Collection: Personalised Hovawart Gifts

Native to Germany, the Hovawart is a much-prized companion and watchdog. Similar in appearance to retrievers, they are kind, reliable, and affectionate dogs that are popular family pets in their native land, but still relatively rare in other countries.

The Hovawart is an ancient breed originally used to guard castles and livestock in the Middle Ages. After becoming extinct, the breed was revived in the early 1900s by a zoologist who mixed dogs of a similar appearance from around the same regions in Germany with other breeds including Newfounlands, German Shepherds, Leonbergers, and Hungarian Kuvasz to create a new version of the Hovawart breed. There’s on-going debate over the closeness in match to the original Hovawarts and there is another theory that the original breed hadn’t become extinct and had survived on isolated farms, providing foundation dogs for the zoologist to breed from.

The Hovawart is a good-natured, confident, loyal, and affectionate character. Hovawart translates as “guardian of the property” so it goes without saying that they make good watchdogs, but they are also highly intelligent, obedient, and strive to please their people, so they can be relatively easy to train and will instantly accept any strangers given the all-clear. They are generally good with children, cats, and other small animals and they remain playful into their old age, making them fun family pets, but they need company and don’t like to be left alone.