Xoloitzcuintli history: the Aztec dog and its ancient roots

Part 1

What the xoloitzcuintli meant to the Aztecs

The name splits into two parts: Xolotl, the Aztec god of lightning and death, and itzcuintli, the Nahuatl word for dog. Aztec belief held that Xolotl created this hairless dog to guard people in life and guide their souls through Mictlan, the underworld. Some stories describe humans and xoloitzcuintlis as shaped from the same Bone of Life, a gift meant to protect and guide.

Because of this belief, dogs were often sacrificed and buried alongside their owners so they could serve as guides on the journey to come. If you picture a dog waiting at a river's edge for its owner's soul, you are picturing a common Mesoamerican image of this journey.

Part 2

How old is this breed really

Ceramic dog effigies from the Colima culture of western Mexico date to roughly 200 BCE to 300 CE. One report describes a dog find at an archaeological site dated to about 5,500 years ago.

Genetic and zooarchaeological evidence also points to the hairless breed starting in central Mexico before spreading to other Mesoamerican cultures. A 2018 genetic study found that pre-Columbian dogs in North America likely descended from domesticated dogs that arrived from Siberia with human migrations more than 9,000 years ago, rather than from wolves tamed locally. Archaeological evidence for this breed has been found in the tombs of the Maya, Toltec, Zapotec, Colima, and Aztec peoples.

Part 3

Hairless and coated varieties

Hairlessness in the xoloitzcuintli comes from a genetic mutation, identified today as affecting the FOXI3 gene, which also causes the breed's missing premolars. That same mutation explains why hairless and coated xolos can be born in the same litter, since both types carry the same combination of genes. Xolos come in miniature and standard sizes, and hairless dogs often keep a small tuft of hair on the head, feet, or tail.

The Spanish chronicler Bernardino de Sahagún described how the Aztecs wrapped these hairless dogs in blankets at night to keep them warm. Their warm bodies were also used the way you might use a hot water bottle today, pressed against the ill or elderly to ease pain. If your own dog runs warm to the touch, you can see a distant echo of that old Aztec observation.

Part 4

From sacred companion to near extinction

After the Spanish conquest, European dogs arrived in large numbers and interbred with native dogs, and Spanish settlers also developed a taste for xoloitzcuintli meat as a source of protein. This combination of interbreeding and Spanish consumption of the dogs for meat pushed the breed toward extinction. By the time Mexico officially recognized the breed in 1956, it was nearly extinct.

In the 1950s, dog enthusiasts searched remote parts of Mexico and found about ten surviving xolos, which became the foundation for the breed's revival. In the United States, the breed was later dropped from the American Kennel Club's registry in 1959 before being readmitted in 2009. Those breeders revived the breed, and artists like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo kept xolos of their own.

Part 5

Xoloitzcuintli in art and modern culture

Xolos appear often in pre-Columbian art, especially as small ceramic vessels called Colima dogs, found in burial sites across western Mexico. Archaeologists estimate that dog effigies appear in a large majority of these Preclassic burials, suggesting the dogs were seen as guides for the dead. The artist Diego Rivera helped rescue the breed by starting a xolo breeding kennel in 1925, and he and his wife Frida Kahlo kept these dogs and included them in their art.

Kahlo's 1949 painting, The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl, shows her own pet dog, Xolotl. The xoloitzcuintli is recognized as the national dog of Mexico. More recently, xolos appeared in the 2017 animated film Coco, and the dogs remain closely tied to Mexico's Day of the Dead celebrations, where you might see them dressed in marigolds or painted like skeletons.

Part 6

Where to see xolo artifacts

If you want to see xolo artifacts yourself, museums such as the Museum of Native American History, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Bowers Museum, and the North Carolina Museum of Art hold Colima dog effigies in their collections. Academic studies have also looked at the breed's genetics, including a 1999 study of mitochondrial DNA and a 2020 study estimating that modern xoloitzcuintlis carry only a small share of ancestry from pre-colonial dogs. These studies can help you understand how much the breed has changed since the dogs described in Aztec-era sources were alive.