HAVANESE HISTORY By Natalie Armitage
Originally published in SHOWSIGHT Magazine, August 2012
A s is true of the history of many breeds, Havanese history is a mixture of fact and probability. The breed has ex- isted in Cuba, the country of origin, since the 1800s. The Bichon Havanese, as it is called in Cuba, is the National dog of Cuba and its only native breed. In her book Bichon Havanese , Cuban breed authority, Zoila Portuondo Guerra, states that Havanese descend from an earlier breed called the Blanquito de la Habana, also known as the Havana Silk Dog. She further states that the breed goes back to Spanish water dogs and Bi- chon-type lapdogs, although other Span- ish dogs of similar type may have played a role in their development. The Bichons brought to Cuba adapted to the island’s diet and climate. Eventu- ally, the conditions resulted in a different dog, smaller than its predecessors, with a completely white, silky textured coat and a very loving disposition. That dog was the Blanquito de la Habana. During the 18th century, the Blanquito de la Ha- bana was recognized in England as the White Cuban. In the 19th century, poodles (or Caniches) were brought to Cuba, from France, Ger- many, and other countries. With the arrival of these poodles, the transformation of the Blanquito de la Habana began. The result of cross-breeding poodles to the Blanquito was a slightly larger dog of various colors, but retaining the silky coat and Bichon type. That dog is the Havanese, the Cu- ban interpretation of the Bichon lapdogs from Europe. Like the Blanquito before it, the Ha- vanese was the pet of the Cuban co- lonial aristocracy until the beginning of the 20th century. After that, the Havanese became the beloved pet of
the people of the island. During the Cuban Revolution, some of the dogs were brought to this country by their owners who migrated to Southern Florida, while others migrated to Costa Rica and Puerto Rico with their dogs, thereby preserving the breed. The Havanese remaining in Cuba were not as fortunate, and few sur- vived the Revolution. At that time in the United States, Mrs. Dorothy Goodale learned of the exis- tence of the Havanese and began to seek information on this breed of dog that she had never heard of before. She was look- ing for a smaller dog as an alternate to the larger dogs she had bred when she was younger. She decided to advertise in a Mi- ami newspaper to try to locate some of the dogs. Through these advertisements, she located two or three families who brought their Bichons from Cuba to the United States. Mrs. Goodale was able to acquire six Havanese, complete with pedigrees, from these families. They consisted of a bitch with four female puppies, plus an unrelated young male dog. Subsequently, she was able to purchase five additional male dogs from a Cuban exile who was moving from Costa Rica to Texas and was no longer able to keep his dogs. By 1974 Havanese were being bred in the United States by American breeders, us- ing the 1963 FCI Standard for Bichon Havanese. Mrs. Goodale subsequently modified that standard. Mrs. Goodale and a group of other breeders founded the Havanese Club of America in 1979. Beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century, breeding of Havanese in Cuba has increased. Zoila Guerra Portuondo found- ed the Cuban Club of the Bichon Havanese (CCBH) in 1991. CCBH is a member of the Cuban Kennel Club which belongs to FCI.
Cuban CH “Puppy” (1988- 2002), the first Bichon Havanese Champion of Cuba, was honored on this 1992 commemorative postage stamp celebrating Cuba’s only native purebred dog.
“Portrait of a Young Woman” painted by Vincente Escobar (1757-1854), a Cuban portrait painter, shows a young woman holding a Blanquito de la Habana. The original painting is in the archives of the Salas del Museo National de Cuba in Havana.
28 • T op N otch T oys , N ovember 2022
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