Xoloitzcuintli Profile
The domestication of dogs is a genetic mystery that’s getting much closer to being solved in recent years. Dogs have followed humans around the globe, adapting in kind to various conditions: low oxygen, low temperatures, high temperatures, low light, hunting, guarding, Crufts and Paris Hilton’s Handbag.
And they’ve been doing it for tens of thousands of years. While there are lots of familiar breeds, there are also some very quirky, ancient ones that have been preserved. And from South America, there’s no better example of this than the Xoloitzcuintli.
Xoloitzcuintli Facts Overview
| Habitat: | Sofas, gardens, walkies |
| Location: | Worldwide, originating from South America |
| Lifespan: | 13–18 years |
| Size: | Up to 58 cm (23 in) tall |
| Weight: | Up to 23 kg (51 lb) |
| Colour: | Black/“Blue” |
| Diet: | Dog food |
| Predators: | None |
| Top Speed: | Not recorded |
| No. of Species: | 1 |
| Conservation Status: | Domestic |
First spotted by the Mexican Kennel Club in 1956, this dog breed predates Mexico as a country, along with all national boundaries and harks back to a hunter-gatherer tribe from thousands of years ago.
The hard-to-pronounce, yet stunning Xoloitzcuintli is a healthy tropical breed of domestic dog that was once revered as a guide in the spirit realm and now goes for thousands of dollars a pup to fans who can afford it.
Interesting Xoloitzcuintli Facts
1. Xolotl
The Xoloitzcuintli goes by many names, all of them much easier to pronounce than this one. “Zho-lots-kwint-lee” is the gist of it, but if that’s too much, it’s also commonly called the Xolo.
This is a name that may stem from the Aztek God Xolotl, as well as the word for dog: Itzcuīntli.
Xolotl was the god of fire and lightening, and since this god would take on the form of a salamander, this is where we get the word Axolotl from, too. But he came in a second form, the other being one of a dog, so both Axolotls and Xoloitzcuintli were the physical manifestations of this deity1.
But we can go deeper! The remarkably similar word xōlōtl refers to a male servant, which is quite in alignment with the traditional relationship between man and dog, and this breed, as we’ll come to later, would have paid the ultimate sacrifice for human superstition.
2. They’re tough
This breed is now an expensive and unusual one found all over the world, though mostly in tropical regions. Its popularity comes mostly from of its incredible appearance, but the history of this breed is such that it also doesn’t suffer from the same stacks of genetic malfunctions that newer breeds commonly do.
This is a dog line that has been bred naturally for so long, it’s genetically relatively healthy, and so has a long and happy life in most cases.
In fact, the hairlessness that the breed is most known for is a mutation that occurred many thousands of years ago, and this is already a clue that the breed has some pretty ancient origins2.
3. They’re old
Domestic dogs appear to have come from wolves, but their line diverged from modern day wolves perhaps as far back as 40,000 years ago. Sometime between then and now, a bunch of dog ancestors started following homo sapiens around and gradually became symbionts.
It’s likely that domestication happened gradually, and in different places at different times, but some suggestions put that time as far back as 36,000 years ago, and the earliest conclusive domesticated dog is more than 14,000 years old.
Dogs followed early human into North America from Siberia, and this is where the Xoloitzcuintli line comes from, too. Its genes suggest it was bred over around 4,000 years, and then isolated from any external gene influx for around 9,000 years, and so this is one of the oldest dog breeds in the world that’s still around today!
4. They guided souls through the underworld
These dogs do have some sort of supernatural aura about them, which may explain why the Aztecs considered them shepherd of their deceased; tasked with channelling the souls of the dead through the underworld to their destiny.
They were said to have been created from a sliver of the same bone from which humanity was formed, which is a cute nod to their prehistoric origins alongside the peoples who would have settled there first3.
Remains of these dogs have been found in both Maya and Toltec graves, and the legends apparently told that the dogs were integral to the safe passage of their owners through the underworld.
Unfortunately, to be buried with their owners, they would have to be killed.
5. They were sacrificed
It’s often said that we don’t deserve dogs. Their unrelenting enthusiasm, irrespective of their quality of treatment, is heartbreaking at times, and some of those times are when you realise that humans were killing them for silly superstitious reasons.
Sacrifices are synonymous with even a superficial understanding of the ancient cultures of South America. Nothing was safe. Crops, pets, infants, children and even noble women. Okay, maybe men were safe. But pretty much everything else was fair game. Dogs in particular have been found sacrificed at the funerals for warriors4
Dogs, then, were of course on the menu. Even literally. If they weren’t being sacrificed to appease some imaginary power, or being buried with their owners, they would have been eaten.
6. And eaten
Dog was one of the few domesticated animals that were eaten in the pre-Columbian cultures of South America.
The Spanish, who couldn’t believe their luck when they invaded, document large banquets wherein dogs were served in their abundance. Up to 40 dogs would have made a fine accompaniment to the 100 turkeys and various other animals the locals slaughtered for a feast.
7. They’re mostly treated better now
For the most part, people who own this breed nowadays actually do give a damn about the animal. Of course, the high price brings with it the status of wealth, which necessarily selects for the narcissistic owner, but lots of money also funds high quality breeding programs so the chances of getting a puppy of one of these bad boys out of a van from bloke with face tattoos in an alley are much slimmer.
This means the breed is still healthy, rare, and generally well kept.
Xoloitzcuintli Fact-File Summary
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species Name: | lupus (familiaris) |
Fact Sources & References
- (2024), “Xolotl: Aztec God for the Motion of Life”, History Cooperative.
- (2011), “Xoloitzcuintli dog”, American Kennel Club.
- Denise Flaim (2024), “Xoloitzcuintli History: From Ancient Aztec Dog to Loving Companion”, American Kennel Club.
- Roberto Cortijo (2016), “Beneath Peru zoo, traces of ancient dog sacrifices”, PHYS ORG.