Chloe belongs to rich Aunt Viv (Curtis) who has a hunky gardener… who has his own pet Chihuahua called Papi (George Lopez)... who loves Chloe… who snootily shoots him down.
 
When Viv goes abroad, her equally shallow niece Rachel (Perabo) takes Chloe on a jaunt over the border where she is promptly snatched and thrown into the dog-pit with the chief villain’s snarling Doberman, El Diablo (Edward James Olmos).
 
Luckily she finds a saviour in Delgado (Garcia), a gruffly gallant German Shepherd suffering from post-traumatic stress.
 
With El Diablo in pursuit, they encounter various waifs and strays including a thieving rat (Cheech Marin) and his iguana accomplice, and a nation of Chihuahuas planning the revolution from an Aztec temple.
 
Quite what a rat would do with a stolen diamond collar is unclear, but the leader of the rebel pack gets the film’s biggest laugh when saving Delgado and Chloe from mountain lions (“Say hello to my leetle friends.”).