Advice about getting a Havanese

[FuriousSleeper]

Hello all - we’re thinking of getting a Havanese puppy. We’ve done lots of reading and chatting to breeders and know they need plenty of human company but how much? We’ve heard that you can’t leave them for more than an hour but other breeders say up to a morning is ok. How long is too long to leave the dog alone once it is older (we’ll be with it all the time as a puppy)? Advice much appreciated.

Every pup will be different, it will be down to the individual pup’s personality and lots of training on your behalf as well - read up on all the excellent training advice on settling and separation anxiety.

It will depend entirely on the dog - sometimes you can do all the training in the world and still have a dog with separation anxiety.

Thanks for the input; sounds like we need to look for a confident puppy as a starting point.

Ours has been fine to leave at home for one-off day trips, never had an issue with separation anxiety although there is usually someone around. Are you planning to leave it on a regular basis? They are lovely, funny, loyal dogs who adore those close to them, but can be quite nervous of strangers.

Thanks @Gloschick. We both work from home so will be around most of the time but I’m panicking and thinking DH and I might never get to go to the cinema again! One breeder we spoke to said she wouldn’t sell us a pup if we were going to leave it for more than an hour but perhaps that was a way of signalling that they like to be close and get some separation anxiety. They seem like lovely dogs.

They are fine to leave for cinema trips, gym trips, going to supermarket etc. I would just be cautious in the first year. Ours just has a nice long snooze if we go out!
There are several Facebook pages for uk Havanese owners so you might want to join one of those to ask any questions that you have. To be honest, I haven't seen anyone post on there about separation anxiety. Maybe that is because they know from the start not to leave them alone too long. More seem to have issues relating to anxiety with car travel / meeting other dogs / defending the realm!