Havanese board and train in Gloucester, MA

The AKC's trait chart gives the Havanese five out of five for adaptability, openness to strangers, playfulness and getting along with other dogs, and four for both barking and trainability. Its training notes call the breed highly intelligent and eager to please, easily trained so long as only positive methods are used, and sensitive enough that care must be taken not to scold it harshly. Gentle, patient training, the AKC says, results in a wonderful companion.

Confidence is the third piece. A breed rated highly for friendliness still includes shy individuals, and the AKC stresses early socialization: calm exposure to a wide variety of new places and people, always positive and never intimidating. In training, that means letting a Havanese approach a new surface, sound or person at its own speed, and paying it for curiosity. A dog that chooses to investigate grows bolder than one carried up to the thing it fears.

The AKC's puppy potty-training guide is plain that punishing accidents is less effective than rewarding the right spot and preventing mistakes, and that some puppies are reliable within days while others need several months. For a sensitive Havanese the first point matters twice, because a scolded dog learns to go out of sight rather than outdoors. A crate large enough to stand, turn around and lie down comfortably, as the guide puts it, helps prevent mistakes between trips.

An adult Havanese that was house trained and starts having accidents needs a vet check before a training plan, since illness can cause them. For puppies and young dogs, a stay resets the routine with trips at fixed times, a reward the moment the dog finishes outside, and close supervision indoors. The schedule only lasts if you keep it, so the go-home lesson is where you take it over.

Your Havanese's go-home lesson, or the two coaching lessons that close Advanced, hand you the schedule, the place cue and the confidence games. Add one new, easy place each week: a quiet corner of Stage Fort Park, a pet-friendly shop at an off-peak hour, a friend's porch. Let the dog look, sniff and choose, and leave while it is still relaxed rather than after it has had enough.

Because the AKC says the Havanese is not happy left alone for hours, long workdays need cover. Daycare in the small-dog group is $33 a half day after the free weekday evaluation, and a Dogtown Academy half day, $69, adds a training session. Daycare also needs a current city dog license; in Gloucester that comes from the City Clerk at 9 Dale Ave. The Pup Van picks up Havanese and other small dogs in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea at $10 each way.