History Main / ShoulderSizedDragon

* The ''DragonridersOfPern'' novels by [[AnneMcCaffrey Anne McCaffrey]] have fire-lizards, which are native to the planet Pern and evolved the ability to exhale pyrophoric gas as a natural defense. While they have normal animal-level intelligence, they're weakly telepathic, and their instinct to imprint on whoever feeds them upon hatching makes them natural BondCreatures. Human colonists genetically engineered fire-lizards for greater size, intellect, and psychic ability, producing full-sized dragons.
* In UrsulaKLeGuin's ''{{Earthsea}}'' series, they're called ''harekki'', and Yarrow keeps one as a pet. (In this case, they're smaller than usual, growing no bigger than a human hand; Yarrow's usually coils itself around her wrist.)
* The ''{{Dragaera}}'' books have small venomous flying scavengers called ''jhereg''. They're cold-blooded, don't breathe fire, and resemble miniature [[OurDragonsAreDifferent wyverns]] rather than standard dragons. While they cannot speak, [[spoiler:they are fully sentient, due to genetic tampering in the distant past]]. The main character in the books keeps a jhereg as a {{Familiar}}.
* The swamp dragons of the {{Literature/Discworld}} grow to about two feet in length, are commonly bred by the wealthy as pets, and can be trained to perch on shoulders -- Lady Sybil Ramkin breeds shoulder-sitters as a popular fashion accessory. Since swamp dragons tend to react to stress or severe indigestion by spontaneously exploding, however, it's not really a good idea.

As far as we can tell, the UrExample of this trope is found in UrsulaKLeGuin's 1968 novel ''[[{{Earthsea}} A Wizard of Earthsea]]'', in which tiny "dragon-lizards" that can be tamed as pets appear briefly. The TropeMaker, though, is probably ''[[DragonridersOfPern Dragonquest]]'' by AnneMcCaffrey, published three years later, in which the Shoulder Sized Dragons play a much bigger role.

* Warlocks in VideoGame/MightAndMagic have familiars. Rarely, this familiar is a dragon, not hatched until the attuning, which is the case for your Druid characters in VII.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', a baby dragon named Spike serves as Twilight's ward and assistant. (This is a rare case where the Shoulder Sized Dragon's companion isn't a human -- but humans don't seem to exist in this world, and the ponies are basically just horse-shaped people for all intents and purposes.)

* Growf in ''WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie''.

* ''DragonCave'' has a couple among its plethora of reptilian wild-life. There are the Night and Day Glories, which are only the size of kittens when full-grown, and the Sweetlings, which can ride on a human's shoulders.

* ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' introduces to the franchise Friedrich, a baby silver dragon under the care of [[TheBeastmaster Caro]]. While he's in this form most of the time, he could also be unsealed to become a more adult dragon for combat and transport purposes.
* ''{{Saiyuki}}'': in dragon form, Jeep is this size.
* In the ''BraveStory'' movie, the baby dragon is a small, fluffy creature that's perfectly HeadPet-sized. He fits the "immature version of larger species" subtrope. However, in the book, instead of being the TeamPet, he's a [[AscendedExtra much larger one-off creature]] who serves an AndroclesLion purpose.
* The manga {{Dragon Drive}} has the main character partnered with a pint-sized dragon that looks to be a loser at first, but is revealed to be more useful than he seems.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'' has a Cute Shoulder Dragon that gives a +2 bonus to male players and +4 to female players.

[[folder:Comics -- Books]]
* Kitty Pryde of the ''XMen'' has a roughly cat-sized pet dragon (actually, a dragon-shaped extraterrestrial) named Lockheed.

* In KurtBusiek's ''Arrowsmith''(WorldWarI [[RecycledInSpace in a world governed by magic]]) soldiers bond with small "dragonets" by means of a [[AppliedPhlebotinum rare mystical metal]]. This bond allows the soldiers to fly with their dragonets perched on their arms like hunting falcons.

* Mushu in ''{{Mulan}}'' is a rare example of a shoulder-sized [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Eastern dragon]]. Justified in that Chinese dragons are said to be able to change size at will. Disney had originally intended for Mushu to be gigantic, but felt he would be terrifying to children, so they [[IncrediblyLamePun scaled him down]] to make him look friendlier and not as scary.
* The Terrible Terror dragons from ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon''.
* The short film ''{{Sintel}}'' features the main character's pet dragon, Scales.

* The swamp dragons of the ''{{Discworld}}'' grow to about two feet in length, are commonly bred by the wealthy as pets, and can be trained to perch on shoulders -- Lady Sybil Ramkin breeds shoulder-sitters as a popular fashion accessory. (Since swamp dragons tend to react to stress or severe indigestion by spontaneously exploding, however, it's not really a good idea.)
* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler:Dany has three, of the hatchling variety. They grow out of Shoulder Dragon size range pretty quickly]].

* ''[[TheCardinalsBlades The Cardinal's Blades]]'' by Pierre Pevel features dragonnets, which are exotic pets favoured by the rich and powerful.
* There's a Shoulder-Sized Dragon named Mulberry in the novel ''RedWizard'' by Nancy Springer. In this case, they don't seem to be a naturally occurring species; Mulberry was accidentally called into existence by an inexperienced wizard.
* In the ''Flinx and Pip'' novels set in [[AlanDeanFoster Alan Dean Foster's]] HumanxCommonwealth setting, the main character has one of these. It's a sci-fi setting so Pip is an alien and can't breath fire, but she fulfills all other features, being essentially a spitting cobra with hummingbird wings and a psychic link to her master.
* ''[[ForgottenRealms The Year Of Rogue Dragons]]'' has Jivex, the fairy dragon. Unlike most examples of this trope, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} in his own way]] Jivex is actually pretty badass.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' has pseudodragons, which are tiny dragons that can sometimes be used as pets or {{familiar}}s.
** Several chromatic and metallic dragon start life in the 'tiny' or small 'categories'.
* In ''BlueRose'', there's a species of small dragons called "drakes," usually around twelve inches long and sometimes colloquially described as "pocket dragons." They're one of several intelligent, telepathic species of BondCreatures. (Interestingly, if full-sized dragons exist in the setting, they're never mentioned.)

* Dragoons in ''FinalFantasyXI'' get to summon pet wyverns, which are roughly the size of eagles.

* Players in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' can acquire dragon whelps (that is, hatchlings) as non-combat pets. In addition, NPC dragons in the game come in almost a dozen different shapes and sizes, including whelps almost identical to the pets.

* In the ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' [[FanWorks fan game]] ''[=Mai-HiME: Fuuka Taisen=]'', Kagutsuchi fights side-by-side with Mai as a tiny dragon, only growing to its normal ([[GiantFlyer gigantic]]) size when she uses certain special attacks.

* Growf in ''WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie''.

[[folder: Web Original]]
* The Sweetlings from DragonCave are just large enough to ride on a human's shoulders. All pygmy species, and the Night and Day Glory Drakes can, too.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* DragonCave has a couple among its plethora of reptilian wild-life. There are the Night and Day Glories, which are only the size of kittens when full-grown, and the Sweetlings, which can ride on a human's shoulders.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX2CzDH5bZI Pocket Dragons]] Essentially, the adventures of several, sentient palm-sized little lizards. They aren't quite shoulder-sized, but they do literally fit into your pocket!

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' has pseudodragons, which are tiny dragons that can sometimes be used as pets or {{familiar}}s.

* Baby dragons in''{{Lunar}}'' are the size of housecats. They also ''look'' like cats, but with wings.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', a baby dragon named Spike serves as Twilight's ward and assistant. (This is a rare case where the Shoulder Sized Dragon's companion isn't a human -- but humans don't seem to exist in this world, and the ponies are basically just horse-shaped people for all intents and purposes.)
* Dojo Kanojo Cho from ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', who can transform from a tiny dragon to a giant one.
[[/folder]]

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX2CzDH5bZI Pocket Dragons]] Essentially, the adventures of several, sentient palm-sized little lizards. They are quite shoulder-sized, but they do literally fit into your pocket!

* Players in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' can acquire dragon whelps (that is, hatchlings) as non-combat pets.

* ''[[ForgottenRealms The YearOfRogueDragons]]'' has Jivex, the fairy dragon. Unlike most examples of this trope, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} in his own way]] Jivex is actually pretty badass.

* In KurtBusiek's ''Arrowsmith''(WorldWarI [[RecycledInSpace in a world governed by magic]]) soldiers bond with small "dragonets" by means of a [[Applied Phlebotinum rare mystical metal]]. This bond allows the soldiers to fly with their dragonets perched on their arms like hunting falcons.

* ''{{Game/Munchkin}}'' has a Cute Shoulder Dragon that gives a +2 bonus to male players and +4 to female players.

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* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', a baby dragon named Spike serves as Twilight's ward and assistant. (This is a rare case where the Shoulder Sized Dragon's companion isn't a human -- but humans don't seem to exist in this world, and the ponies are basically just horse-shaped people for all intents and purposes.)
* Dojo Kanojo Cho from ''XiaolinShowdown'', who can transform from a tiny dragon to a giant one.