Which is the smallest dog breed?

By official standard weight, the Chihuahua: the Royal Kennel Club gives up to 2.7 kg, with 1.8–2.7 kg preferred. The Pomeranian standard gives an even lower ideal weight range, 1.8–2.5 kg, but a greater variation in practice.

What is the longest-lived small breed?

Among the breeds measured in the VetCompass UK study, the Jack Russell Terrier has the highest life expectancy at birth, 12.72 years, followed by the Yorkshire Terrier at 12.54 years.

Are small dogs better for flats?

Only partly. Size helps with stairs and space, but exercise need, noise and grooming are set by the breed and the individual, not by weight.

Why do some rows show only weight or only height?

Because that is all the official standard specifies. We show the figure the standard gives rather than converting one into the other.

Small dog breeds

A "small" dog is not a vibe, it is a number in a breed standard. The Royal Kennel Club standard for the Chihuahua gives a weight of up to 2.7 kg; the Yorkshire Terrier up to 3.2 kg; the Maltese a height not exceeding 25 cm; the Jack Russell Terrier 25–30 cm at the withers. The table below is the fifteen breeds in our dataset whose official standard puts them at or under roughly 38 cm in height or 13 kg in weight, with the figures as the standard states them.

Updated on 2026-10-07.

A chihuahua standing on grass — Photo: Bonnie van den Born (bonfoto.nl) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The facts in one table

Breed	Size	Height	Weight	Shedding
Chihuahua	toy	—	1.8–2.7 kg	moderate
Pomeranian	toy	—	1.8–2.5 kg	high
Yorkshire Terrier	toy	—	≤ 3.2 kg	low
Maltese	toy	≤ 25 cm	—	low
Miniature Dachshund	toy	—	≤ 5 kg	moderate
Toy Poodle	toy	≤ 28 cm	—	low
Pug	small	—	6.3–8.1 kg	moderate
Bichon Frise	small	23–28 cm	—	low
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel	small	—	5.4–8.2 kg	moderate
Shih Tzu	small	≤ 27 cm	—	low
Lhasa Apso	small	≤ 25 cm	—	low
French Bulldog	small	—	11–12.5 kg	moderate
Jack Russell Terrier	small	25–30 cm	—	moderate
Miniature Schnauzer	small	33–36 cm	—	low
Miniature Poodle	small	28–38 cm	—	low

Height and weight exactly as the Royal Kennel Club breed standard states them for each breed; a dash means the standard specifies the other measure instead.

Source: Royal Kennel Club

Our own chart, from the module’s breed database (each breed’s official standard).

What counts as small here, and why we say it out loud

Most lists of small dog breeds never state a threshold, which is how the same breed ends up "small" on one site and "medium" on another. Our cut is explicit: a breed is in this table if its official standard puts the adult at roughly 38 cm or less at the withers, or at roughly 13 kg or less in weight. Where a standard gives only one of the two — and many give only weight, or only height — that is the figure shown, and the other column holds a dash rather than a guess.

Reading the standard rather than a summary also catches a detail that matters when you are choosing. Some standards state an ideal and a tolerance, some state a maximum, some state separate figures for males and females. A Pomeranian standard, for instance, gives 1.8–2 kg for dogs and 2–2.5 kg for bitches. That is a much more honest picture of a breed than a single averaged number.

Source: Royal Kennel Club

Small does not mean low maintenance

Three things people expect to come with small size often do not. Exercise need is one: a Jack Russell Terrier at 25–30 cm was bred to work and is not a sofa dog. Coat work is another: the Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso, Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier all carry long coats that need real daily attention regardless of the animal's size. And noise has nothing to do with height at all.

The third is health, and it is the one with the hardest evidence behind it. The VetCompass life tables from the Royal Veterinary College, built on 30,563 dogs that died between 2016 and 2020, put overall life expectancy at birth at 11.23 years — but the French Bulldog at 4.53 years and the Chihuahua at 7.91 years are both small breeds well below that average, while the Jack Russell Terrier at 12.72 years is the longest-lived breed in the study. Small size is not a shortcut to a long life.

Sources: Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass · Royal Kennel Club

Using the table to actually choose

The useful way to read these columns is as constraints rather than rankings. Weight tells you whether you can carry the animal and whether a flat with three flights of stairs is workable. Height tells you very little on its own. Shedding, in the last column, is derived from what each official standard says about the coat — whether it describes a dense undercoat, no undercoat, or a coat that does not moult — and that is the column most likely to change your daily life.

What the table cannot do is tell you about the individual animal. Breed standards describe a target, not a guarantee, and two dogs of the same breed can differ more from each other than the breed averages differ from one another. Meeting the specific dog, and asking the breeder or shelter about its parents, does more than any list.

Sources: Royal Kennel Club · Fédération Cynologique Internationale

A poodle looking up attentively — Photo: Tim Wilson — CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

What most people get wrong

"Small dogs live longer." Not reliably. In the VetCompass data the French Bulldog (4.53 years) and the Chihuahua (7.91 years) are both well below the 11.23-year average for all dogs.
"Small dogs need little exercise." Terriers in the small range were bred to work. Size sets how far you can carry the dog, not how much it needs to run.
"Toy and small mean the same thing." In kennel club terms "Toy" is a breed group, not a size class — the Miniature Schnauzer sits in the Utility group and the Jack Russell in the Terrier group, and both are small.
"All small breeds are easy to groom." The Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso, Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier standards all describe long coats that need daily work.

Sources: Royal Kennel Club · Royal Veterinary College — VetCompass

Frequently asked questions

Which is the smallest dog breed?: By official standard weight, the Chihuahua: the Royal Kennel Club gives up to 2.7 kg, with 1.8–2.7 kg preferred. The Pomeranian standard gives an even lower ideal weight range, 1.8–2.5 kg, but a greater variation in practice.
What is the longest-lived small breed?: Among the breeds measured in the VetCompass UK study, the Jack Russell Terrier has the highest life expectancy at birth, 12.72 years, followed by the Yorkshire Terrier at 12.54 years.
Are small dogs better for flats?: Only partly. Size helps with stairs and space, but exercise need, noise and grooming are set by the breed and the individual, not by weight.
Why do some rows show only weight or only height?: Because that is all the official standard specifies. We show the figure the standard gives rather than converting one into the other.

How to read the numbers

The numbers on “Small dog breeds” come from the facts table at the top, with the official source alongside.

Where the data comes from

Each section of “Small dog breeds” names its source (agency, university or breed club) with a verification date.

What this page doesn’t replace

Educational information, not a substitute for a vet, agronomist or specialist assessing your specific case.

Words on this page

Hypoallergenic

A term used for breeds that shed less allergen into the environment, usually because they shed less fur. No dog or cat breed is fully allergen-free: a cat’s main allergen comes from saliva and skin, not only fur, and a very sensitive person can react to any breed.

Standard definition by American Kennel Club · Hypoallergenic

Life cycle

The sequence of stages an organism passes through from birth to death — for an animal, young, adult and senior; for a plant, germination, growth, flowering and, in annuals, death after setting seed.

Life cycle

Toxicity

A plant’s or substance’s capacity to harm an organism, which varies with the species exposed, the amount ingested and the animal’s size. A plant "toxic to dogs" is not necessarily toxic to humans at the same dose, and the reverse holds too.

Standard definition by ASPCA — Animal Poison Control Center · Toxicity

Hemisphere

Half of the globe split by the equator. The seasons flip between the two: when it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is summer in the southern one, which shifts the pruning, bloom and harvest calendar described on this page.

Hemisphere

Hardiness zone

A numbered band that ranks a region by the average coldest winter temperature it reaches, used to tell whether a plant survives there outdoors. The reference system is the US one (USDA), from zone 1, coldest, to 13, warmest.

Standard definition by USDA — Agricultural Research Service, Plant Hardiness Zone Map · Hardiness zone

Formative pruning vs. maintenance pruning

Formative pruning happens in a plant’s first years and sets the permanent shape of the main branches; maintenance pruning is yearly, removes dead, diseased or crossing branches, and does not change the plant’s architecture. Mixing the two up is the most common reason a fruit tree fails to bear fruit.