World’s tallest and shortest dogs meet for a playdate

Kyle Melnick

Two record-holding dogs met eye-to-eye.

Reggie, a 99cm Great Dane, was standing in his Idaho home. Pearl, a 9cm Chihuahua, was hoisted up by her owner. The height difference between the world’s tallest and shortest dogs didn’t stop the pair from sniffing each other and playing.

Sure, there were hiccups when the dogs met last month. When Reggie shifted his leg on a couch to get comfortable, the leather moved and sent Pearl flying onto the floor. Later, Pearl tried to take Reggie’s toys, which were larger than she is.

Despite the odd-looking pairing, they have a lot in common. They mostly interacted with each other as they would any other dog during a meeting that Guinness World Records organized.

“She really just wants to love on everybody just like Reggie,” Sam Johnson Reiss, Reggie’s owner, told The Washington Post about Pearl. “I met Pearl and was like, ‘Wow, she is so much more like Reggie than I thought.’”

They whine and bark when they want something - food, water or a walk. They also love attention.

But their differences are, obviously, quite pronounced.

Reggie, 7, and Pearl, 4, were small when they were born - although Pearl was especially tiny, fitting in a spoon and weighing less than 30g. While Pearl grew to about 500g - now fitting inside a teacup - Reggie, who has a blue merle coat, snowballed within a few months to his full weight of 65kg.

Reiss couldn’t carry him after he was 1 month old; his head reached the bathroom counter when he was 5 months old; and he was bigger than most adult Great Danes when he was 9 months old. He was soon taller than a baseball bat.

Reggie devours four meals per day from a bowl atop a wooden stand. He takes joint supplements to support his long legs and sometimes sneaks food off the counters when Reiss leaves the kitchen.

Pearl eats about an 30g of food daily and drinks bottled water off a plate. Reggie drinks straight from a bathroom tap.

At night, Reggie occupies most of the king-size bed with Reiss and Reiss’s wife, Karriann.

When Pearl’s owner, Vanesa Semler, wakes up, she scans the room for her dog’s white coat and black eyes to ensure she does not step on her. Pearl enjoys playing hide-and-seek, tucking herself under beds, in closets or in Semler’s husband’s size-11 shoes for about 15 minutes until her owners find her.

When Reggie travels, Reiss lowers the back seats of their Jeep Cherokee so Reggie can fit. Pearl travels on Semler’s lap, under her arms, in a stroller or in a satchel.

Despite eating different proportions, Reggie and Pearl both love chicken. They also snore loudly.

Reiss, a 30-year-old social worker, and Semler, a 45-year-old real estate agent, shelter their pets from other dogs.

Dogs have attacked Reggie multiple times, Reiss said, probably because his size intimidates them. When Reggie was 2 years old, a dog ripped off a part of his right ear. While Pearl is friendly to other dogs, Semler said, she does not take Pearl to dog parks because she worries another dog will hurt her.

Guinness World Records named Pearl the shortest living dog in August 2022. Reggie received the tallest-dog honor in January.

Near the start of this year, when Guinness World Records suggested a meeting between the record holders, both owners were concerned their dogs could be attacked.

But those worries vanished when Semler flew from Orlando in early April to visit Reiss’s home in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Neither Pearl, wearing a brown jacket and resting under Semler’s left arm, nor Reggie barked. They sniffed each other instead.

“When Sam opened the door and we saw him, he had playful, happy eyes,” Semler said about Reggie. “I was so relieved because he was absolutely like a bigger puppy.”

Reggie and Pearl roamed the house together and walked to a nearby barn. At one point, Pearl crisscrossed between Reggie’s legs.

Near the end of the visit, Reiss and Reggie took up most of the room on a black leather couch, while Semler sat on the edge with Pearl on her lap.

“I just love the way that she’ll crawl up on your shoulder and give you loves and just make those little squeaky noises,” Reiss told Semler about Pearl.

“I’m sure he would do the same thing,” Semler responded about Reggie. “But it’s not like he can.”

Their dogs weren’t paying attention. Exhausted from the visit, they fell asleep, both snoring.