Havana Doll House
In 1974 Dorothy and Bert Goodale embarked on what would be the most important search in their 30+ year career in dogs: restoring the Havanais Bichon(Havanese)to the former genetic purity acheived by the originators of the breed.
Intrigued by references of the "Havanese", their first purchase of these little dogs came from a chance reference in a spanish magazine. Through contact with the editor, the Goodales were able to purchase 6 pedigreed Havanese from two displaced Cuban families. This purchase was comprised of an adult female, 4 daughters, and an unrelated male. Following a year long advertisement in a Miami newspaper, the Goodales were able to purchase 6 more unrelated dogs from an elderly Cuban gentleman living in Costa Rica. This gave them the gene pool of four bloodlines to work with.
It was from this gene pool that Dorothy and Bert were able to begin a breeding program to prevent the extinction of this breed.
