Xoloitzcuintli

Calm and loyal, reserved with strangers, a watchful guard.
A Xoloitzcuintli
Photo: Canarian
Adult weight
4.5–25 kg
10–55 lb
Lifespan
13–18 yrs
Class · Companion
also Lap dog

What it's like

The Xolo is calm, alert and loyal. It forms close bonds with its family and is reserved with strangers, which makes it a watchful guard. Hairless and coated puppies can be born in the same litter.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
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Living with one

How it sheds and the grooming it needs depend on the coat. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Xoloitzcuintli is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Staffordshire Bull Terrier. It is one of the lightest medium breeds.

It is lean and slightly longer than tall, with a wedge-shaped head, large upright ears and almond-shaped eyes. The hairless variety has smooth, tough skin, usually in dark shades such as black, slate or bronze, sometimes with spots, and may have short hair on the head, feet or tail. Coated dogs have a short, flat coat.

Varieties

FCI 234 divides this breed by size. Pick the variety your dog is for a band that fits. The 2 coat varieties are the same size — only the coat differs.
Variety
Weight
Height
Miniature
4.5–6.8 kg4
25–35 cm4
Intermediate
6.8–14 kg4
36–45 cm4
Standard
14–25 kg4
46–62 cm4

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
Xoloitzcuintlis reach half their adult weight at about 5 months. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
01020302m4m6m9m12m18m
01020302m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
1.1–6.3 kg 2.4–13.9 lb
1.3–7.0 kg 2.9–15.4 lb
3 months
1.6–8.6 kg 3.5–19.0 lb
1.6–9.0 kg 3.5–19.8 lb
4 months
2.2–12.1 kg 4.9–26.7 lb
2.2–12.2 kg 4.9–26.9 lb
5 months
2.7–15.0 kg 6.0–33.1 lb
2.7–14.8 kg 6.0–32.6 lb
6 months
3.1–17.3 kg 6.8–38.1 lb
3.0–16.8 kg 6.6–37.0 lb
7 months
3.4–19.0 kg 7.5–41.9 lb
3.3–18.3 kg 7.3–40.3 lb
8 months
3.7–20.4 kg 8.2–45.0 lb
3.5–19.5 kg 7.7–43.0 lb
9 months
3.9–21.4 kg 8.6–47.2 lb
3.7–20.5 kg 8.2–45.2 lb
10 months
4.0–22.1 kg 8.8–48.7 lb
3.9–21.3 kg 8.6–47.0 lb
11 months
4.1–22.7 kg 9.0–50.0 lb
4.0–22.0 kg 8.8–48.5 lb
12 months
4.2–23.2 kg 9.3–51.1 lb
4.1–22.5 kg 9.0–49.6 lb
15 months
4.4–24.1 kg 9.7–53.1 lb
4.3–23.7 kg 9.5–52.2 lb
18 months
4.5–25 kg 10–55 lb
4.5–24.7 kg 9.9–54.5 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Xoloitzcuintlis live yet. The 13–18 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Xoloitzcuintli is a Mexican hairless breed, its name taken from the god Xolotl. In pre-Hispanic Mexico it was eaten at special ceremonies and believed to guide the dead to the afterlife, and it came close to dying out before the Mexican Kennel Club saved the breed; a Xolo has been on the club's logo since 1940. It comes in three sizes, hairless or coated4.

The Xoloitzcuintli, usually shortened to Xolo, survives in its modern form largely because of work done in the mid-twentieth century. By then purebred hairless dogs had become scarce, and in the mid-nineteen-fifties the British-born naturalist Norman Pelham Wright joined a Mexican Kennel Club search of remote villages for dogs to found a breeding programme. Official recognition in Mexico followed soon after. The painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera had already kept Xolos and put them in their work, which helped raise the breed's profile. In pre-Hispanic Mexico the Xolo was linked to the god Xolotl and to burial practices. Folk tradition also valued the warmth of its bare skin.

Breed standard

Kennel clubs do not all register this breed the same way. One registry divides it into three varieties by size, each with its own weight range.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Xoloitzcuintli figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Peruvian Inca Orchid
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Chinese Crested
Companion & toy · Toy
American Hairless Terrier
Terrier · Small
Chihuahua
Companion & toy · Toy
Or compare the Xoloitzcuintli with any breed you choose
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Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
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Parts of this page were written by AI ·