The history of the Chihuahua and its predecessors is a bit murky from the 1500s to the early 1800s, a time period in which very few artifacts exist to record the dog's presence. But then the little dogs begin showing up in northwestern Mexico, specifically in Chihuahua, Mexico — the country's largest state (occupying 12.5 percent of Mexico's land mass), bordering Texas and New Mexico.

During those years in which records of the little dog of Mexico are scanty, many other cultures and their dogs could have played a role in the development of the diminutive Chihuahua of today. In addition to the arrival of Spaniards (from the 1600s to the early 1800s), the area was home to more than 200 different Indian tribes (including Apaches, present in the 1500s and 1600s) as well as Chinese railroad workers and German settlers in the 1800s, when Mexico was briefly part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

In the late 1800s, enterprising Mexicans began selling small dogs (longhaired, shorthaired, and no-haired) to American tourists at border markets. It was natural then for the popular dog to be given the name “Chihuahua,” after the Mexican state in which it was sold. In fact, all varieties were at one point called Chihuahuas; however, the hairless variety was later determined to be a separate breed and has now become the Mexican hairless. As for the Chihuahua, canine historians eventually discovered how widespread Chihuahua-like dogs were throughout Mexico and further south — a discovery that came too late for anyone who wanted to make changes to the breed's name.