I think it's worth pointing out that this is a reconstructed breed and not the lineage used by the Mexica. Those dogs died out with European contact.
https://youtu.be/osMu6i2txFA
Did the original breed look anything like the current one? I was just about to say it's uncanny how the ancient Aztecs and Egyptians had a similar looking death-related mythological thing (this dog and Anubis).
“To the ancient Aztec and Maya, man's best friend was also a hairless, ugly-cute healer, occasional food source, and, most importantly, guide to the Underworld.
Sometimes known as the Mexican Hairless dog, the xoloitzcuintli (pronounced "show-low-itz-QUEENT-ly") gets its name from two words in the language of the Aztecs: Xolotl, the god of lightning and death, and itzcuintli, or dog. According to Aztec belief, the Dog of Xolotl was created by the god to guard the living and guide the souls of the dead through the dangers of Mictlán, the Underworld.”
I love Xolos. I feel like they strike the perfect balance of cute and intimidating for walking alone at night. They sometimes win the World’s Ugliest Dog contest but, like this year, are often beat by the Chinese crested dog
When I was living in peru, there was a peruvian version of the hairless dog that lived with me. I loved that nutjob. So crazy and funny, but a true sweetheart.
The breed occurs naturally in two varieties, hairless and coated. Hairless Xolos are the dominant expression of the heterozygous Hh hairless trait.[18] Coated Xolos (hh) are the recessive expression, and breeding hairless to coated or hairless to hairless may produce pups of either or both varieties. Breeding coated to coated will only produce coated pups because they are recessive to the hairless trait and do not carry the dominant H gene.
No connection. This breed is native to Mesoamerica and was completely unknown across the Atlantic. And you don't need to invoke these fellas when you are already THE God Of Jackals - which are carrion eaters, and I believe Xolos are not.
Conveniently, a Xolo dog named Dante was Miguel’s alebrije in the movie Coco.
Artist Diego Rivera was known to be fond of Xolo dogs, and there are pictures of him with his dog and Frida Kahlo, whose likeness also had a cameo in Coco and identified Dante as both a Xolo and an Alebrije.
Xolos and Calupohs have some of the most intimidating façades in dogs. Absolute sweethearts with the face of something you’d hear about in cryptid stories.