Under development · The Museum of Friendly Beasts is open while new galleries are added
✿ Lambythe Museum of Friendly Beasts
Cats and dogs · room 5 of 7 · Ancient to today

Purse dogs

Teacup marketing, the handbag-dog fashion and what happened when it faded, and the lapdogs of emperors and queens.

Every dogEvery catStrange catsFat catsPurse dogsUgly dogsWhere pets come from
For little learners (K–5)

Tiny dogs are still dogs. They need walks, play and four feet on the ground. "Teacup" is not a kind of dog; it is a word sellers use.

Today

"Teacup" is not a breed

biologyeconomics

No kennel club recognizes "teacup" dogs. The word is a sales label for unusually tiny Chihuahuas, Yorkshire Terriers, Pomeranians, Maltese and Poodles, often bred from the smallest, weakest dogs in a litter. Veterinarians warn that tiny dogs are prone to dangerously low blood sugar, fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus), an open soft spot in the skull, liver shunts, a collapsing windpipe, and bones that break in a short fall.

Smaller is not always cuter for the dog. A higher price for a smaller dog rewards breeding that harms dogs.

Sources: PetMD, the truth about teacup dogs; AKC, Toy Group
JackyM59 · Wikimedia Commons
2000s

The handbag dog

economicstrade & commercialization

In the early 2000s tiny dogs carried in designer handbags became a fashion seen in magazines, films and on red carpets. Demand for small breeds jumped. When the fashion cooled, many small dogs ended up in shelters; California shelters became so full of Chihuahuas that in 2010 shelters and an airline flew some to New York, where the ASPCA put them up for adoption ("Operation Chihuahua").

A pet bought as an accessory can be dropped when the fashion changes. A fad is a classic demand shock.

Sources: NPR, San Francisco's surplus Chihuahuas (Jan. 2010); ASPCA, Operation Chihuahua dogs available for adoption
Roxyuru · Wikimedia Commons
Care

A dog is not a bag

biology

Small dogs still need walks, play and time on four feet with other dogs. Dogs carried everywhere can become fearful or snappy because they never learn the world. Bags get hot, and a jump from arms or a sofa can break a tiny leg.

Many "small dog" behavior problems come from how small dogs are treated, not from their size.

Sources: AKC, caring for toy breeds
Biswarup Ganguly · Wikimedia Commons
Ancient to 1900

Lapdogs of emperors and queens

historyeconomics

Lapdogs are ancient. Romans kept small Maltese. Chinese emperors kept Pekingese, and in 1860 British soldiers took Pekingese from the Summer Palace in Beijing; one, named Looty, was given to Queen Victoria. King Charles II of England was so fond of his spaniels that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel carries his name, and Queen Victoria made small Pomeranians fashionable by breeding them smaller still.

Small dogs were status symbols long before handbags: owning an animal that does no work showed you were rich.

Sources: Royal Collection Trust, search: Looty (Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl, 1861); AKC, Pekingese history
PROPOLI87 · Wikimedia Commons
Watch and look

Picture gallery

Tap a picture to enlarge it. Every picture is public domain or openly licensed, credited below, and kept on our own server.

JackyM59 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
PROPOLI87 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Alfredo Borba · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
W.carter · Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Banne27 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ashdwf · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Zarate123 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gandalfelrojo2 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Roxyuru · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lee Ann Ratledge · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Sciencia58 · Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Biswarup Ganguly · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
For classes

Lessons, drawer and quiz

Lessons on newSchoolWorks.com

The Market and the Customer: Supply, demand and the shortagePreviewThe Consumer Revolution: Chains, ads and the pressPreviewThe Price: What moves a price?Preview

Drawer: Friendly Beasts: The pet market

Quiz: Take the quiz (5 questions)

Game: The market game

Also see: Every dog: the Toy group · Bred, sold, kept, adopted, killed

Read beside this room

Fiction

Flush: A Biography
Virginia Woolf, 1933 · grades 9-12 and up
The life of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, told from the dog's side. At your library.

Free classics link to Project Gutenberg or the Tall Museum; books in copyright are named so you can find them at a library.

← Fat catsQR code CDP4Y5CDP4Y5Ugly dogs →
Next door · Museum VI, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Next door in STEM

Breeding for small: the cost of warmth rises as bodies shrink.

The Mammal HallSTEM hall · for students
STEM lessons for this gallery

Peas, beans and factors (grade 7)PreviewA copy that slips (grade 7)PreviewMendel's peasPreviewPunnett squaresPreviewThe coin-flip crossPreviewMeiosis, Mendel and the chi-square test (AP)PreviewWhat makes a mammal?PreviewPredict the dietPreviewWeigh the cost of warmthPreviewWatch one mammalPreview

Drawer: Friendly Beasts: Next door in STEM

NGSS: HS-LS3-1 HS-LS3-3 MS-LS1-4 MS-LS3-1 MS-LS3-2