One of the newest “fads” in today’s designer dog breed world, and one of the most awkward and unusual of mixes we’re going to be discussing in this article, is the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix – a dog that results from cross breeding between one Great Dane parent and one Chihuahua parent.
Cross breeding for designer dog breeds [1] is certainly becoming a very lucrative business for many people out there, and they are always attempting to come up with the “next big hit” that’ll make them a fortune, or so they hope.
And, for a dog breeder that possibly wants to find the “next big thing” in the world of designer dog breeds, then they have to try unusual things – one of which is cross breeding a Great Dane with a Chihuahua.
What Is A Great Dane Chihuahua Mix?
The Great Dane Chihuahua Mix is a newer mixed breed dog that resulted from breeding the Great Dane and the Chihuahua. The Great Dane Chihuahua Mix is also known by several other names, such as Chi-Dane-Dane and The Great Mexican dog.
Why Cross Breeding A Chihuahua With A Great Dane Is Unusual
Why is it awkward and unusual, you may ask. Well, for one, just look at the size difference between these two breeds!
A Chihuahua typically weighs around 2 kilograms and stands around 20 cm in height [2], while a Great Dane typically weighs a whopping 54 kilograms and stands at around 85 cm in height!
It’s just not a very usual sight seeing such a gigantic dog being cross bred with such a tiny dog.
So, other than the fact that this cross breed is one of the most unusual designer dog breeds you will surely ever hear about, what exactly is this dog all about?
Is the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dog really a “thing” nowadays, or is it just pure hype that never lived up to what people made it out to be? Let’s have a look.
Early Complications With Producing Great Dane Chihuahua Mix Dogs
The first attempts at breeding for these dogs were anything but easy tries, as many challenges and failures were experienced before a formula for success could be discovered.
The first few attempts at breeding for these dogs was by breeders trying to have a male Great Dane being cross bred with a female Chihuahua, but the problem was that their offspring were way too big in size for the Chihuahua mother to properly give birth to them without any complications.
There were a few attempts to get the mother Chihuahua to deliver the puppy via a C-Section operation, but this attempt also turned out to be a failure because often times the mother Chihuahua would die and the puppy would die shortly after.
So, seeing as giving birth to these puppies was proving to be an impossible task for the Chihuahua mother and the baby, as most often both sides were eventually faced with death, this attempt at cross breeding was obviously a failure.
Another route was eventually tried out, and this time the trial was the other way around.
This is when breeders began trying to have a Great Dane mother being cross bred with a Chihuahua father (see what we mean by this whole thing being weird and awkward?
Can you imagine a male Chihuahua impregnating a Great Dane female with the size difference between them?).
Of course, and as you may have imagined, this attempt was anything but easy for the male Chihuahua to complete, as they faced a terribly hard time doing this the proper way (as would be logically expected, anyways).
Not Enough Literature On Great Dane Chihuahua Mix Dogs
Unfortunately, and as of this writing, the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dog hasn’t yet been successfully bred, at least according to the information that’s available about this cross breed as of today.
Besides the information we mentioned above about early complications of breeders who tried to cross breed these two extremely different sized dogs together, there isn’t much credible information about this subject available yet, especially when it comes to successful attempts of breeding for this dog without any complications and/or death of either the mother or the offspring itself.
If you run a quick search about this cross breed, you’ll find some ridiculous stories spread about a few Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dogs here and there, but much of them are pure fantasy and not based on any notable facts at all.
It’s safe to say that as of this writing, the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dogs are rarely being actively bred at the moment, with extremely few breeders even trying to go about doing this.
If this was ever to change and the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dog suddenly skyrocketed in amount of breeders actively breeding for it, we’ll be sure to edit this section as soon as that happens – but for now, just know that this cross breed isn’t really “a thing” as of this writing.
It isn’t expected that dog breeders will be seeking to breed for the Great Dane Chihuahua Mix dog anytime soon, mainly because they know that this is way too much trouble to get themselves into because of the tremendous difference in size, no matter which of the two ways you tried to breed for them.
Whether you tried to get a male Chihuahua to impregnate a female Great Dane or whether you tried to get a male Great Dane to impregnate a female Chihuahua, trouble is bound to happen either way, and it’s just not worth it.
Resources
1. Designer dog breeds https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/designer-dog-breeds
2. Chihuahuau breed standard http://www.chihuahuaclubofamerica.com/breed-info/chihuahuau-breed-standard/breed-standard
When I lived in Christchurch New Zealand, a Great Dane breeding female and a spunky chihuahua male ‘accidently’ bred (they were caught in the act with the female GD lying down obligingly for her wee lover). The resulting litter of nine were attractive medium/small Great Dane looking dogs with very short legs. This was in the early 90s and was in the local papers.
Do you remember the newspaper’s name? I’ve been trying to get an experiment done with a male great dane impregnating a female chihuaha by artificial insemination and see what happens. There seems to be disagreement about what would happen. Some say there would be intra-uterine hypoxia and the fetuses would all die off. Others say the pups would be restricted in size by the mother’s allocating nutrients and calories to the growing fetuses, but the litter would be smaller with the pups being slightly larger than normal.
My guess is that she has some mechanism to restrict the amount of tissue any embryo can monopolize otherwise a cheating embryo might be able to take over all the resources of the mother and eliminate his or her siblings. So she has a fail-safe mechanism to prevent this.
That’s pretty unethical man. The dog might die.
Females need to be bigger than the males, even within the same breed it’s best.
The dog will die. Are you a psychopath?