Variety of Xoloitzcuintli

Xoloitzcuintli (Intermediate)

Calm and quiet at home, alert but rarely a heavy barker.
A Xoloitzcuintli
Photo: Canarian
Adult weight
6.8–14 kg
15–30 lb
Lifespan
13–18 yrs
Class · Companion
also Watchdog

What it's like

The intermediate falls between the other two sizes and keeps the outline of the larger dog in a more compact frame. It is calm and quiet at home and closely attached to its family. It is reserved with strangers and alert, though not usually a heavy barker.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
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

An Intermediate Xoloitzcuintli is a small dog, heavier than a Pug and lighter than a Cocker Spaniel. It is one of the heaviest small breeds.

The breed is lean and graceful, with a wedge-shaped head and large upright ears often compared to a bat's. Most are hairless, with smooth, close skin in dark shades such as black, slate or bronze, sometimes with a few short hairs on the head or tail. Hairless dogs carry a single copy of a dominant gene, so puppies with a short, flat coat turn up in litters.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Intermediate Xoloitzcuintli puppy is already as heavy as a grown Jack Russell. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight6
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
0510152m4m6m9m12m18m
0510152m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
1.7–3.4 kg 3.7–7.5 lb
1.9–3.8 kg 4.2–8.4 lb
3 months
2.3–4.7 kg 5.1–10.4 lb
2.5–4.9 kg 5.5–10.8 lb
4 months
3.3–6.6 kg 7.3–14.6 lb
3.3–6.7 kg 7.3–14.8 lb
5 months
4.1–8.2 kg 9.0–18.1 lb
4.0–8.1 kg 8.8–17.9 lb
6 months
4.7–9.5 kg 10.4–20.9 lb
4.6–9.2 kg 10.1–20.3 lb
7 months
5.2–10.4 kg 11.5–22.9 lb
5.0–10.0 kg 11.0–22.0 lb
8 months
5.6–11.1 kg 12.3–24.5 lb
5.3–10.7 kg 11.7–23.6 lb
9 months
5.8–11.7 kg 12.8–25.8 lb
5.6–11.2 kg 12.3–24.7 lb
10 months
6.0–12.1 kg 13.2–26.7 lb
5.8–11.7 kg 12.8–25.8 lb
11 months
6.2–12.4 kg 13.7–27.3 lb
6.0–12.0 kg 13.2–26.5 lb
12 months
6.3–12.6 kg 13.9–27.8 lb
6.1–12.3 kg 13.4–27.1 lb
15 months
6.6–13.2 kg 14.6–29.1 lb
6.5–13.0 kg 14.3–28.7 lb
18 months
6.8–14 kg 15–30 lb
6.7–13.5 kg 14.8–29.8 lb

Lifespan

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

Where it comes from

The Intermediate Xoloitzcuintli is the middle of three height varieties in the Mexican standard the FCI publishes, and like the largest it is classed as a watchdog, while the smallest is a companion. The breed's US club gives roughly the same band of heights to the size it calls the Miniature, which it says is often known as the "clowns" of the breed4,7.

The Intermediate Xoloitzcuintli is one size of an ancient hairless dog of the Americas, kept in Mexico long before the Spanish arrived. Its name joins Xolotl, an Aztec god, with the Nahuatl word for dog, and clay dog figures from ancient tombs in western Mexico are often linked to it. Early peoples kept these dogs as companions and used them for food and ritual. By the mid twentieth century the breed had grown scarce. Enthusiasts gathered dogs from remote villages to rebuild it, and it gained formal recognition in Mexico during the nineteen-fifties.

Breed standard

Kennel clubs do not all register this breed the same way.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Intermediate 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 small breed is most likely at the early end.

Compare with related

Shiba Inu
Spitz & primitive · Small
Cirneco dell'Etna
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Pomsky
Non-sporting · Small
American Eskimo Dog
Non-sporting · Small
Or compare the Intermediate 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 ·