Why did we pick a Havanese?

Hypoallergenic Dogs

We started to plan for Dinky almost a year ago, seriously. Although, I guess for the husband a dog had long been an idle threat to break into our life at some point. I have been with animals all my life until I moved to Finland almost 7 years. It's been a long time without anything. 

Firstly, we started off with some books one about the breed and the other about puppies. The two books, I found the most useful are pictured below, I did have others but I didn't find them useful for me. We decided on the Bichon Havanese as I'm allergy to dogs, only mildly but my oringal choice of a golden retreiver gave me a rash and sneezes. For a while we didn't know it was dogs, I saw my friends husky alot had runny eyes but assumed it was something else. The next round of allergy tests, for some reason they tested me for pets, even though we had a pet free house. 

Of course, nothing is 100% and we have a history of allergies so we also made a dog choice that should integrate best into our family unit and our close family. If anyone reacts to her then we have to make some precautions when they come, just as in keeping her away and not letting her jump up in people's faces. But, I think all will be well after the initial meetings. I do know this caused major stressed for him, and I understand that as neither of us want to isolate ourselves or scare off our family.  Time will tell for the exteneded family, good thing is neither me or him reacted on the visit to the puppies.

After four years of remote working, I became bored of my own company and thought it would be nice to get some company. The husband is allergic to cats and quite badly, so we started to look at dogs. We had always seen a Bichon Frise by our old house we had nicknamed "Snowball". Neither of us, really wanted a white dog, so I started to look for other breeds. He also didn't like the look of Poodle types and didn't want a Labradoodle. So the hunt for a small dog started.

About Havanese

They are like all dogs different to each other but they are mostly lap dogs, enjoy company and don't like long periods of time alone (just like me!). They are always small a little bigger than a cat. They are high maintence as they do grow long hair and require daily brushing.

Note, in the UK I have a long haired cat, who hates brushing but I at least knew the kinds of brushes I would need for Dinky. We also get some more brushes and scissors from the breeder lady and a starter pack for the dog (more details later).

I normally also walk alot although it's a habit that's dropped since we moved to the new house, I wanted a dog I could take with me. These are quite high energy, little live wires (of course some are lazier, it does depend on the dog).

It's classed as a Toy breed, we didn't want a show dog only a family pet. We then decided to get some porfessional grooming clippers so I can trim her myself. My cat has given me much practice at this and she doesn't look too bad after clipping these days (although she wriggles, bites and scratches like you are mudering her).

And if you aren't into daily grooming, this might not be the dog for you, 7 months to two years old the puppy fur is chaning to adult fur. The slogan I came across was "brush it out", on the boards it's a nightmare grooming time. Sounds like me after every shower, to be honest! I was actually a little bemused to see "Argan Oil" for dogs too, see we are afterall a bit similar! I guess if I run out I can use the dog shampoo!!! (joking of course!).

They are a smart breed, can learn tricks and were used as circus dogs at some point in time. They are quite agile. I have had dogs in my life before, but this will be my first dog of my own. So, I have enjoyed researching alot about the things to do, not to do, what to expect. So far in our lives, we don't have our own children but hopefully we add that in the future.

 They are common to suffer from separation anxiety. As a high functioning anxiety suffer, I knew this pain too well and imediately start to research how I could help for from the beginning to cope with us not being home when we need to goto the gym, shops, you know the stuff you can't take the dog too but we need to do. After looking at all the books I could, I picked this one. It's not too bad and some new ideas are coming from here!