‘Last thing you want is to bump into her’ – five-inch chihuahua claimed to be Britain’s smallest dog
The owner of a tiny chihuahua believes she may have Britain’s smallest dog.
Della, who was rescued two years ago, is five inches tall and weighs 2.86lbs, little more than a bag of sugar, despite being fully grown.
She is smaller than the previous unofficial record holder, a Yorkie-chihuahua cross called Daisy who is 8.5in tall.
Della, one of three chihuahua pups born in 2022, was the runt of the litter and weighed just a few grams at birth.
The puppy was rejected by its mother, possibly due to an underlying health condition, and a vet advised that it should be put to sleep.
It was then that Gemmy Jones, 44, from Ringwood, Hants, stepped in.
Ms Jones kept Della in a shoe box by her bed and fed her every three hours through the night to build up her strength.
Della is now fully grown but is still dwarfed by Ms Jones’s other small dogs: Loki, a pomeranian chihuahua cross and Lola, a chihuahua who has the same dad as Della.
Ms Jones uses a ferret harness to walk Della because she is too small and delicate for a dog lead and collar.
She said: “When we got her she had been rejected by the mum and she was so small she couldn’t get on to feed because the other puppies wouldn’t let her in.
“The breeder said if you want her I think you will have to come and get her early.
“Her eyes were bulging and she had an indentation in the top of her head. She could be quite spaced out and at one point she kept falling over, I think because her head was too heavy,” she said.
“They [the vet] thought she was suffering but I couldn’t put her down so I brought her home and slept on the sofa feeding her and the next morning she just seemed to shake it off and get much better.
“She had to have ramps over the carpet so she could get in and out of the conservatory.”
Ms Jones kept Della in a box and would wake up every three hours to feed her and give her some water.
“Della is happy in her own little bubble, she is a bit special. We call her Dippy Della. She’ll do things like run outside and be surprised by the sky but she is healthy and happy and loves life.
“You do need to make sure of her whereabouts because the last thing you want to do is bump her.
“I think she probably does have small dog syndrome, she can be a bit yappy, but everything is bigger than her.”
The height measurement on a dog is done from the ground to its withers, the highest point of its shoulder blades.
The world’s smallest dog is a two-year-old female chihuahua from Florida, according to Guinness World Records. The dog is 3.59in tall and 5in in length.
