The popularity of chihuahuas has been slowly increasing over the last twenty years and they are currently the 36ths most popular dog breed in the USA and we expect them to continue their slow climb to eventually end up being a top 20 dog breed by popularity.
With the popularity of the chihuahua dog breed steadily increasing with each year that passes, the number of questions that we see about chihuahuas tends to increase at a correlating pace.
We see a huge range of questions each month about chihuahuas ranging from their food, training them, and how to keep them healthy but one of the more interesting and often misunderstood questions that we have seen people asking about time and time again is about the tall chihuahua.
The tall chihuahua is sometimes called the deer leg chihuahua and is also seeing a spike in its popularity too with many people specifically asking about it.
Due to seeing to many questions about tall chihuahuas as well as there being so much misinformation out there about them, we have decided to publish our own dedicated article on the breed.
Our hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible better understand the tall chihuahua as well as avoid some of the common scams out there that people often fall for regarding tall chihuahuas.
Are There Tall Chihuahuas?
There are tall chihuahuas with there being a small number of pedigree chihuahuas who grow abnormally tall as well as the deer leg chihuahua variant that tends to naturally grow longer legs but they are not recognized as pedigree purebred chihuahuas.
Most purebred chihuahuas will grow to around 9 inches tall but some can make it as tall as 15 inches but this does tend to be very rare.
If you do want a pedigree chihuahua then you can usually expect your dog to grow to around 9 inches in height on average with some dogs growing to between 9 and 12 inches in rare situations with any purebred chihuahua above 12 inches being very rare.
Purebred chihuahuas that are over 12 inches tall can usually fetch high stud fees due to so many people wanting a tall purebred chihuahua these days.
The deer leg chihuahua is usually much taller than a regular chihuahua but the deer leg chihuahua is a mix with one parent being a chihuahua and the other usually being a tall terrier breed.
Although some of the pups produced from the pairing can look like a very tall chihuahua, the odds are usually against this with most just looking like most other dog mixes with shared features from both parents.
What Is The Tallest Chihuahua?
The most popular purebred chihuahua is Milo who managed to grow to over a foot tall in less than a year with his eventual height being close to 15 inches.
At the time of the original media coverage about Milos height, it was though he was the only chihuahua to have grown to that height but a number of other chihuahua owners have since came forward with chihuahua of similar heights.
When it comes to the taller deer leg chihuahuas, 12 to 15 inches in height is about average for them but some deer leg chihuahuas have managed to grow to as much as 20 inches tall.
This will depend heavily on the other parent breed for the deer leg chihuahua though due to the non-chihuahua parent of the dog usually being the largest factor in the height of the puppies.
Due to people actively trying to breed tall purebred chihuahuas to increase the chances of their puppies from the pairing being taller, it is becoming more common for chihuahuas to be over the average of 9 inches now.
This has resulted in some Kennel Clubs around the world removing the maximum height from the breed standards for the chihuahua.
What Is A Deer Legged Chihuahua?
A deer leg chihuahua is a mix breed dog that is half chihuahua and usually half of some type of tall terrier breed although there are a number of suitable breeds for the non-chihuahua parent.
Although the majority of the attention goes to the puppies that look like a tall chihuahua, in reality, they are the minority of the litter with most puppies looking like a general mix of both parents.
Our regular readers will already know that we usually discourage our readers from opting to add a designer dog breed or mix dog breed to their family as their looks can be unpredictable.
Breeders will often show potential buyers photographs and videos of deer legged chihuahuas that look like tall chihuahuas as proof of what the puppies will look like when there are a wide range of possibilities for the puppy as they grow.
This can often result in a puppy that takes more of its visual features from its non-chihuahua parent once it grows or a puppy that looks like more of a mix between both of its parents.
In turn, this will often result in a large number of the dogs being handed in to dog shelters due to looking nothing like a tall chihuahua once they are fully grown.
Are Tall Chihuahuas Rare?
Tall purebred chihuahuas are rare with only a very small number of chihuahua naturally growing to be over 12 inches in height with the majority usually being around 9 inches tall.
The deer leg chihuahua variant are usually taller than purebred chihuahuas and a high of 12 inches is common for them but they may not look like a purebred chihuahua due to being a mix.
As we mentioned earlier in the article, due to people selectively breeding tall purebred chihuahuas the average height of chihuahuas is slowly increasing.
Once the selective breeding cycles have had a decade or so to pan out, the average height of chihuahuas could have increased by a surprising amount.
We feel that most Kennel Clubs will take steps against this though and add height requirements back to the chihuahua breed standards to try and keep purebred chihuahuas below 10 inches.
Although you will still be able to get natural, purebred chihuahuas that grow above this, they will usually be awarded their pedigree but put on a breeding ban with similar steps having been taken in the past for other breeds.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over tall chihuahuas to an end. If everything lines up perfectly then a deer leg chihuahua can look almost identical to a purebred chihuahua while being much taller but this does tend to be rare due to being able to pull its looks from either parent. Purebred chihuahuas are even rarer than the deer leg chihuahuas that have all of the visual features of their chihuahua and this is why a purebred chihuahua that is over between 10 and 12 inches tall usually being able to fetch a high stud fee with any over 12 inches tall having an even higher stud fee.
