Don’t misunderstand my fascination, but I’ve always wondered: what would happen if you took the sperm from a Great Dane and put it in a Chiuaua? Would the Chiuaua explode :eek: ? Or is there some kind of mechanism in dogs’ (and other animals’) wombs that makes it impossible for their offspring to be bigger than they can handle?
I’m guessing that the Chiuaua would die before it actually “exploded.”
After that…I got nothin’.
You’d get a Great Wawa, maybe?
::stares at our 12 pound giant economy-sized somewhat rotund chihuahua, Chili Dog::
hmm, that would explain a few things…
WAG here:
I don’t think anything would happen. Other than it would produce a very strange looking dog. I’m pretty sure the females biology dictates how big the fetus is to become.
Also, isn’t this how they bread those little mini-doberman dogs?
My wife works as a vet tech. She tells me birthing problems (pups to large for the birth canal) are very common in minature dogs. If the animal doesn’t receive medical attention it dies. When I asked about the OP’s hypothetical she just laughed but did say that breeders are very carefull when dealing with minature breeds. A larger father will cause problems.
A friend of mine had the oddest combination- a Bassett Hound crossed with a German Shepard. I guess the Shepard was the mom, and the Bassett used a step ladder.
That dog was the funniest-looking thing I had ever seen. It looked like a German Shepard with 4 inch legs- it could run under the coffee table without ducking.
When I was a kid, we had a beagle/chihuahua mix that mated with a collie. She nearly died giving birth.
And before someone asks, no, we do not consider Great Danes and chihuahas separate species. Although they cannot succesfully mate directly (probably), you can still get genetic flow between the breeds. Great Danes can mate with, let’s say, a labrador retriever, the offspring mates with a collie, then the offspring of that mates with a beagle, and that offspring mates with a chihuahua. That kind of thing.
You would get Blachi! (Unfortunately, no pics available.)
EJsGirl: I’ve seen one of those! Except it had mostly pale-blonde fur. But it was a charming, if highly unusual looking dog.
Would there be any problems if the Chihuahua was the sire and the Dane was the dam? You wouldn’t even need artificial insemination. A roll of duct tape would do. Hey, how about a St. Bernard and a Mexican Hairless? On second thought, don’t. It’d be like having one of those freaking dogs from Silent Hill running around the house. And think of all the sunblock you’d go through…
A few months ago I saw a picture in a newspaper of an escaped dog that was a Dachshund/Golden Retriever mix. Strangest looking dog I’ve ever seen–Golden Retriever head (I think) and coat on a Dachshund body. And I admit, I really wondered about the mechanics that made it possible. I never did hear if they caught the dog, though. I hope so.
Seriously WAG, and seriously wrong. The fetal genetics and nutrient supply dictate how big the fetus will become. In a Dane-chihuahua cross, the genetics are going to be dictating a pretty big pup, and that pup’s going to pull the nutrients it needs out of Mom, regardless of whether she’s getting enough to keep her healthy. So unless the bitch is massively malnourished, she’s going to be carrying some big pups.
Would she explode? Well, not in the “eewww, there’s chihuahua chunks on my scrubs” sense, no. What would most likely happen is that her uterus would rupture from the strain of carrying puppies at least twelve times too big for it, and she’d die of internal hemmorhage. In that sense, yeah, she’d probably explode. She might be able to carry to term, but I certainly wouldn’t bet any of my own money on it.
There’s no way in hell those pups would ever get through her pelvis, though. You can’t shove an adult German Shepherd through a cat door, and you can’t shove a Great Dane mix through a chihuahua pelvis. It’s just not possible. She’d have to have a c-section, and she’d have to have it before she went into labor. If she got one of those pups stuck (and it’s guaranteed to get stuck), she’d rupture her uterus pushing against it.
If she somehow survived the pregnancy, and had a scheduled c-section, she’d never be able to nurse the pups. There’s no way you’d be able to shovel enough calcium in her to support that level of milk production. She’d get eclampsic and die.
You guys ever seen the movie Alien?
Miniature Pinschers were not bred from Doberman Pinschers – in fact, Min Pins are an older breed. (cite) From what I’ve read elsewhere, Dobermans are the result of a breeder looking to create a dog like the Min Pin, only much bigger.
Assuming, of course, you meant ‘breed’ or ‘bred’. Breading dogs is an entirely different matter. 
Quoth EJsGirl:
Hm, I guess that is a bit odder than my mom’s dog, whom we think is mostly a mix of German Shepherd and beagle (he was a pound puppy, so who knows what he really is). He’s intermediate in size between the two breeds, and fairly normally proportioned, but his front half or so looks beaglish, while back of the shoulders he resembles a German shepherd. But then again, he also seems like he might have some pointer, collie, and/or retriever blood in him, so the apparently beagle and shepherd traits might just be coincidence.