MEXICO CITY - The star of the World Dog Show is not the soulful Labrador, the bulldog with attitude or even the manic Chihuahua. This year, the hairless Xoloitzcuintles (show-low-ee-SQUINT-lees) are all the rage in their native Mexico.

Sleek with bat-like ears, the rare breed looks more like a cartoon character than a canine. Xolos were common throughout Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest. They were considered sacred by the Aztecs, who sometimes ate their meat as a cure-all for illness or buried the dogs with their owners to help guide the human spirit to the afterlife. The dogs are still believed by many to have healing qualities.

Nicknamed “Xolos” by breeders and known in Mexico as “Itzcuintles,” the breed has yet to come into its own. But the dogs are becoming more popular around the world. They can sell for up to $2,500 for a show dog.

Brenda Armstrong, who has four Xolos at home in Vancouver, British Columbia, said she had a friend whose Xolo was trained to wake her up if her diabetic husband’s blood sugar fell in the night.

“Mayan women still hold the dogs up to their stomachs to cure cramps,” she said.

Some 70 Xolos are competing in this weekend’s World Dog Show.

Xolos range in weight from 10 to 50 pounds and come in three different sizes: mini, a little larger than a Chihuahau; intermediate, about the size of a beagle; and standard, roughly the size of a Labrador.

Armstrong says the breed is hearty, having survived thousands of years in Mexico. Once, her dog ate two barrel cactuses.

“I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be expensive,’ ” she said. “But somehow she didn’t have one spine in her mouth, and an hour later she coughed up all the spines and she had no trouble digesting the cactus.”

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