The Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix dog is what is known in dog breeding as a “hybrid” dog breed.

If you are new to the world of dog breeding, a hybrid or cross-bred dog breed is different than a purebred dog or a mixed breed dog (“mutt”).

In this article, learn all about Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix breeding and how to choose a wonderful cross-bred puppy!

Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix

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The Australian Shepherd Chihuahua is a hybrid or crossbred dog breed that has two different purebred parent dogs.

In this case, the two-parent dogs are the Australian Shepherd and the Chihuahua.

With two-parent dogs who look and act so different and are such different sizes, you may wonder what your puppy will look and act like. Read on to find out all the wonderful possibilities!

Meet Two Different Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix Dogs

Whenever you decide to adopt a mixed breed or cross-bred dog breed, there can be a lot of genetic variation between the puppies.

These two videos showcase this fact perfectly.

In this YouTube video, you can meet a larger Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix who looks a lot more like the Australian Shepherd parent dog.

And in this YouTube video, you can meet another Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix dog who looks a lot more like the Chihuahua parent dog.

Of course, part of the fun of choosing a hybrid dog breed is in this type of variety! But if you want or need a puppy with a certain coat type or personality, it really helps to learn more about what to expect from each parent dog breed.

Read on to learn more about this topic now.

Meet the Aussie HuaHua

While you might prefer to tell people your new dog is an Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix, many owners (and more than a few dog breeders) have nicknamed this new developing dog breed the “Aussie Huahua.”

As you can probably tell, the nickname is a mix of the two purebred breed names.

This is a common re-naming practice in the dog breed world whenever there is a new dog breed under development.

Why Choose a Hybrid Dog Breed Like the Aussie HuaHua?

You might quite understandably be wondering why hybrid breeding programs have become so popular today.

The first true modern hybrid dog breed was the legendary Labradoodle, of course. That started the trend towards crossing two purebred dog lines to create a new dog breed.

In the case of the Labradoodle, the goal was to develop a guide dog with a non-shedding coat to suit the needs of a blind woman and her dog-allergic husband.

Today, the goal of this type of hybrid breeding program is often quite different.

Whenever you combine two different genetic lines, there is a potential to maximize desirable traits while minimizing undesirable traits. As such, this type of trait combination breeding can be desirable for many reasons.

But one of the most urgent reasons today is for dog breed health.

Many purebred dog lines have become very genetically limited due to focused breeding for appearance traits. For example, a breeder might want a dog of a certain size, coat color, or muzzle shape.

Breeding dogs that have these desirable traits can produce a certain type of appearance, but may also promote genes that have less desirable side effects, for lack of a simpler term, as Scientific American explains.

This has caused many purebred dog breeds to be plagued with serious genetic, or heritable, health issues. Crossing such compromised purebred dog breed lines with another dog breed can provide a much-needed infusion of genetic diversity.

For you, it may mean that your Aussie Huahua is healthier and longer-lived than either purebred parent dog might have been.

This is not a guarantee, of course, but it certainly is possible. And it is a quite likely outcome of choosing your Aussie Huahua puppy from a responsible, health-focused dog breeder that performs all the necessary pre-screening tests on parent dogs.

Learn About the Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix History

The best way to start learning more about what an Aussie Huahua dog might grow up to be like is to study up on the parent dog breeds and their history.

Meet the Australian Shepherd

The Australian Shepherd has become an iconic dog in America today. These so-called “rodeo dogs” are natural performers. They are amazingly athletic and smart and can learn just about any new trick in five tries or less.

As the American Kennel Club (AKC) recounts, Australian Shepherds actually aren’t from Australia at all!

These dogs originated in Europe. They moved to Australia with their owners, where the breed was further refined with strategic cross-breeding with local Australian dog breeds.

Then when their owners decided to emigrate from Australia to the United States, they once again took their dogs with them. The Americans assumed the dogs were Australian and gave them the breed name Australian Shepherd.

The Shepherd part of the name comes from their incredible talents as ranching and herding dogs. Today, these agile and active dogs often take top honors in canine athletic competitions.

Meet the Chihuahua

The Chihuahua couldn’t be more different in many ways than the Australian Shepherd. The American Kennel Club (AKC) describes this tiny dog breed as sassy, graceful, and charming.

In other words, these are definitely not herding and ranching dogs!

These dogs have claimed the starring role in more than one big Hollywood movie. They are considered a national treasure in their native country of Mexico.

For dog lovers living in small spaces, the Chihuahua is a popular choice because of its own tiny size.

Chihuahuas don’t seem to know they are little, however. They make great family watchdogs whose bark often makes them seem much larger than they are.

What Size and Height Will Your Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix Dog Be?

In the last section here, we mentioned that Chihuahuas are popular in part because they are quite small and compact and don’t need a lot of room.

But Australian Shepherds are quite a bit larger and are also very active working dogs.

So if you live in a small space such as an apartment or you don’t have a lot of yards, you may wonder what to expect if you choose an Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix dog.

Let’s find out!

Australian Shepherd dog size

The Australian Shepherd is considered a medium-size dog breed in the world of purebred dog classification.

The Australian Shepherd typically weighs anywhere from 40 to 55 pounds. Males are usually about 10 pounds heavier than females.

Aussie Shepherds are usually between 18 and 23 inches tall. This is measured from the base of paws to the top of shoulders in the dog world. Here again, male adult dogs typically stand about two inches higher than do female adult dogs.

Chihuahua dog size

Chihuahuas have considered toy-sized dog breeds in the purebred dog world.

A fully grown adult Chihuahua dog grown to AKC purebred standards will weigh six pounds or less and stand between five and eight inches tall.

There is no real difference in weight or height between adult males and adult females.

Australian Shepherd Chihuahua dog size

If you think back to those two YouTube videos you watched in an earlier section here, you can see how a crossbred puppy could wind up being larger or smaller depending on which parent dog the puppy most favors.

This means your Aussie Chihuahua dog could grow up to weigh anywhere from less than six points to 55 pounds and stand anywhere from five to 23 inches tall!

But the more likely result is that your adult dog will weigh around 35 pounds and stand around 14 inches tall.

What Coat Type Will An Australian Shepherd Chihuahua Mix Dog Have?

It would be hard to find two purebred dog breeds with such different coat types as the Australian Shepherd and the Chihuahua.

This makes guessing your dog’s adult coat type quite a challenge!

The Australian Shepherd has a medium-length double layer coat that sheds year-round and heavily when the seasons change.

The Chihuahua coat type is either short-coated or long-hair with a single layer coat that sheds minimally.

If you or someone in your family really needs your Aussie Huahua dog to have a low-shedding coat, look for a hybrid dog breeder that works with later stage dog breeding (F2 or later). If you are not sure what this means, you can ask the breeder directly.