A family chihuahua breeder, raising small dogs with intention.
Chihuvas is a dedicated chihuahua breeder in Traverse City, Michigan. We raise family-raised chihuahua puppies inside our home — never in kennels, never at scale. AKC-registered and home-raised since 2018.
Our first chihuahua, Soleil, came home in 2016 as a wide-eyed eight-week-old, and she changed how we understood small dogs. We’d been told they were nervous, sharp-tempered, snappy with strangers. Soleil was none of those things. She was steady, sweet, and deeply curious — and we started asking why.
What we learned was that everything starts at the beginning. The first eight weeks of a puppy’s life shape everything that comes after — their confidence, their tolerance for noise and handling, their trust in people. The chihuahuas with bad reputations weren’t badly bred. They were badly started.
Soleil — the chihuahua who started everything.
So in 2018, when Soleil had her first litter, we made a small commitment to ourselves: we would do this slowly, carefully, and inside our home. No kennels, no separate building, no detached business model. The puppies would live with us, with our kids, with our daily noise and rhythm — vacuum cleaners, music, doorbells, dinner — so that nothing about a normal home would feel new or frightening when they left.
Eight years later, that’s still how we do it. We keep our breeding programme tiny — no more than four litters a year — because that’s the maximum we can raise this carefully. We focus exclusively on chihuahuas, and we’ve gotten very good at one breed instead of mediocre at several.
Romeo — our other resident adult, sable smooth-coat.
Every Chihuvas puppy receives daily hand-socialisation from day one. Our whole family holds them — including the children. They meet visitors. They ride in cars. By the time they leave us at eight weeks old, they’ve already learned that the world is a safe and interesting place. That’s what family-raised chihuahua puppies truly means. See this season’s puppies if you’d like to meet them.
The family behind every family-raised chihuahua puppy.
Chihuvas is a true family operation. Our whole family raises every family-raised chihuahua puppy together — and the kids might be the most important part of the process.
Mara
Mara handles the breeding programme, the health testing, and the matching of puppies to families. A former veterinary tech with a soft spot for small dogs.
Jonas
Jonas runs the day-to-day: the nursery setup, the photos and videos families receive each week, and the careful logistics of every puppy going home.
Theo, 8
Theo is in charge of “noise exposure” — being a normal eight-year-old around the puppies so they grow up unfazed by everything.
Three things every responsible chihuahua breeder won’t compromise on.
Small numbers, always
We cap ourselves at four litters per year. Not because we couldn’t do more, but because we couldn’t do more this carefully. Slow is a feature, not a limitation.
Match before money
We’ve turned down deposits when we didn’t think the match was right. Every Chihuvas puppy goes to a family we choose with intention — not to whoever paid first.
Lifetime, no asterisks
If life changes and you can’t keep your puppy — at any age, for any reason — they come back to us. No questions, no shelter, no rescue. Ever.
The standards behind every family-raised chihuahua puppy we breed.
These aren’t marketing claims. They’re the operating rules we follow on every litter. If you’d like to dig deeper, we’ll happily share documentation during the application process.
AKC registration on every puppy
Every Chihuvas puppy is born from AKC-registered parents and goes home with full AKC paperwork — limited registration as standard, full available where appropriate.
OFA health-tested parents
Cardiac, patella, and CERF clearances on every breeding adult before they’re ever bred. No exceptions, no shortcuts, no “we’ll test the next generation”.
Two-year genetic guarantee
Our health guarantee covers hereditary conditions for two full years — longer than AKC standards require — with lifetime breeder support included on top.
Lifetime return policy
If you can no longer keep your Chihuvas puppy — at any age — they come back to us. We’ve never had a Chihuvas dog end up in a shelter, and we never will.
Home-raised, not kennel-raised
Every puppy is born and raised inside our home. They’re handled daily, exposed to normal household activity, and start crate training before they leave us.
Vet-checked and microchipped
Every puppy leaves with two sets of age-appropriate vaccinations, a microchip, deworming history, and a full vet health certificate dated within the past week.
Now you know this chihuahua breeder. Let’s meet you.
If our approach to raising family-raised chihuahua puppies feels like the right one, we’d love to hear from you. The application is short, the conversation is friendly, and there’s no pressure either way. You can also browse available puppies first if you’d like to meet the current litter.