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Forget toy poodles and miniature schnauzers - Scooter, the Maltese pup, can sit quite comfortably in a tea cup.
And his owner, Cheryl McKnight, believes that qualifies the white bundle of fur to take the title of the smallest dog in the world.
He is so tiny, in fact, that Miss McNight, of Auckland, New Zealand, has had to make him a special jumper out of a purple sock to make sure she doesn't accidentally step on him.
She believes Scooter has stopped growing at the towering height of three inches - almost an inch smaller than the current small-dog record holder, Boo Boo, a long-haired chihuahua living in the US.
'Scooter is so small he can sit in one of the tea cups I use,' said Miss McKnight.
'There are some disadvantages in him being this size because I can't take him for a walk - it would take all day - and I can't find a leash to fit him in any case.' As for feeding time, there's no point in giving six-month-old Scooter a normal dog-sized bowl.
Instead he eats out of an egg cup three times a day. His bed is a shoe box.
'He's so much a part of my life these days - and to think that at one stage I almost gave him away.
'For the first 10 weeks or so I didn't really want him,' she told the New Zealand Press Association.
'I thought nah, someone else can have him. But over time I've fallen in love with him.'
