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All photos are courtesy of Nevena's Truelove Havanese

All dogs on this page are owned or bred by Nevena's Truelove Havanese

EVERYONE LOVES CHOCOLATE!!!!

This page was last updated: May 13, 2009

COAT 

Chocolate coats can vary from very light Cafe au Lait milk chocolate to a darker Bittersweet chocolate color so there may be Chocolate Sables, Chocolate Brindles, Chocolate/Tan, Chocolate Silver. Chocolate can be tinted golden, reddish or ash and come in many shades, from palest milk chocolate to darkest bittersweet chocolate. Chocolate refers to the pigment color and not only the coat color.

PIGMENT

True chocolate dogs must have self-colored liver or brown pigment on the nose, lips, pads and eye rims.  Chocolate Havanese will have chocolate or clear nails. Chocolate Havanese dogs could not have anything black. All other colors of Havanese must have dark eyes and black pigment on the nose, eye rims, lips and pads.

EYES

Chocolate Havanese dogs have lighter colored eyes than non-chocolate Havanese dogs. Their eyes come in very similar colors like human eyes (all shades of brown, hazel and amber). The lighter coloration of the eyes on a chocolate Havanese, combined with its almond shape, creates an intelligent expression that appears nearly human. Just like human babies, chocolate Havanese puppies are born with blue eyes.

Nose and eye color combination is the most reliable indicator of whether a dog is actually chocolate or if it just has poor pigmentation. On a true chocolate dog, in addition to the liver pigment, the eye color will be lighter. If your dog's eyes are very dark, almost black with a lighter brownish nose, then what you have is poor pigmentation and not a chocolate.

Chocolate color is rare for Havanese. Both Havanese parents must carry a chocolate gene in order to produce chocolate puppies.

- If one Havanese dog is chocolate and the other Havanese dog is not chocolate and he does not carry a chocolate gene, there will be no chocolate Havanese puppies in the litter.

- If one Havanese dog is chocolate and the other Havanese dog is not chocolate but he is a chocolate gene carrier, probability is that half of the Havanese puppies in the litter will be chocolate.

- Two non-chocolate Havanese dogs will not produce any chocolate Havanese puppies if they don't carry a chocolate gene.

- Two non-chocolate Havanese dogs will not produce any chocolate Havanse puppies if only one of them carries a chocolate gene.

- Two non-chocolate Havanese dogs will usually produce one or two chocolate Havanese puppies in the litter only if they both carry a chocolate gene (25% of puppies in the litter will be chocolate statistically).

- Two chocolate Havanese dogs will always produce all chocolate Havanese puppies

HAVANESE

     are like CHOCOLATES......

You Can Never

        Have Just One!