If you thought regular chihuahuas were small and cute, wait until you see the hairless chihuahua. What can we learn about this rare dog breed? Stay tuned because we will cover everything about the hairless Chihuahua and examine what makes this dog special. Along with being a rare dog breed, hairless Chihuahuas only give birth twice per year to two or three puppies. 

Temperament of the Hairless Chihuahua

Not to be confused with the Chinese crested dog, the hairless Chihuahua’s defining personality traits include loyalty, protectiveness, playfulness, affection and even-tempered.

This dog breed may bark heavily at intruders, and if the prospect of a loud dog annoys you, you may want to consider another breed.

That’s not to say that this isn’t a good breed, but not everyone was meant for some dog breeds. You want to make sure that its characteristics will make him a good fit for the family with whatever breed you choose. 

Ever heard Mark Twain’s saying that it isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog? The hairless Chihuahua sums up that saying perfectly.

This breed, speaking, on the whole, was reported as one of the most aggressive dog breeds on the planet. This especially becomes the case in how they get along with larger dogs that they haven’t seen before. 

To eliminate the risk of aggression toward other dogs and humans, you want to socialize the hairless Chihuahua with other dogs and new people as early as possible to prevent this behavior. Failure to do so may lead to the dog acting overly suspicious or shy of newcomers. Controlling their barking can become next to impossible.

We talk about the general characteristics of the dog breed’s temperament, but one thing that every dog owner learns is how each dog will have its own personality.

Check out this video here to learn more about socializing puppies:

Physical Traits of the Hairless Chihuahua

Besides being hairless, its height will range from 5 to 8 inches. It will weigh anywhere from 4 pounds to 8 pounds, and this dog has a stature that displays as longer than what it does tall. Whenever it walks, its head sits on straight, and its tail is usually up. 

They come in a variety of colors including gray, black, brown, white or splotches of white on gray or brown. In terms of the skin and physical appearance, you might compare it as the dog version’s answer to the sphinx cat. This breed of dog is, in fact, not a dog breed at all even though people think of it as such. It’s the same as a regular Chihuahua, but they have a rare genetic defect that causes hairlessness. 

Important to note that a short-coated Chihuahua isn’t the same as hairless. Short hair on this dog is common, but that isn’t the same thing. 

Keeping Him Warm

The naturally high metabolism of the Chihuahua can make it appear to shiver when nervous or excited. He burns heat easily, which means that even if you don’t feel cold, your Chihuahua might. The extra factor of him being hairless only adds to the care and attention required to ensure that your Chihuahua and safe. Cold air can be deadly. 

Unlike humans, dogs have a higher body temperature of between 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit and 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The optimal room temperature for your dog will sit between 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Don’t set the thermostat below 60 degrees. This dog breed is brachycephalic, which means that they will be more sensitive to lower temperatures. They could experience breathing problems due to the cold. 

In a colder environment, we would recommend that you keep this dog indoors as much as possible. The cold can cause dehydration and hypothermia. 

Some of the signs that your hairless Chihuahua feels cold include:

• Refusal to go outside
• Lifts paws high off the ground when outside
• Has the shivers
• Appearing lethargic 
• Barking or whining
• Building a nest to warm up with blankets

Anything below 40 degrees can pose a danger to your dog. Consider how this dog doesn’t have fur, which makes it especially susceptible. Elderly dogs need special care to protect them even more because of how their body doesn’t regulate their temperature as easily.

Supply all hairless Chihuahuas with extra bedding. Beware of making the dog too hot since this can have an equally negative impact. 

The Advantage of Hairless

Due to the fact that they don’t have hair, the hairless Chihuahua will not pose as much problem to someone with allergies. Contrast that with a regular Chihuahua, they will pose some issues for your allergies, since they are not hypoallergenic. You do have other advantages of this as well such as no need for an expensive flea treatment, which can run anywhere from $40 to $200 every year.

Grooming never takes long and a bath never requires more than five minutes.  

Where Did the Chihuahua Come From?

No one knows the exact origins of the Chihuahua. Two possible theories explain this dog breed. First, you have the possibility that this dog became a cross between the Chihuahua of Mexico and the Chinese crested dog that Spanish traders brought to Mexico, and it bred with the local Mexican dog populations. The Chihuahua is a native dog of Mexico, being named after the Mexican state of Chihuahua. 

Others believe the origins of the hairless came closer to home. The Chihuahua dogs descended from the Techichi, which is a Mexican dog that dates back to the 9th century Toltec civilization.

They first discovered and noted the Chihuahua in the mid-19th century. This was a dog breed that inhabited the deserts, which is what makes it essential to keep it warm. Learn more about the history of the Chihuahua here.

How Much Does a Hairless Chihuahua Cost?

How much you pay depends on the dog breeder, but you could expect to pay anywhere from $800 to $4,000. The cost to adopt one, on the other hand, is much cheaper at around $300 in most cases.

These dogs cost so much because of their rarity and being in high demand. Hairless Chihuahuas can only reproduce twice per year, and they only produce a litter of between two to three puppies due to their small size. 

What is the Health of the Hairless Chihuahua Like?

We would list this as a healthy dog breed with few health problems on the whole. The issues common to this breed include genetic abnormalities and epilepsy. You can expect this breed to live for 16 years depending on good diet and exercise. This dog breed has weak points in its skull, which makes it especially important to take care of the dog until six months old. Hairless Chihuahua puppies are born with an incomplete skull.

They suffer another risk in that their large and bulging eye have a proneness to conjunctivitis. This happens when the membrane around the eye suffers an infection from harmful bacteria. Topical and oral treatments give you the most common way to treat it. 

Diet and Exercise

You want your hairless Chihuahua’s diet to consist of a minimum of 40 percent protein. This includes meat like chicken, beef, lamb and fish. For homemade meats, aim for lean fats when feeding him. You will want to feed your dog at a consistent time each morning because it adds feelings of security.

Dogs live on security, and it eliminates many of the destructive behaviors they may display otherwise without it. Feed your hairless Chihuahua at a minimum of two to three times per day. 

Based on information from the American Kennel Club, you only need to exercise this dog for 30 minutes each day. Giving the dog a walk around the park may be enough for exercise. You want to avoid overexerting this breed since it can have a negative impact on his health. Pay attention to if the dog breathes hard and struggles to keep up. You may want to take him home early if you notice those signs. 

During the exercise, don’t leave your dog alone since he’s prone to aggression with other dogs. Due to his small size, he is likely to be injured in a fight. However, his size won’t stop him from picking a fight with a larger dog. 

Taking Care of the Skin

Since this breed has no hair, you may not need to groom it as much, but you will need to be aware of the skincare practices for the best health. You must apply antibiotics and disinfectants to scratches and wounds to keep them from infection. During the hotter days, you may want to apply sunscreen to your dog to keep him from sunburn. 

A sunburn won’t just prove painful, it can lead to other serious health complications like skin cancer. Particularly when out in the sun for an extended period of time, it would be a good idea to protect him with sunscreen. The most vulnerable areas include the eyelids and the light pigmented area on the nose. Any area with light pigmentation proves especially dangerous. 

Expert Tip: Rub in your dog’s sunscreen. If you want it to be effective, you will need to rub it into his skin for the most positive effect.

Before applying sunscreen for the first time, put on a light amount to ensure that it doesn’t provoke an allergic reaction—wait 15 minutes to see how he responds. You will want to reapply the sunscreen every four to six hours that he’s out in the sun.

Also, while sunscreen can prevent sunburn in many cases, it isn’t 100-percent effective, and you may want to keep your dog indoors on the hottest days. 

Is It a Total Absence of Hair?

Most of the hairless Chihuahuas will lack hair altogether, but some of the Chihuahuas will include a thin and fine layer of hair, particularly on the head. In some cases, you may see the fur closer to the end of the tail. This genetic factor also plays a role in that the dog will sometimes not have teeth that some of the other dog breeds would have. 

Are Hairless Chihuahuas Hypoallergenic?

You can wash a hairless Chihuahua easily, and it doesn’t have a lot of or any fur, which makes it easier to deal with if you have dog allergies. Washing your pet daily will cut down on the amount of dandruff, which is what most people have an allergy to. Most don’t suffer an allergy to the actual fur, which is contrary to what a lot of people believe about dogs and allergies. 

Where Would It Make Sense to Have a Hairless Chihuahua?

Due to its small size, we especially find that it makes sense to own this dog in cases where you live in a small urban apartment. They won’t feel like they’re always underfoot, and you might compare this dog to companion dogs. They love the company and being around their owners.

This dog, due to its fast metabolism will do better if it eats a little and often.

You may want to brush your dog’s teeth daily to prevent tartar buildup and issues with his teeth. 

The Types of Chihuahuas

In total, you have several types of Chihuahuas with hairless being one of those types. Let’s have a look at the other types of Chihuahuas: 

• Long-coat Chihuahua
• Smooth-coat Chihuahua
• Deer head Chihuahua
• Apple head Chihuahua 
• Fawn Chihuahua
• Teacup Chihuahua
• Hairless Chihuahua

The hairless Chihuahua is not a Chihuahua breed in and of itself. In fact, overbreeding Chihuahuas with the goal of creating a specific coat color is what causes this genetic defect to happen from time to time.

What happened was that some people took a liking to the hairless and chose to start breeding it specifically. It’s rare to find this type of Chihuahua in comparison to some of the other choices. That explains why it costs more than the other choices. 

What is a Blue Hairless Chihuahua

If you thought of a hairless Chihuahua as rare, a blue hairless Chihuahua is even rarer because of how the two things must both come together, and they were both rare, to begin with.

Unlike the regular hairless, however, some controversy exists around breeding blue hairless Chihuahuas because of how the dog may have some serious health issues. You can pay as much as $10,000 for a blue Chihuahua, and we’d imagine that price goes even higher for hairless.

We wouldn’t recommend that you breed one blue with another because of the health complications that this gives them. It’s cruel and inhumane to do this for a color of a dog. The color isn’t blue in most cases.

Hairless Chihuahua Puppy

In case you wanted to see how cute the hairless Chihuahua puppy looks, check out this video of a hairless Chihuahua puppy:

They sound more like a cat than a dog as a puppy, but that will change as they get older. In some cases, you can buy a Chihuahua puppy with hair, and if one of its parents has the hairless gene, you can still produce a hairless Chihuahua puppy later. At two months old, a hairless will weigh between 1 and 2 pounds. 

The Hairless Teacup Chihuahua

The teacup Chihuahua as an adult dog is a tiny pet that will weigh around 5 pounds at the most. We wouldn’t recommend this choice because of how—like the blue hairless Chihuahua—a hairless teacup Chihuahua comes with many health complications. Some of the dangers that it faces include bone fractures, heart disease and hydrocephalus among other things. 

In comparison, a regular hairless doesn’t have these problems, and they will have a normal lifespan. The hairless teacup Chihuahua, on the other hand, has a life expectancy of anywhere from seven to 12 years. That, in comparison, to 16 years. Even if a teacup Chihuahua does live a longer time, it may suffer from many health problems that make it inadvisable to buy one of these dogs. 

Conclusion

The hairless Chihuahua is an awesome choice if you can afford the cost and like the look of the hairless dog. We would also recommend it as a low-maintenance dog since it takes five minutes to bathe him at the most. The smaller size makes it easier to bathe this dog as well as the lack of fur. You don’t suffer from that wet dog smell.

Someone who has dog allergies can especially appreciate the hairless Chihuahua because it allows them to have a dog without experiencing their allergies.