Cross Breeds

How did minature dog breeds begin?

Are they like... dog midgets? Do they cross breed them with smaller dogs? HELP!

Public Comments

1. LOL. that's like asking how chinese people came about, or caucasian people.
2. All dogs came from a common ancestor-a dog. The genes for every brand was in the first dogs. Now some of the information may be lost. But any dog will cross with any other.
3. Tiy breed runts with runts and evtually you get small doggies.
4. yes that is the idea. the smallest breeds with a smallest female. then the smallest breeds again until you have a toy size.
5. Dogs that are true miniatures such as the Italian Greyhound, are regular size greyhounds that were a bit smaller than average. The smaller dogs were selected to be breed with other dogs of a smaller size until the ideal miniature size was accomplished. There are many breeds of dogs that have been selected to get to a miniature size, but there are dogs such as the min pin, that are a completely different breed and are not breed from Doberman pinchers, they are called Manchester terriers.
6. Probably from the runts of the runts that changed and evolved over the years, taking into account everything from their surroundings and environment to their diet.
7. Small dogs were bred with other small dogs from the same breed until the desired size was reached. They can be slightly more prone to inherited disease as there was some inbreeding back in the bad old days. You don't want to get anything smaller than a mini (or toy in the case of a poodle). Tea-cups are not recognized by the AKC and are the results of plain irresponsible breeding (but they too are the result of breeding small individuals with small individuals) Hope this helps
8. Some larger types were bred with existing smaller ones for the purpose of having a hunting breed that was smaller so it was able to go into animal dens, such as fox or rabbit holes. Over time, these breeds became pets not used for hunting anymore.