"Pet VS Show"

At Bydand, we only sell pets.

Our ultimate goal when choosing homes is to put a puppy in the most stable and caring
environment that we can, where he will remain for the rest of his life. If one of our pet owners
wishes to show, we will do our best to place a puppy with them that will be successful in the
show ring. If a pup we've bred turns out to be a drop-dead gorgeous dog who could have easily
finished his championship, but is instead a well-loved neutered companion, we are simply
delighted, because we believe that pet owners all deserve beautiful dogs who adhere closely
to the standard of their breed. That's why they bought a purebred dog in the first place!

We understand that the most logical place to evaluate one's breeding stock against the AKC Standard is in the show ring. The first dog shows were organized in the nineteenth century by sporting men who wanted a venue in which to evaluate and compare breeding stock, and that is still their primary purpose today.

To that end, over the past thirty years, we have produced literally dozens of AKC champions in
several different breeds, as well as various performance titles in the field on our Sporting dogs,
and multiple Top-producers, and we are proud of all of them. It should be noted that breeders
who do not actively exhibit their breeding stock in AKC shows are taking only their own word
for the quality of their line, and asking the buyer to do likewise.

But the sheer number of champions produced is not, by definition, the determiner of a good
breeding program- the benchmark of a good breeding program is what their pet puppies turn
out like! (Anyone who breeds enough dogs can produce a flier once in a while, simply by the law
of averages.)

The function of a Havanese is not to be a show dog, after all- the function of the Havanese is to be a companion! We believe that the goal of any breeding kennel is to ultimately produce a line of dogs of consistent quality, each bearing the stamp of its kennel. If one is successful, each and every puppy carrying one's kennel name, whether destined for the show ring or not, will be immediately recognizable as having come from that kennel, both by his quality (which is fairly easily measurable against the Standard) and his style, which is that “breeder's stamp” to which we referred, less easily measured, but there nonetheless. Why is this important? When you buy a pup from a kennel that produces a consistent line, you have a pretty clear idea what your pup will look like as an adult, because all that breeders' dogs have the same style about them, whether they are sold as “show potential” or as companions.

(CH Bydand Apple Jacks At ERAS)

Style is no more or less than the breeder's personal vision of the Standard for his breed created
in flesh and bone, and producing that vision consistently takes skill, knowledge, and an
unerring eye for a dog.

Having a clear idea of what one wants one's pups to look like when they mature, and the ability
to actually produce pups that will look like that, depends largely upon one's breeding
experience, knowledge of basic genetics and canine anatomy, and one's ability to see where
one's own line needs improvement.

The Havanese breed, being relatively new to the AKC, still has tremendous amounts of diversity,
and while diversity may be a good thing from a political standpoint, it's not nearly so desirable
when it involves diversion from the Standard of a breed! (Many litters of Havanese have so
much diversity in size and proportion they barely look like they came from the same breeding!)

(CH Bydand Jumpin' Jack Flash)

Our Havanese breeding program has been carefully engineered to produce a line of dogs that all conform to the Standard and display a particular style, and this is achieved the way we have always done it- through careful, selective linebreeding off individual animals that are homozygous for the qualities we wish to perpetuate, always bearing in mind which traits are controlled by dominant genes and which by recessive. Bydand Havanese are all typified by their silky, wavy coats, their elegant head and tail carriage, their correct heads with lovely expression, their typically springy gait and their cheerful temperaments. All fall within the standard of the breed for size, and all carry that extra “something” that is their breeders' stamp- that “something” for us is elegance, as befits a dog developed amidst the elegance that was 18th Century Colonial Havana.

We do not produce any Havanese with coarse, frizzy coats. We do not produce any Havanese
with straight shoulders and stuffy necks. We do not produce any Havanese that are long, low,
fiddle-fronted, coarse, and end up weighing 20 pounds. We do not produce Havanese with bad
temperaments. These are serious deviations from the Standard, and we simply will not produce
them, even in the pups we sell as pets. Why not? Go back to the beginning and read the
standards we have set for our breeding stock

In short, to the average eye, there is little difference between a Bydand dog purchased strictly for
companionship and a Bydand dog purchased by someone who wishes to show, other than the
wishes of the new owner. Never has been, never will be.

We do not have separate prices for show or pet, nor do we charge more for females than males.
The price of a Bydand pup reflects two things only- our reputation for integrity and the 100%
lifetime money back guarantee that all our pups carry.