I always had big dogs. Then my [ex-] wife brought home a Chihuahua. It had a cough that night. I remember going down to the kitchen and sleeping with the dog, holding her. I felt bad for her. Man, that was sixteen years ago, and I’ve had Chihuahuas ever since. (…)

See, these damaged dogs—they’re like people. I know damn well when I look in this dog’s eyes that somebody abused him—beat the fuck out of this little guy for years. I know about that stuff from my own life. But he’s not even that little. He’s the most muscular Chihuahua you’ve ever seen.

{ Mickey Rourke interviewed by Radar | Continue reading }

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photo { Imp Kerr }

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For a long time, domesticated dogs were seen as just the slobbering, dumbed-down ancestor of the wild wolf. But a younger generation of researchers has set out to restore the reputations of our beloved pets. “Dogs can do things that we long believed only humans had mastered,” says Juliane Kaminski of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Evolutionary Anthropology in the eastern German city of Leipzig.

It is precisely their proximity to people — which disqualified our four-legged friends as a model for so long — that now makes them interesting to animal researchers. “When it comes to understanding human behavior, no mammal comes even close to the dog,” says Kaminski. Her Leipzig research team has demonstrated that dogs are far better than the supposedly clever apes at interpreting human gestures.

The researchers held two containers, one empty and the other containing food, in front of chimpanzees and dogs. Then they pointed to the correct container. The canines understood the gesture immediately, while the apes, genetically much more closely related to humans, were often perplexed by the pointing finger.

That’s not all. Many dogs were even capable of interpreting the researcher’s gaze. When the scientists looked at a container, the dogs would search inside for food, but when they looked in the direction of the container but focused on a point above it on the wall, the dogs were able to understand that this was not meant as a sign.

{ Spiegel | Continue reading }

photo { Rikki Kasso }

A long-coated chihuahua dubbed Heart-kun, came into the world with a perfect heart-shaped pattern in his fur.

photo { Alex Antitch }

{ Thanks Imp }

The chihuahua didn’t get that small by accident; rather, it was the result of the occasional undersize mutation purposely bred. In domestic animals (and plants), we intentionally keep mutants alive and artificially enhance their breeding success, whereas an identical mutation appearing out in the wild would generally–though not always–mean the end of the genetic line for the animal carrying it. { Straight Dope | Continue reading }

{ 4-inch Chihuahua may be world’s smallest dog }

Why is it that chihuahuas always make the best dog/costumes? ~ Photo { Thanks jzpiggy }

{ The Little Fella by Tokyo Plastic }