Question: How many people in the United States own Chihuahuas?
Answer: More than you can count.
This was the surprisingly smart-aleck answer we found on the Internet this morning when we wondered how many Chihuahuas there are in the country. More helpful was the site indicating that as of 2008, there were 59,684 registered Chihuahuas in Los Angeles County alone.
But getting accurate numbers of a breed is surprisingly challenging, and AKC rankings, more easily found, don’t tell us how that translates into the number of “paws on the ground.”
You work with what you can find.
Our own records of AKC rankings begin with the year 1935 when the Chihuahua (first recognized by the AKC in 1904) was 23rd in popularity based on AKC registration statistics. The breed hovered in approximately the same spot for the next several years, but in 1942, it started inching upwards. In 1948, the Chihuahua broke into the Top Ten for the first time, and began a meteoric rise in popularity, possibly through exposure to “Pepito,” the Chi belonging to popular bandleader, Xavier Cugat, and his wife, Charo. In 1958, the Chihuahua was the second most popular breed in the country, and it had a “few good years,” but in 1971, the breed fell out of the Top Ten and didn’t get back until 1998 when it was ranked 8th. Curiously, the breed’s ranking didn’t seem to be impacted by the 2001 movie, Legally Blonde, in which a Chihuahua named, “Bruiser,” stole many of the scenes.
As of 2021, the Chihuahua had dropped to #37, but with the rise of breed rescues, this doesn’t necessarily mean the breed is less popular because rehomed Chihuahuas may not figure into breed registrations.
A lot of things can account for a breed’s rise and fall in popularity including movies, TV, and yes, a band leader. From our perspective, we also think that John Q Public doesn’t always remember, or even know, that a certain breed exists until exposed to it, and once that happens, the appeal of a breed like the Chihuahua spreads. Dalmatian owners can tell you that this isn’t always a good thing, but fanciers of at-risk breeds point out that the opposite is equally disastrous for a breed, which is its extinction. As fanciers, we value balance in our dogs, and as dog lovers, we value the same in breed numbers.