SweetGrass Havanese

06/12/2025

Scientists believe that dogs may be evolving in real time, with their behavior and intelligence increasingly shaped by life alongside humans. Research reveals that many dogs can recognize human emotions, respond to social cues, and even surpass primates in certain communication tasks. In urban environments, stray dogs have been observed using crosswalks and navigating public transportation—signs of rapid cognitive adaptation. Combined with genetic differences from their wolf ancestors, these shifts suggest that dogs are entering a new phase of evolution, one deeply influenced by their close relationship with humans. 🐶

04/23/2025

My dear friend Julie ,of Highborn Havanese fame , just visited to breed two of her females to Sam aka Almendares Kashmir , son of Joker . Sam to date has never failed a breeding so hopefully there will be some lovely babies at Highborn in two months !
This is heartbroken Sam waiting at the gate for his lady loves to return 😢 He loves his job ❤️

04/15/2025

Walk with me; don’t just walk me. Slow down and see the world as I do. I know you’ve got things to do, places to be. But out here, with the ground beneath our feet and the sky above us, there’s a whole world worth noticing.
The autumn chill is in the air today, crisp and full of new smells. It’s different from yesterday, and different from the day before. Every day is new. The leaves crunch under my paws, and I stop to breathe in the rich, earthy scent of them. To you, it might just be a pile of leaves, but to me, it’s a story—one I can’t help but dive into, nose first.
There’s a squirrel somewhere nearby, I can sense it, darting up a tree, its tiny heart beating fast. And the wind carries whispers of things far away: a family cooking dinner, the trace of a cat that passed by early this morning, and the faint perfume of flowers holding on to their last bit of summer. It’s all here, swirling around us if you just take the time to notice.
You tug on the leash, eager to move on, and I can tell you’re thinking about something far away from here. But when we walk, truly walk, you and I can be in this moment together. Feel the cool air brush against your skin, let it wake you up. Notice how the sun filters through the branches, casting shadows that dance on the pavement. Hear the crunch of the leaves beneath our steps, like a secret rhythm just for us.
To you, it might be just another walk, a daily routine to tick off the list. But for me, every step is an adventure. Each scent is a clue, each sound a piece of a puzzle. When you walk with me, really walk with me, you’ll see it too. The world is bigger than what we’re rushing toward. It’s right here, in the small moments, in the quiet spaces between your thoughts.
So, slow down. Breathe. Let the chill fill your lungs and the colours fill your eyes. Walk with me, don’t just walk me. See the world as I do, if only for a little while. It’s all waiting for you, just beneath the surface.

04/06/2025

Jane Goodall once said: “We have become caught up in a materialistic and greedy world, so many of us. This has dire consequences for the future. It seems that there has been some disconnect between the clever mind and the human heart, love and compassion. And instead of making a major decision based on, ‘How will this affect generations ahead? How will this affect the world in the future when we’re not here?’ The criteria today are, ‘How will this decision affect me now, me and my family now? How will it affect the next shareholders meeting? How will it affect my next political campaign?’”

03/09/2025

10/23/2024

One more reason we do not use or recommend the "gentle leader or other harnesses that come across the dogs face.

Here is the vascular system in a canine head. This highlights the enormous amount of blood flow in the dogs nose. This blood flow serves many purposes, fuels the scent chambers, aids in temperature regulation, allows dogs to effectively track, but this also makes the dogs nose incredibly sensitive to touch. This is the main reason you should not use face harnesses. There are plenty of tools designed to communicate with dogs that do not put pressure on one of their most sensitive features. I Credit this post to Grant Teeboon AKA the PawMan

08/23/2024

Don’t give up on your old dog. Please don’t.

When they can’t walk on walks with you anymore.
When they can’t hold it like they used to.
When their breath smells bad.
When their body starts to fail.
Don’t abandon him when he needs you most. Prepare for this stage early by saving up for dentals and tests and medical care early. Consider how he’ll handle stairs and apartment living BEFORE you put him there. Consider options for incontinence and slippery floors and other dogs in the house. Don’t leave him somewhere and drive away under the guise that someone else will do it. Most times, they won’t.

He will sit in a shelter alone and scared. He will wonder why he is there and when you may be coming back. The stress will be hard on his older body and mind, and he will not have the same ability to adapt and recover like he could at 4 years old.

Please don’t give up on your old dog. I am here to tell you they are so incredibly worth it. They have given their life to try to be everything you’ve asked them to be; this is your chance to give back.

And yes we all love a puppy fix, but if you really want some medicine for your soul, adopt an old dog. Don’t think about your sadness when they leave; think about the happiness and relief you’ll give them when they need it most. It is one of the best things you will ever do.

The old dogs in our care will always know love with us, but we know for many we are their second choice. They’d rather be with their people but we do our best while they are with us. We don’t give up on old dogs, please don’t either.

08/09/2024

Best Comic funny😂🤣
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08/07/2024

I truly believe that if Steve Irwin were alive today, he would have a dedicated group of people who hated him for how he treated animals.

Steve always treated every species he worked with, as the species they were, not forcing them to change their nature.

More and more I find myself trying to convince people to "let the dog go outside, it's okay if they get a little dirty" or "your snake is arboreal and can't just be confined to a small tub." Or "Your working breed dog is not happy being still and lazy in your one bedroom apartment with nothing to keep them active and thinking."

It seems in this next generation of animal husbandry, we're deciding that all animals are now going to become (and be treated as) our little babies.

Now, is it okay to refer to your furry, feathered, scaly friend as such? Of course!
Is it okay to treat them as human babies...absolutely not at all.

As we see this change taking place, so to do we see more and more stressed out animals. Ones with a lack of structure and mental enrichment...but tons and tons of random toys and bags of treats.

What Steve Irwin did is create an environment that was enriching for the animals he had. Not attempt to force the animals to adjust to his environment.

Taking your Border Collie or herding, working, hunting, breed on a 10 minute walk (as long as you remember, it's not raining or just not feeling upto it) once a day, is not cutting it.

Locking your pyrenees or Shepherd breed in a kennel all day and then keeping'em in a small apartment, but still expecting the dog to be still and always cuddling...not cutting it.

Keeping your African grey parrot in a small enclosure with a few items that you've not replaced...is not cutting it.

When you bring an animal into your life. It is so important to understand what that animal is and have a structured enrichment routine and appropriate setup for the breed/species before you take in the animal.

Anything less than what your animal needs is a disservice to your best friend.

Be kind to your animals, enrich their lives (in a way that's appropriate for them). Keep them thinking. Keep them exploring. Give them understanding and structure and you will keep them happy.

~Benjamin McGill, M.C.B Owner of GoodBoy animal training.

Picture taken while visiting local aquarium store.

04/25/2024

Here’s a PSA on behalf of all dogs.

Stop correcting your dog for sniffing.

Stop it. Please.

How would you like it if I corrected you for looking around a room? Imagine if you raised your head to look around a new place and I popped you or shoved you or said “HEY! PAY ATTENTION” You’d get pretty upset pretty quickly I’d imagine.

Dogs don’t smell because they are ignoring you or being stubborn. We humans primarily depend on sight, but dogs use smell AND sight to assess their surroundings and communicate. People spend more time interpreting visual data than olfactory information. Dogs are just the opposite.

Dogs devote lots of brain power to interpreting smells. They have more than 100 million sensory receptor sites in the nasal cavity as compared to 6 million in people, and the area of the canine brain devoted to analyzing odors is about 40 times larger than the comparable part of the human brain. In fact, it’s been estimated that dogs can smell anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 times better than people.

Scent gives information. Smelling is normal. Smelling is necessary and natural. Smelling is relaxing. Air scenting is HUGE for recovering reactive dogs. LET YOUR DOG SMELL!

Correcting a dog for sniffing is one of the worst things I watch people do. It’s another example of how controlling we try to be in our dogs lives. If you don’t want your dog to smell, teach him to focus on you instead for part of the time, and then give other ample times to smell. If he’s pulling you to smell, use a different tool that inhibits pulling but still allows for some nasal exploration. Even better work on collar pressure work too so your dog learns to smell when there’s less pressure! Walks on a long line on a dirt road or in a field for your dog to zig zag back and forth on to smell is MUCH healthier and more tiring for them as animals than trying to keep them within 6 feet of you on a neighborhood walk.

Please accept that smelling is normal and work WITH your dog on it, rather than just trying to suppress it. Just because that blade of grass or tree isn’t interesting to YOU doesn’t mean your dog deserves a correction. Who cares if you don’t walk the extra block - spend those 5 minutes on that one tree if you need to. Your dog doesn’t complain when you watch YouTube videos of kittens for hours or read the news or binge on Netflix, so let him get his scent binge in to.

Happy smelling pups!