The Havanese legacy

The small, furry dogs have a history that includes seafarers and Fidel Castro.
By GEORGIA TASKER
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
And now, Cuban dogs. They are called Havanese because they lived for a couple of centuries in Havana. Less than a foot tall, they are bundles of silky fluff willing to go to the ends of the earth with you as long as you don't ignore them.
"The lore of the Cuban dog intrigued us," said Laurie Nuell in Miami. "We thought he deserved a Spanish name. The Nuell dog is called Juan Jos & eacute;, or J.J. He's one of the sweetest things ever."
"Truthfully, during the Eli & aacute;n [Gonzalez] fiasco, we just got a surge of [Cuban] patriotism," Pilar Alvarez-Mena said. "When I punched into an Internet search everything I wanted, it came up with Havanese. This was the only Cuban dog we could find. And we found a breeder close to Tampa."
Havanese don't appeal only to Cubans who collect anything and everything from home. They are the fastest-growing registered breed in the United States, although many people have never heard of them.
Breed's legacy
First cousins to the bichon fris & eacute;, bichon Maltese and the bichon Bolognese, these small, hairy dogs are meant to be companions to humans who, in turn, spoil them rotten. They stand less than 12 inches high and have long silky coats of hair over a shorter, equally light coat. And they have a romantic history, somewhat cloaked in mystery, involving the upper classes of Cuba, sea captains, and, yes, the Cuban Revolution.
Probably originating in Tenerife, these dogs were small enough to belong to ship captains and to sail the high seas during the Age of Exploration. Some may have come to Cuba with Italian sea captains, with Malta or Bologna as their source, says one breeder's Web site, www.losperritos.com/history.htm. The captains are said to have presented the dogs to merchants as a way of encouraging trade. Other stories have the dog originating somewhere around the Mediterranean, or appearing in Argentina, where perhaps the Italians mixed a bichon Bolognese with a poodle. Or perhaps they came from Spain.
"The Havanese heyday was the 18th and 19th centuries," said Diane Klumb, who breeds them in Virginia and is writing a book about the dogs. "They were the dogs of the Cuban aristocracy."
Emilio Cueto, a Washington, D.C., lawyer whose apartment is a museum of Cuban artifacts, turned up what he thinks is the first painting of the Havana dog, done in 1768 by Jacques Bachelier. It looks like a very hairy, red-nosed poodle.
Cubans called them Maltese, Klumb says.
Apparently, Klumb said, the little dog from Tenerife was mixed with poodle and Maltese to become a Havanese. Only the wealthy class owned them; they were never sold, only given as gifts. The gene pool was small to begin with.
In Havana by the 1920s, Catalina Laza was a breeder of Havanese, Klumb said. She lived in a suburb of Havana with a sugar baron. They also had a place in France, where glass and jewelry designer Ren & eacute; Lalique designed her foyer. Laza died in France but is buried in Havana, where Lalique also created her tomb.
Laza, who was a woman of legendary beauty, according to Cueto, gave the dogs to her friends.
Notable owners
Ernest Hemingway had a couple of them, Klumb said.
Way before Hemingway, the dogs made their way to 18th-century England, where Charles Dickens had one he called a Havana spaniel. Cuban Silk Poodle and White Cuban were also names given to the breed.
Today's Havanese can range in color from white to black, pied, brindle, cocoa, all combinations. They were officially recognized as a breed in 1995 by the American Kennel Club, but to be shown in the toy dog group of the AKC competitions, they may not have a brown nose or a short haircut.
In Cuba, it is told that they herded chickens. So maybe they were at the country houses of the aristocracy, Klumb said. Her own Havanese tend to herd a small flock of Rhode Island Reds she and her husband, Bill, keep in Lexington, Va.
Castro's rise
When Fidel Castro came to power and Cubans left the country, they did so thinking they would be back in a couple of weeks or months. Most of the dogs were left behind with servants or relatives.
However, two or three families are said to have spirited dogs from the island to Miami and Venezuela. If anyone knows who, they're not telling.
"After five years of research," Klumb said, "I've hit a wall. Two names of families come up: Perez and Fantazio, but there is no Fantazio family. Well, there is one, but ... he hasn't heard of Havanese. I asked him." (Fantasio may be another spelling.)
U.S. registry
In 1974, Dorothy and Bert Goodale of Delta, Colo., came upon a mention of the dog from Cuba in a Spanish magazine. They called the editor and were able to find families of Cuban exiles, from whom they bought six dogs. Then they ran an ad in a Miami newspaper, and a year later they bought six more dogs from a Cuban living in Costa Rica.
In 1979, the Goodales started a registry of the dogs for the United States as they set out to save the breed.
Gradually, the dogs went 'round the world again.
When the Soviet Union still existed and Soviets were living in Cuba, they took Havanese dogs home with them. Goodale sent some dogs to Europe. One has made it to Canada from Cuba, and there is hope that new genes from the Cuban dogs can get to the United States by this route.
Meanwhile, Cubans have renewed their interest in them, Klumb said. A Habanero Club of Cuba has been founded, and in 1999 the club's first president, Zoila Portuondo Guerra, wrote "Bichon Havanese," a small book published in Britain. A Tampa Havanese breeder, Lois Treat, gives new owners a copy.
"Havanese are not the right dogs for everyone," Klumb warned. "These dogs are not good at being alone. If you're at work all day, you don't want a Havanese. They'll get separation anxiety and pee all over the house and become neurotic."
But she calls the Havanese "wonderful" and "a delightful little dog."
"These little dogs are resourceful, adaptable and fun. They're so Cuban! Nobody's more resourceful than a Cuban."