They say it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. That's true in the case of Dylan, thought to be the smallest dog in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Weighing just 0.9 ounces (or, in Britain, 25 grams) at birth, the 10-week-old puppy is just a third the size he should be. But according to his owner, the papillon puppy runs the household of five other dogs and a cat.
Whether Dylan is in the running as the world's smallest dog depends on how much he grows. As a breed, adult papillons average 8 to 11 inches in height at the shoulder and weigh around 5 to 10 pounds. It's doubtful whether Dylan will grow to this monumental size.
The distinction of the world's smallest dog goes to the oddly named "Big Boss" – a Yorkshire terrier that stands at a teeming 4.7 inches high and 5.1 inches long – shorter than the standard ballpark hot dog. The terrier was measured in 1995, when she won the distinction as the smallest dog (she was 1-year-old at the time).
The previous record holder was a Chihuahua named Ondra. This tiny dog stood just 6 inches high and weighed just under 30 ounces. Ondra lived in the Czech Republic. Sadly, Ondra died in 2001 due to an incorrect injection given by her veterinarian.
A local Czech court awarded the dog's owner more than $28,000 for her loss – which is being appealed by the veterinarian. Village officials erected a tombstone in the dog's honor for bringing international fame to the small Czech town.
On the other end of the spectrum stood Zorba de la Susa, an old English mastiff that holds the all-time Guinness World Record as the largest dog in the world.
Zorba set the record in November 1989 when the 8-year-old dog was measured at 8 foot 3 inches long, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. The London canine weighed in at 343 pounds.
Zorba has been deceased for several years now, and it is still unclear who holds the current record. Another mastiff, a Massachusetts dog named Hercules, has been noted as the world's largest living dog in terms of size (with a 38-inch neck), but not weight. That distinction probably goes to yet another mastiff that weighs in at 286 pounds – 4 pounds heavier than Hercules.