The American Kennel Club has certified six new dog breeds to be allowed in the National Dog Show this year. One of them is drawing a lot of attention due to it's name, which most people would be hard put to pronounce. The dog is called a Xoloitzcuintli. The proper way to pronounce this name is show-low-eats-queen-tlee, if you were curious. It's name comes from combining the Aztec word for one of their gods, Xolotl, and the Aztec word for dog.
Called a Xolo for short, this dog, while newly certified by the American Kennel Club, is actually one of the oldest known dog breeds. It was certified by the American Kennel Club previously, but in 1959 certification was dropped because not enough people were registering this type of dog or entering it into competitions. Now that it is becoming more popular again, the American Kennel Club has renewed its certification so owners can show their Xolos and enter them into competitions.
Although most people prefer the hairless variety, this dog comes in two types, hairless and coated, and three different sizes, toy, miniature and standard. The short hair on the coated variety doesn't shed much as long as you brush your Xolo regularly. Many are a chocolate brown color, but colors can also include red, gray black, black, slate, liver and bronze. Xolos require a moderate amount of exercise and care and make good companion dogs. They have a calm, aloof, attentive and tranquil personality. They don't tolerate extreme cold well, and do best as indoor dogs since they like to stay close to their family. The smaller varieties are sometimes trained to use a litter box.
The other new breeds that were certified by the American Kennel Club in 2011 are the American English Coonhound, the Entlebucher Mountain Dog, the Norwegian Lundehund, the Cesky Terrier and the Finnish Lapphund.
