About Hovawarts

General: The Hovawart is a dog breed out of the group of ‘molossoid’ dogs that has been founded in Germany in the early 20^th century. It is considered as working dog with a special quality for guarding (the name derived from the german words ‘Hof’ – means ‘yard’ and ‘Wart’ – means ‘guarder’), and so the Hovawart comes with the tools of a guarder: sharp eyes, good hearing together with a quick and alert mind. Is also is a smart dog that is well able to evaluate situations and react accordingly (another necessary tool for a good guarder). The smartness may give some surprises to the owner, because Hovawarts are doing things that you wouldn’t expect from a dog. On the other hand, the smartness needs to be addressed, so owners better take the phrase ‘working dog’ seriously and make a lot of activities and training with their dog, because a bored Hovawart will find itself something to do, and that might not be good for the garden, house or neighbourship.

Physical features: It is a medium sized dog; recommended are 63-70 cm in males and 58-65 cm in females and 25-40 kg. Hovawarts are said to represent the optimal dog from the veterinaries point of view: the proportions of body, legs and head are fitting nicely together to allow all kinds of movements (walking, running, jumping, climbing and so on) without overstressing joints or bones; the teeth have space enough and stay healthy for long, the fur is fine, soft and well-insulating and stays clean with minimum care. Change of the fur happens in spring within a few weeks (if the dog sleeps outside whole year), that is the only time when the owner should comb the dog. Hovawarts are known to be healthy dogs without species-specific problems.

Although there have been several colour variants in older times, there are three of them nowadays, namely black, blond and black and gold (or black and tanned).

It is said that there is no bad weather for a Hovawart, although our experiences indicate that they do not like heat and go easily tired in full summer, while they are very active and playful during cooler periods. However, Hovawarts are outside-dogs that have no problem with sleeping outside even during winter, as long as they have a well-insulated and dry doghouse available. (Just often they do not use their house even in cold nights, making the owners worried about the health of their dog, but it seems that a Hovawart that is used to sleep outside really does not mind cold).

Training (text taken from www.wikipedia.org): The Hovawart does exceptionally well in search and rescue, tracking and working dog activities. The females are generally lighter in build and often love agility. In training and especially obedience work the trainer must keep positive reinforcement in mind all the time, as the Hovawart is not as eager to please as many other working dog breeds, it always needs some kind of motivation. It is important to realize that the Hovawart works with you and not for you. They do have the ability to think and act independently. Their guarding instinct for example does not require any real training, it is inherent, its what they were bred for. The Hovawart may easily become reluctant if training is built only on punishments.

The owner of a Hovawart should ideally have previous experience in owning and training a dog and as such the Hovawart is not usually suitable as a first dog.