# Planning for 2nd puppy



## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Our puppy is almost a year old and I knew from the first week I wanted another Havanese. It’s just a matter of time. At first my plan was to wait until my kids are in high school, but the wait time continues to shrink! I have read a lot of different opinions on how far apart to plan them and I think I’m settled at our first being about 2 years, which is a year from now. Although, I would probably bring home the right puppy tomorrow 😉 

I feel like our family situation is a little complicated with a special needs child and our current Hav, and while I know there are no guarantees, I need to be able to really trust an experienced breeder to make the best placement possible. I want to do a better job of planning this time, and I know a lot of breeders have really long wait lists. 

I’m willing to wait for the right puppy for sure, and to travel. I already know from our first time around that there aren’t many Havanese breeders near us and none we were interested in using, so once we’ve decided to fly does it really makes much difference where we fly to? 

Where should I start? I didn’t know what I was doing at all the first time, and I feel really lucky things went as well as they did!


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## KarMar (Jan 14, 2016)

A very good place to start is the HCA breeder referral as well as that of local clubs. That said, not every wonderful breeder belongs to a local club, and even fewer belong to the HCA. Additionally, some clubs are pretty bad at keeping their list up to date. There is a wonderful "What to look for in a reputable breeder" sticky somewhere on the forum that I'm sure someone else will link, and that really helps in narrowing things down, as does personal conversations with these breeders.

Another thing you can do to "broaden your breeder pool" is to attend local shows or look at show results from those close by to you to see which breeders may be closer to you. Remember, not every breeder that is producing successful show dogs is doing so responsibly, and not every breeder that doesn't show much is irresponsible. Just a way to find more to research. Your little info bar says you are in Utah, so I believe the Onofrio website will be best for local results. 

I'm currently on mobile, but can provide links to various pages when I'm home


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Very well said, Sophie!


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## Marni (Apr 1, 2017)

Find a dog show and look at breeders' dogs. Meet breeders and ask questions. Pick a specific breeder and not a specific puppy.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

I did look on the Onofrio website, but I don’t know anything about shows and I don’t really know what I’m looking at. I think I did pick apart the info on results to find the following breeders: 

Beseme Havanese
Revistio Havanese
Les Bois Havanese
Mylad Havanese

I assume they are all in my region. Which is 3 more than I found last time around! I don’t want to disrespectfully “shop around,” but I also know I’ll make a better decision about a breeder if I speak to several, so what is the best way to do that? 

I’m not super concerned about appearance, but I really love my red Hav and I would love another. Does that make a difference in where I should look? Once I started narrowing my search for a red Havanese last time I didn’t find very much. I went with the first breeder I found with the appearance of any kind of credentials at all. In hindsight, relying on breeder websites to determine if a breeder is credible doesn’t really make sense since these are real people who could be great with dogs and not love computers. But we are sort of programmed to only “buy” something from a trustworthy site, so it’s confusing. 

I haven’t ruled out our previous breeder; I don’t mean to give the impression she did a bad job. We were lucky. I really like her, but we didn’t communicate a lot during the process. I think she may have been open to it but I was concerned about bothering her. My goal is just to do my “due diligence” this time around, and start from scratch, and I don’t think I can go wrong. if I approach it differently, I’ll either be led back there and find out she’s an even better breeder than I realized, or I’ll find the right breeder somewhere else.


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## KarMar (Jan 14, 2016)

Just be honest about the fact that you are talking to multiple breeders in your initial search. Many Havanese breeders are close with others and encourage you to reach out to their friends if they don't have any litters planned. Be up front about it from the get go so they aren't blindsided when you don't buy from them 

It's thin ice when you are looking for a specific color. It is the absolute last thing a reputable breeder and a responsible buyer should be concerned with, and with reds and chocolates, you are much more likely to run into a breeder breeding for color as you are playing with recessives. Are there responsible breeders producing those colors? Absolutely. But it is a territory I tread very lightly in. I have found that it isn't uncommon for the reds and chocolates to be a bit flightier temperament wise personally, something that I assume just comes from some of those lines.

ETA: Want to make it 100% clear that there are absolutely people responsibly breeding reds with correct temperament and I'm not saying otherwise


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

I did contact breeders who showed and then went to the next show they were attending. I found it easier to be able to walk up to them and say, we spoke on the phone or emailed and I"m... than just walking up cold. And people were very nice and of course you're talking to them about their favorite subject. It was good too because for example I met a breeder who I know is an excellent breeder but i just wasn't that comfortable talking with. And having ongoing communication with the breeder was something I wanted and I realized this wasn't a good match. I also met someone who was showing her first dog and got to talk to her about her breeder and experiences.


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