The Havanese - A dream Dog

Nature, character and history of Havanese

Nature and character

The Havanese has an enchanting character. With its happiness, brightness and cleverness it twist young and old around its paw.

It is very adaptable and likes living with singles as much as with families with children. It loves walking and hiking as well as a holiday at the ocean. Also the Havanese gets along with other dogs and animals, for example cats, without any problems.

Especially children the Havanese adores. Compared to most toy dogs, which are too sensitive, sometimes too nervous or too aggressive to tolerate the unskilled play of little ones, the Havanese is also a happy companion for smaller kids and that contributes to its growing popularity all over the world.
The Havanese can deal with children for hours, play with them or learn tricks. These tricks it then uses to be in the centre of attraction and to get treats.

Believe me, I’m speaking from experience.

It is rather difficult to resist this dog, looking at you with its huge eyes or playing dead just to scrounge something.

By the way the Havanese was used as a circus dog for a long time, because it is so very adaptive and intelligent.

It should be trained with loving consequence and dog knowledge otherwise it will quickly overtake the leadership in your household.
But no worries, with its attitude always wanting to please humans, it is very easy to train and docile. It will always want to be close to its people and only feels really happy and comfortable as a full family member.

The Havanese is not a barker, but everyone is greeted full-throated and with enthusiasm. It makes no difference whether it is a known face or a stranger. This simply belongs to the nature of Havanese.

Since it has a distinctive feeling for moods, it knows exactly when to contain, too. Whether at the office, in a restaurant or on holiday, it adjusts without any problem to the conditions and lifestyle of its family and is always a welcomed guest.

All around the perfect family and companion dog with a heart of gold.

History

A brief historical abstract should not be missing here:

The Havanese belongs to the breed of Bichon. These are known in Europe for many centuries.
The word “Bichon” means „fluffy dog“. There are references, that it has already been known in the old Greece. Appeared centuries later around the Mediterranean and were very popular during the Renaissance.
A theory states that the Spanish brought these wonderful dogs from Cuba as presents for the ladies of the upper class within their business relations.
Another one states that the Havanese descendent from Cuba from a previous breed, known as “Blanquito de la Habana”, and has been popular by the noble Cubans.
When in the 19th century thousands of French settlers immigrated to Cuba, due to the revolution, they have not only brought the culture and their wealth, but also their dogs with them. These were poodles which actually came from Germany. So the changing of the Blanquito de la Habana began. Step after step a new dog breed arouse.

The Havanese

The Havanese is the sum of a big number of ancestors, where the Blanquito de la Habana was involved more than the poodle.
Since the 20th century it was pushed out of the upper class houses, but accepted willingly by the lower class Cubans as a pet and it turned out, that the Havanese could be deployed successfully as a herding dog. It herded the fowl, as well as sheep, goats and even cattle.
In the 60ies, after the Cuban revolution, many Cubans emigrated in the United States and some of them took their dogs with them. Thus the breeding of Havanese began in America in the 70ies.

Many years later breeders began to export these dogs to Europe and it became very popular, because of its rareness, its qualities of being an excellent companion, as a family dog, guard dog and as a show dog.
This should be only short information about this wonderful breed. If you have any question,do not hesitate to ask me.