I want a puppy just like the wonderful dog I have now!!!

Believe me… I understand this feeling! Losing Kodi to old age broke my heart. He was, in many ways, “The Best Dog”. Part of me would have loved to clone him, even though I absolutely adore the other dogs in my household now.

But would it have been right to use him as a stud dog? Probably not, even though he came from excellent, well-known bloodlines, and was as heavily titled as a dog can get. His job was to be my darling pet and to teach me about this breed. And for that, I will be forever grateful to both him and his breeder!

There are good ways of getting another wonderful Havanese, but this is not it!

Q:

I need some advice! I have a 5 year old, male, is still intact. He was rehomed at 3 months after owner decided she didn’t want a dog after 2 weeks. So I got him through a mutual acquaintance.

He is intact because I did not sign the initial contract although I have been very responsible with him and have never let him breed.  I just feel he is healthier this way, and he is a good boy and never behaves inappropriately.

So my question to you is if you know of any Havanese breeders in the area who I could reach out to regarding breeding him. I do not want a puppy now or breeding fee. My interest is in keeping his genes active in the gene pool so that in the future (10 years?) I could get one of his offspring. Generations later, but still his genes. This may sound odd, but I’m going with the thought!

A:

I have no problem with male dogs being un-neutered. I only have a problem with them being allowed to breed when they shouldn't, which you clearly haven't done!  Keeping males intact is, in general, healthier for them.

Is Boo registered, and have his papers been signed over to you?  That is the number one hurdle.  Second, is his registration "full" or. "limited"?  If it is "full", and you are listed as the owner, you can, technically, breed him.  If it is "Limited" or if you are not listed as owner on his papers, you may not breed him.

Next step would be to have his semen analyzed to see if he is capable of reproducing.  He probably is, but not all dogs are.  And the next steps are expensive and unnecessary on an infertile dog.  If he is fertile, you would need to complete all his breed health testing for his CHIC number.  That is the following tests…

Required:

Hips

Patellas

Eyes (this must be repeated annually until at least 8 years of age)

Not required, but…

Most breeders also want elbows, which are easily done at the same time as the hip X-rays and don't add much to the cost.

Most breeders also do hearts, at least an auscultation, if not a cardiac echo.

Many breeders also do "BAER" testing for unilateral deafness.  This used to be a mandatory test but was just recently dropped.  I still do it for my breeding dogs.  It is too easy for a dog to seem fine when they can only hear with one ear.

Many breeders also do thyroid., some do liver function, especially if there have been liver problems in their lines.

All of those tests are sent in to OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals). When completed, he will be assigned a "CHIC" number.  If he PASSES all tests plus his DNA health tests (see below), he is passed for breeding. (in terms of health)

You also need to do DNA health testing for those (few) health issues that can be tested with DNA, plus for coat and color.  Havanese breeders would want this testing done through either UC Davis or AKC, NOT through one of the "pet" DNA programs like Embark.  I test all my dogs through AKC, just so I can get their AKC breeding DNA testing done at the same time.

I assume he has a great disposition, or you would not be interested in passing along his genes, but a knowlegeable breeder should also be asked to assess his conformation to make sure he has at least reasonable conformation before he is allowed to pass on his genes.

So, let's say you get all of these things done.  You still need to find someone with a girl who is willing to allow you to breed to your boy. (Oh, you will need to come up with some sort of breeding contract, even if you don't want a stud fee, so think that through too)  A brood bitch typically has only 3 or at most 4 litters in her reproductive life.  Most serious breeders will have planned out (sometimes a couple of generations ahead) exactly who they are going to breed their girl to each of those precious litters, and what they hope to get out of that litter.

It would be a VERY hard sell for a good breeder to suddenly change course and "waste" one of those litters on a completely unknown pet dog with no track record.  Do you know anything about his pedigree?

Finally, then, rather than sell those puppies as "pet" puppies, they would have to hold onto one or more of those puppies, show that puppy to its championship, do all its health testing at 2 years of age, and breed that puppy on (doing the same thing for successive generations) until you decided you wanted a puppy back.

...Do you start to see how unlikely a scenario this is?  While it would be hard enough to make this work to make a single puppy if you wanted it fairly soon,  looking to be able to access his genes from a breeding 10 years (more or less) in the future is SOOO unlikely.  That is assuming he is a high enough quality dog that not only the person you talked into breeding to found someone to buy one of those puppies as a show/breeding puppy, but that the person after that, and the one after that, etc. also did... and that you were able to keep track of all those people.  Do you see the logistical problems?

What might be much more realistic it to work in the other direction.  Look at his pedigree, and see if you can find lines that are still being bred. You might be able to, when you are ready, find another puppy who is more or less closely related to him, and therefore MIGHT have some of his attributes.  Or not.  Depending on who bred him, he could have a strong pedigree that is easy to back into, or he could be a "Heinz 57" in the Havanese breed.  There are some dogs that were SO popular that you can find them in EVERY pedigree!

And remember that some of his attributes MIGHT very well be BECAUSE he is a Havanese!  They are a lovely breed, after all!