New dog owner

Doggengard, I hate to break it to you, but both your dogs really really appear to have been chihuahua mixes. Chihuahuas come in a plethora of colors, not just black and tan or brown or white.
And, chihuahuas are pretty much terriers. So.


Terriers tend to be very strong willed and very active. Be sure you can handle the exercise you will have to give this dog. Both of those breeds need a solid 2 hours a day of exercise and the right motivation.
Basenjis are very quietly, very reserved and very thoughtful. They are pretty much the closest to a cat you can get in a dog.
The bull terrier is very outgoing, they are described as being young at heart and a clown.

Neither of these dogs are 'hypoallergenic'. They just have short hair. You may want to see if you can foster this dog for a while to see how your allergies will do unless you're willing to take shots for them and what not.

For foods, go with something grain free (this helps their skin and coat which will mean less grooming), high protein. If you can get it out of the grocery store, don't feed it.

HollowHeaven said:

Doggengard, I hate to break it to you, but both your dogs really really appear to have been chihuahua mixes. Chihuahuas come in a plethora of colors, not just black and tan or brown or white.
And, chihuahuas are pretty much terriers. So.


Terriers tend to be very strong willed and very active. Be sure you can handle the exercise you will have to give this dog. Both of those breeds need a solid 2 hours a day of exercise and the right motivation.
Basenjis are very quietly, very reserved and very thoughtful. They are pretty much the closest to a cat you can get in a dog.
The bull terrier is very outgoing, they are described as being young at heart and a clown.

Neither of these dogs are 'hypoallergenic'. They just have short hair. You may want to see if you can foster this dog for a while to see how your allergies will do unless you're willing to take shots for them and what not.

For foods, go with something grain free (this helps their skin and coat which will mean less grooming), high protein. If you can get it out of the grocery store, don't feed it.

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No, chihuahuas, or at least purebred chihuahuas are from the ancient Mayans in Mexico, and they were not terriers.

Purebred chihuahuas are not terriers. They do not act like terriers.

I should know this, since I have had chihuahuas my entire life so far.

Have you ever owned a chihuahua?

Unfortunately, terriers are now being mixed into the chihuahua bloodline more and more, and I know now how to spot them. If you see a puppy on craigslist or on the Arizona Republic classified ad section and it has the colors of a Jack Russell Terrier-- LOOK OUT! You may not be getting what you think you're getting.

Speaking from experience-- a horrible experience-- if the mixed breed dog has JRT colors it may not end up being the little lap dog you may want it to be. It may end up acting just like a JRT and not a chihuahua.

And yes, they were chihuahua mixes-- chihuahua mixed with JRT and Rat Terrier, and unfortunately, from my point of view, the terrier genes overwhelmed the chihuahua genes, so much that I had to get rid of them.

I was much more careful the next time around and I made sure that the color of the next puppy matched the typical chihuahua breed. And guess what? That's right. I now have a great little lap dog again. A purebred chihuahua this time around.

So, yes, the color does matter. Chihuahuas now come in many different colors, but that's because there has been so much mixing and corrupting of their blood line.

Just some fun trivia about my favorite dog, the chihuahua:

"The Chihuahua’s history is puzzling and there are many theories surrounding the origin of the breed. Both folklore and archeological finds show that the breed originated in Mexico. The most common and most likely theory is that Chihuahuas are descended from the Techichi, a companion dog favored by the Toltec civilization in Mexico.[2] No records of the Techichi are available prior to the 9th century, although dog pots from Colima, Mexico, buried as part of the western Mexico shaft tomb tradition which date back to 300 BC are thought to depict Techichis.[3] It is probable that earlier ancestors were present prior to the Mayans as dogs approximating the Chihuahua are found in materials from the Great Pyramid of Cholula, predating 1530 and in the ruins of Chichen Itza on the Yucatán Peninsula.[2]
In fact, wheeled dog toys representing both the "deer head" and "apple head" varieties of Chihuahua have been unearthed across Mesoamerica from Mexico to El Salvador. The earliest of these were found at Tres Zapotes in Veracruz, Mexico, which date to 100 AD.[4] Dog effigy pots dating to around 1325 AD discovered in Georgia and Tennessee also appear to represent the Chihuahua[5] It has been argued that these pots arrived with survivors from the Casas Grandes site in Chihuahua, Mexico, after it was attacked and destroyed around 1340 AD. Pots unearthed at Casas Grandes include representations of the "deer head" variety of Chihuahua.[4] Hernan Cortés wrote, in a 1520 letter, that the Aztecs raised and sold the little dogs as food.[6] Colonial records refer to small, nearly hairless dogs at the beginning of the 19th century, one of which claims 16th-century Conquistadores found them plentiful in the region later known as Chihuahua.[7]
A progenitor of the breed was reputedly found in 1850 in old ruins near Casas Grandes in the Mexican state of Chihuahua from which the breed gets its name,[8] although most artifacts relating to its existence are found around Mexico City."

They are derived from that group. They possess many terrier-like qualities, in appearance and behavior.

A healthy, active chihuahua, should not get tired walking to the mailbox and back. Mine will be 10 next month and he never stops. Always jumping, going for walks, playing fetch. A chihuahua should be confident and active.

You seem to be making up facts that you believe to be true based on one experience, one very unfair experience.

So yeah, I have owned a chihuahua before. I'm surrounded by them, I met well over 100, and the ones that were lazy were that way because the owners were.



If you're content with a dog that is too lazy to get off the couch, that's fine, but they are not supposed to be that way.