Havanese Dog Breed Information

The Havanese is the only dog breed native to Cuba and the country’s national dog, descended from small Bichon-type lapdogs brought by Spanish colonists in the 16th and 17th centuries. NZ’s Havanese population has grown steadily since the late 2010s, particularly among apartment owners in Auckland CBD, Wellington and Christchurch who want a small biddable companion with low shedding and a softer bark than a Maltese or Lhasa Apso. The breed is one of the more apartment-friendly toy dogs for shared-wall NZ living, with a temperament that combines real affection, real trainability and real grooming commitment.

Adults stand 23 to 29 cm at the shoulder and weigh 3 to 6 kg. The coat is double, long, silky and wavy in a wide range of colours from white, cream and fawn through gold, silver, black and particolour. Lifespan sits at 13 to 16 years, with patellar luxation, dental disease and middle-age cardiac murmurs the breed-specific concerns to watch.

Personality and behaviour

Havanese are openly affectionate with everyone in the household and friendly with strangers in a way that surprises owners coming from Maltese or Lhasa backgrounds. The breed bonds closely but distributes affection across the family rather than fixating on one person, which makes the dog a good fit for couples and family households. Most NZ Havanese owners describe the breed as a Velcro dog without the separation distress of a Cavalier, though long workdays without company still produce barking and house-soiling regressions in some dogs.

Around strangers, the typical Havanese is somewhere between politely confident and openly friendly. The breed will alert on the doorbell and unfamiliar sounds, but the bark is softer and stops faster than the typical small-dog vocal pattern; most Havanese bark twice and then go quiet. The breed’s history as a 19th-century Cuban performance and circus dog shows in the social confidence; Havanese are comfortable in public, on lead in cafes, in shopping centres and around new people in a way that more reserved toy breeds aren’t.

Around other dogs the Havanese is generally polite and sociable. The breed lacks the small-dog reactivity of a Maltese or Pomeranian, settles well into multi-dog households, and copes with neutral park traffic without flare-ups.

The trait that surprises new owners is the trainability. Havanese are bright, food-motivated and engaged with their owner in a way that toy breeds are often not. The breed responds quickly to reinforcement-based training, learns sequenced tricks and behaviours within days, and excels at small-dog agility, rally and trick-dog competitions. Owners who treat the breed as a trainable working partner rather than a passive lap dog get a much better dog.

Around children, the breed is patient with primary-school-aged children and older who handle small dogs gently. Toddlers are a poor match: the small frame is fragile, an accidental fall onto a Havanese is a trip to the vet, and most NZKC-affiliated breeders avoid placing puppies in households with children under five.

Care and exercise

Plan on around 30 minutes of structured exercise a day, split between two short walks and indoor play. The breed is not high-energy in the working sense; a 15-minute morning walk and a 15-minute evening walk plus zoomies in the lounge meet the daily need. Havanese also enjoy short training sessions, food puzzles and trick work as mental enrichment, which most NZ Havanese owners find more engaging for the dog than a longer walk.

The grooming commitment is the breed’s defining ownership task. The full long coat needs daily brushing, every day, with no skipping. Mats form fastest at the ears, armpits, behind the legs, around the collar and on the rear; once formed they need to be cut out. Most NZ pet Havanese are kept in a short “puppy clip” or “teddy bear” trim, trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks at a professional groomer for NZ$80 to NZ$130 per session. That cuts home grooming to a quick brush every two or three days plus regular face-wiping, ear checks and topknot maintenance.

The double coat is genuinely low-shedding. Hair released by the coat falls into the coat itself rather than onto floors and furniture, which is part of why daily brushing matters so much (otherwise the released hair felts into the coat and forms mats). The trade-off is high grooming time. Across a 14-year lifespan the grooming bill runs NZ$10,000 to NZ$16,000 and is the largest single ongoing line in Havanese ownership outside of food.

Tear staining around the eyes is moderate; the visible reddish-brown staining below the inner corner of each eye is mostly cosmetic, but persistent staining can mask shallow tear ducts that need vet checks. Daily wipes with warm water and a soft cloth keep the visible staining manageable.

Dental care is the other ongoing task. Toy-breed jaws crowd teeth together, plaque builds fast, and most adult Havanese need annual scale-and-polish under anaesthetic from age 4 or 5. Daily brushing slows the build-up but does not replace the descale.

The dietary watch-out is portion control. A 5 kg adult eats 80 to 120 g of quality dry food a day, split into two meals. Fifteen grams of overfeeding shows on body condition within a week, and a 0.5 kg overweight Havanese is a meaningful change for the joints.

Climate fit is uncomplicated. The double coat handles cool to mild NZ weather well across most regions, and the breed’s adaptation from Mediterranean to Cuban tropical climate gives it reasonable heat tolerance. Auckland and Northland summer humidity is comfortable for a clipped Havanese; cold mornings in Wellington, Christchurch and Otago below 8 degrees need a small fitted coat for walks. Indoor warmth above 16 degrees is comfortable year-round.

The breed-specific health items to ask any NZKC breeder about are patella scores, hip scores under 10 each side, PRA DNA test results, eye certificates current within the year, and (for older breeding stock) cardiac auscultation. NZKC-registered Havanese puppies typically run NZ$2,800 to NZ$4,500 from a small group of NZ breeders, with a 9 to 18 month waitlist common given the breed’s growing NZ popularity. Avoid pet shop puppies and unscreened Trade Me listings; toy-breed puppy farms cut corners on patella and dental screening that show up as expensive vet bills later.

Council registration is required by 12 weeks under the Dog Control Act. The DIA national dog database holds the record; your local council issues the tag and the annual fee.