excessively boned and
overweight dogs. It's a pity that their name is associated with England, a great power with rich cynological traditions where the best standard of the breed originated.

EXTREME: another pearl in this collection. It sounds enigmatic. Extreme means going beyond the limits, extremely unusual. They have doll like heads as if suffering from dwarf illness (too high and protuberant forehead, extremely snub and very short muzzle and bulging beyond limits eyes) the body is not mentioned at all for some reason. It becomes clear when an "extreme" dog starts moving on its "extreme" legs… Probably because of this owners of these "masterpieces" show their dogs in full size rarely.

PEKINESE type deserves a special mention. Why Pekinese and not Japan Chin? It is hard to
say as they invented the term but never explained it. Pekinese type is the same as mentioned
above: bulging eyes, extremely snub nose. What about Chihuahua standard? Why didn't they
try to read about it in disqualification chapter? It's worth reading.

CLASSIC: an attractive term. It cannot be otherwise as it covers the features of deer type with only one deviation concerning the head on which I'd like to dwell. Besides all merits of deer type classic type has very simply shaped head, narrow in whisky part with smoothed out stop, low forehead and rather long blunt or pointed muzzle. The stop angle as a rule is more then 90 degrees and muzzle is down. In one word the defective samples are given a nice term "classic" by people close to cynological circles.

In conclusion I'd like to say that the fullest and the most detailed description is covered by the Standard. Depending on correspondence to the Standard a dog can be classified as TOP BREED, BREED AND TYPICAL. And there are only two types of Chihuahua: heavy or cobby type and light deer type.

T. Zemskova

(This article was published in the magazine "Cat and Dog", № 1, 2002)

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