Chihuahua Facts

• Senator Rogers Kelley, of Edinburg, Texas, was so enamoured of the Chihuahua that he proposed in 1948 to introduce a resolution at a session of the State Legislature to make the Chihuahua the official dog of Texas. Said the senator: "Sure it came from Mexico, but so did Texas".
  
  
• Chihuahuas were first shown in this country at Crufts in 1936 (JWH Beynon, Dog World, 1949).
  
  
• The first dog ever to have dined in the House of commons is believed to have been a Chi, Mrs Thelma Gray's Rozavel Miguel. He wore a green jersey and a "diamond" collar, and the occasion was the annual dinner of the British Mexican Society in December 1954.
  
  
• None of our present-day Chihuahuas is descended from those that were in this country before 1945. Mrs Lydia Cross's Palace Bambi was here at that time, but the renaissance of the breed did not come until 1949, when the late Mr DC Gott bred the first registered bitch puppy - Una of Phoenix. The first two dog pups were Tizoc and Chico of Belamie.
  
  
• The first Chi to have been registered at the American K.C. was "Midget" in 1904, owned by a Mr Raynor of Texas. The first champion Chi in America was "Beppie" owned by Mrs McLean, of New Jersey.
  
  
• Chihuahuas are usually given strange and sometimes unpronounceable names in Spanish or Mexican (Nahuatl) ore else ordinary English Christian names, but breaking well away from tradition were two seen in a Canadian newspaper in 1953. They were "Get Off the Carpet" and "You Too"! Fortunately, only tentative.
  
  
• The American K.C. approved the separation of Smooth Coated and Long Coated Chihuahuas as show varieties in and after August, 1952. Long Coats were allowed at first to be 2lbs heavier ie. up to 8lbs in weight, but revisions came later.
  
  
• "Least Trouble - Most Fun" is the slogan of the Interstate Chihuahua Club of New York.
  
  
• The Chihuahua is considered to be the only breed of domesticated dog truly indigenous to the American continent. (The various hairless breeds of Central and South America are thought to have originated in other parts of the world, and such American breeds as the Boston Terrier 'evolved' by crossing other breeds).
  
  
• In November 1953, the Kennel Club granted the breed a separate register. Up until then Chis had been classified, in this country, under "Any Other Variety".
  
  
• Mr LJ Egan of San Diego, California, exhibited Chihuahuas at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. He claimed, in 1952, to have the largest and oldest Chihuahua kennels in the world.