The two companion breeds behind the cross
The Havapoo puts the Havanese together with the Poodle, usually the Toy or the Miniature, and both parents were shaped for the same job: to live with people and be good at it.
The Havanese is the only dog breed native to Cuba and the national dog of the island. It descends from the small white bichon-type dogs that Spanish settlers carried across in the sixteenth century, which developed on Cuba into something distinct: the Blanquito de la Habana, the little white dog of Havana. Later crossings with poodles brought over from Europe added coat and colour, and the result became the household dog of Havana’s wealthy families, kept in parlours and carried in carriages. When Cuban families left the island after 1959 a small number of Havanese travelled with them, and very nearly every Havanese alive today traces back to that handful. The American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1996 and placed it in the Toy group.
The Poodle arrives from a completely different direction. It began in Germany as a water retriever, and the name comes from pudeln, to splash about, while the famous clip started life as practical trimming for a dog working in cold water. France took the breed up so thoroughly that most people now assume it is French, and it developed there into three sizes. What the Poodle brings to this cross is the curl, a coat that keeps growing rather than dropping, and a mind that is genuinely hard to keep occupied.
A Havapoo takes from both sides: the Havanese temperament, the Poodle coat, and the intelligence of the pair of them.
Size, coat and colour
Most Havapoos weigh somewhere between eight and fifteen pounds and stand around nine to fourteen inches at the shoulder, though a puppy out of a Miniature Poodle will usually finish a little larger than one out of a Toy. The build is neat and squarely made, with a slightly rounded head, dark round eyes set well apart, and drop ears that hang close to the head and carry long hair.
The coat is the headline. It runs anywhere from a soft wave to a full curl depending on which parent a puppy takes after, it is fine and dense, and it keeps growing rather than dropping, which is why the routine here involves a comb and a standing appointment. Colours come from both sides and there are a great many of them: cream, apricot, gold, red, chocolate, black, silver, sable, and parti-coloured coats with white across the chest, the muzzle and the feet. Many Havapoos lighten as they mature, so an apricot puppy can finish nearly cream, and the colour at ten weeks is a starting point rather than a conclusion.
The velcro temperament
Both parents are people-dogs, so the cross is emphatically a people-dog. A Havapoo wants to be where you are, not necessarily on you but certainly in the room, on the rug beside the desk, on the mat outside the bathroom door. Havanese owners have a nickname for this and it carries straight over: the velcro dog.
They are cheerful and sociable in a straightforward way. Most Havapoos greet visitors as though they had been expecting them all afternoon, get along with other dogs, and treat a busy household as an improvement on a quiet one. They are gentle with children and sturdy enough to enjoy the company, and they are small enough to go almost everywhere you go.
The other thing owners talk about is how observant they are. A Havapoo learns the shape of a house quickly, including which shoes mean a walk, what time the school run happens, and which chair is about to become free, and it positions itself accordingly. That attention is what makes them so easy to teach and such good company.
They have a voice and they use it about the front door, briefly, and then they let it go.
The coat and the standing appointment
A growing coat is a routine rather than a chore, and the routine is simple once it becomes a habit. A comb and a slicker brush every couple of days, worked in sections down to the skin rather than skimmed across the top, keeps the coat open and smooth. Behind the ears, under the front legs, under the collar and around the base of the tail are the places to go through properly, because that is where the finest hair sits.
Then there is the groomer, every six to eight weeks. Most owners settle on a puppy cut: an inch or two all over, the face left round, the ears and tail left a little longer. It is the look most people picture when they picture this cross, and it drops the home routine to a comb-through a few times a week. Others keep the coat longer through the cooler months and take it shorter for the summer. Neither is more correct than the other.
Start early. A puppy taken along to the groomer before the coat needs much doing learns that the table, the dryer and the clippers are ordinary, and that is worth more than any technique you will read about. At home, brush a little every day from the first week rather than a lot once a week.
The rest of the list is short: nails every few weeks, ears wiped out when you groom, teeth brushed as a matter of routine, and baths every few weeks with a proper dry afterwards.
Training a quick learner
Two clever parents make a puppy that learns fast in both directions, so it is worth deciding early what you want the house rules to be. The good news is that a Havapoo is soft, food-motivated and keen to get things right, which is about the easiest combination there is to work with.
Keep sessions short and cheerful, three or four minutes at a time, several times a day, finishing while the dog still wants another go. Mark the behaviour the moment it happens and pay for it properly. Sit, down, a recall, a settle on a mat and a hand touch will all come inside a few weeks, and then you can start on the entertaining ones, because this cross performs happily: spin, paw, weave through your legs, fetch a toy by name.
House-training runs on a schedule rather than on a signal. Out often, out with the puppy so you can reward the right thing in the right place, and think in months rather than weeks. A crate with a soft bed gives the puppy somewhere of its own.
Socialization through the first six months is the investment that pays longest: new floors, new people, traffic noise, umbrellas, calm adult dogs of different sizes. A well-socialized Havapoo is welcome nearly everywhere, and this is a dog you can take nearly everywhere.
A day with a Havapoo
Mornings begin with company. A Havapoo will be awake before you and pleased about it, and breakfast is received as a happy surprise for the several hundredth time.
The walk is short, social and full of stopping. Two modest outings a day suit most of them, and the point is as much what they smell and who they meet as how far they get. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones, with a nap through the middle of the day in a patch of sun.
Afternoons want a bit of brain work, and this is where the Poodle side shows itself. A snuffle mat, a food puzzle, a name-that-toy game, five minutes of trick training. Ten or fifteen minutes of thinking does more for this cross than an extra mile would.
Evenings are the sofa, a chew, and a small curly dog folded along somebody’s thigh, moving whenever you move. If you go to the kitchen, so does the Havapoo. If you sit back down, it is already there.
Coming to meet the Havapoo puppies
The coat is the thing you cannot judge from a screen. Wave or curl, how soft it is, how it will look in a puppy cut, and where the colour is likely to settle are all hands-on questions, and littermates differ far more in personality than they do in photographs.
Our Havapoo puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can talk you through what the grooming routine actually looks like and what a particular puppy’s parents were like. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.
