The breed comes from the Western Mediterranean region and has developed
along the Spanish and Italian coastal region. It would seem that these dogs
were imported early in Cuba by ocean navigating Italian captains. Erroneously,
the most frequent brown colour of these dogs (tobacco) gave birth to the
legend which would mean it to be a breed originating from Havana, capital of
Cuba. The political events however have led to the total disappearance of the
old blood lines of the Havanese in Cuba; apparently a few dogs could be
successfully smuggled out from Cuba; their descendants have survived in the
U.S.A. The Havanese is a sturdy little dog, low on his legs, with long
abundant hair, soft and preferably wavy. His movement is lively and elastic.
Exceptionally bright he is easy to train as alarm dog. Affectionate, of a happy
nature, he is amiable, a charmer, playful and even a bit of a clown. He loves
children and plays endlessly with them. Undercoat woolly and not very
developed; it is often totally absent. The topcoat is very long (12-18 cm in
an adult dog), soft, flat or wavy and may form curly strands. All grooming,
the usage of scissors to even out the length of the coat and all trimming is
forbidden. Exception : tidying up the hair on the feet is permitted, the hair on
the forehead may be slightly shortened so that it does not cover the eyes and
the hair on the muzzle may be slightly tidied up, but it is preferable to leave it
in natural length. There are two varieties of colour. Rarely completely pure
white, fawn in its different shades of light fawn to havana-brown (tobacco
colour, reddish brown), patches in those colours of coat; slight blackened
overlay admitted. Admitted colours and patches (white, light fawn to
havana-brown) with black markings. Black coat.
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