How to Rehome a Havanese

The Canadian Kennel Club describes the Havanese as "happy, outgoing and quite trainable... a pleasant and affectionate companion," and the surrender patterns are the flip side of exactly those traits. The recurring reasons owners reach the rehoming decision:

• The grooming workload. The defining one. That soft, low-shedding coat mats fast without brushing several times a week plus professional grooming every handful of weeks, and the cost and time add up for life. A matted Havanese is not a cosmetic problem; it is painful, and owners who fall behind often feel too ashamed to catch up.
• A velcro dog in an emptier house. The Havanese was bred to be with people constantly, and it does poorly alone. When a household's hours change, the crying, barking, and door-scratching start, and the neighbours will describe it.
• A new baby. An attention-hungry companion dog plus a newborn is a hard combination, and the dog's demands escalate exactly when capacity disappears. If that is your situation, our guide to rehoming after a new baby covers it without judgement.
• An older owner's circumstances. Havanese are popular with seniors and long-lived, so a share of rehomings arrive when the owner's health changes.

None of this means your dog is a problem. It means a breed built for constant company met a schedule that changed, and a careful rehoming into a people-present home fixes exactly that.

Havanese screening is about hours and hair.

1. A home with people in it. Ask directly how many hours the house is empty on a normal day. The safest Havanese placements are retired households, work-from-home households, and homes where someone is around most of the day. An applicant with a nine-hour office day and no plan is the same setup that produced the surrender, no matter how much they love the dog on the video call.

2. A grooming plan the applicant can name. Not "we will keep up with it." Ask who their groomer will be, how often, and whether they know roughly what it costs per visit in their city. An applicant who has owned a coated breed before, or who answers with specifics, is the right home. One quiet correction while you are at it: the Havanese is often marketed as hypoallergenic, and no dog is. If an applicant is choosing your dog because of allergies, have them spend real time with the dog before committing, because an allergy return three weeks in is the most avoidable failed placement there is.

Fast, for the breed's usual profile. A healthy, groomed adult Havanese with honest photos and a fair fee typically places within two to four weeks, and small cheerful companion dogs draw applicants quickly. Seniors take somewhat longer but suit the breed's retired-adopter following. Two things slow a Havanese listing down: a matted coat (get the dog groomed before photographing it, even if the groomer has to shave it short; honest short hair beats painful mats) and serious separation behaviour, which narrows the pool to people-present homes. Neither is a dealbreaker; both just mean the right home takes a little longer to surface, and the honest listing is what finds it.

Havanese disclosure is behavioural and cosmetic-honest.

• The coat, as it is today. Current grooming state, the last professional groom, any matting, and the routine the dog is used to. Use a current photo, not the best one you have ever taken.
• What an empty house sounds like. Crying, barking, destruction, or calm; whatever is true. This is the item that decides whether the placement sticks, so resist every urge to soften it.
• House-training, honestly. Small companion breeds are commonly imperfect here, adopters know it, and a truthful answer beats a discovered one.
• Vet records, complete. Hand over everything and name your vet. Small-breed staples like knees and teeth belong to the vet conversation; anything already flagged, any daily medication, and the last dental go in the listing.
• How the dog is with children and other pets. What you have actually observed, especially if a baby or toddler is part of the reason you are rehoming.

Charge a real rehoming fee. Havanese are an expensive, sought-after breeder breed, which makes a free or cheap listing a magnet for resellers, and a small fluffy white dog is exactly the profile they shop for. A fee of a few hundred dollars for a healthy adult is normal in Canada (this is a directional range, not a fixed rule), paired with a vet reference and a real conversation about hours and grooming. You can donate the fee to a small-breed rescue afterward if you would rather not keep it.