Friday, April 09, 2004

After his bath, Mojo's coat was kinda thin - the way hair is when you don't put conditioner on it. We thought it was because we didn't leave the conditioner on for long enough.

Well this afternoon Mojo's hair was silk-like in its consistency, which might be why they're incorrectly known as the Havana Silk Dog.Those dogs are different, yet strangely similar, to the Havanese. It's weird, but the origin of the Havanese are already lost to myths, legends, and confusion. Cubans apparently aren't big on history, or at least dog history. I suppose nobody back then really paid attention to where their dogs came from, or which dog bred with which dog, etc. In old Cuba, it was probably just a fuzzy white dog that bred with Roberto's dog.

As an axample, one of our books, "Havanese: A comprehensive guide to owning and caring for your dog," has a long history section which is mostly different than the one in Goodale's book, "Havanese."

The latter is the canon in the US due to the fact that the author single-handedly introduced the Havanese to the AKC and was the original US breeder for them. Which one is right? Who knows. The current history (Goodale's) seems a bit too Havanese-promoting. An example: "The Havanese became popular as a status symbol for the wealthy residents of the island of Cuba." Sounds like marketing to me. They might as well say "lapdogs to the royalty of europe for millenia," or "be an aristocrat - buy a Havanese."

Mojo seems a bit too smart to be a lapdog. A circus dog, yes, but he's got to much energy for a senorita. Then again, you never know.

Anyhow, the important questions are things like: after you wash your Havanese, the hair gets kind of bushy...bushy enough so you can't see its eyes. How do you trim the hair so your dog has unobstructed vision? Is his vision obstructed by his hair? Is it OK to get dog shampoo in his eyes? Are those tear stains permanent, or is that the hair color?

One thing we found out during today's bath is he'd rather stand in warm water while bathing, presumably because it keeps him warmer. He also isn't afraid of the hair dryer anymore, which makes drying him much easier.





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