A Tiny Chihuahua Has Broken the Guiness World Record For Shortest Dog Alive
Meet Pearl, a two-year-old diva who’s shorter than your TV remote.
In the most adorable news of 2023 so far, Guinness World Recordsopens in a new tab has crowned the world’s shortest dog: A teeny white Chihuahua aptly named Pearl. At two years old, Pearl stands just 3.59 inches tall and five inches long — that’s shorter than a popsicle stick and about as long as a dollar bill. She was born weighing less than an ounce, and she’s still lighter than a basketball at 1.22 pounds.
According to her mom, an Orlando-based lawyer and property manager named Vanesa Semler, Pearl’s size isn’t reflective of her gigantic personality. “She is very intelligent and knows how to get noticed and get what she wants,” Semler told Guinness World Recordsopens in a new tab. Some of those wants include chicken, salmon, Starbucks, TV, classical music, and “to pick out her own outfit each day.” She lives with several other dogs, but her stature doesn’t stop her from commanding respect. “Pearl hates sharing toys and food,” Semler says, and adds that Pearl loves to bark as a way of “flaunting all her disappointment and annoyance.”
Guinness World Records reports that Pearl wakes up every morning at 7 for a short walk, where she’s carefully supervised (presumably to keep her from getting picked up by a hawk or lost in tall grass). She’s fed four times a day and taken out every few hours. And you think your bladder’s small.
Pearl is actually the heir to tininess fame. Her aunt, Miracle Millyopens in a new tab, was the previous record holder for world’s shortest dog. Miracle Milly died in 2020 at the age of nine and was controversially cloned 49 timesopens in a new tab in an effort to learn more about her DNA. Pearl never got to meet her aunt and was born shortly after her death.
Miracle Milly “participated in several TV shows” according to Guinness World Records — and in true nepo-baby fashion, Pearl was unveiled to the world in front of a live studio audience on Guinness World Records’ Italian reality show Lo Show Dei Record (riding in atop an egg-shaped basketopens in a new tab, no less). Semler told the show’s host that Pearl is “a bit of a diva” and loves “dressing up nice.”
“Unusually for a Chihuahua, Pearl has a very calm temperament and was unfazed at being on stage in front of a huge live audience,” Guinness World Records says. Makes sense: Star quality is in her DNA, from the tip of her head to her itsy-bitsy paws.
