This has been the experience my wife and I are having. We are in our mid 50's and live just the three of us in our house. (Our puppy Benjy is the third one.) Benjy is male and 8.5 months old. His parents are both 12 pounds but he may end up a little bigger.
My wife and I have been married only 4 years (anniversary this past Saturday). She has never had her own dog because she lived in an apartment. I have had several dogs. So I let her pick out what she wanted. Based on her research, she wanted a Havanese, although neither one of us had ever heard of one before.
When we went to the breeders' house to interview them and they us, they had three pups available: 2 female and one male. They told us to pick up and play with each of the pups to see if there was an attraction to any one in particular.
She/Sue picked up the male (our Benjy) and he sat perfectly still on her lap. He was calm and relaxed. He let Sue rest his head on her chest and her to put her arms around him and cuddle with no resistance. Sue knew immediately that was her dog. And the dog knew he wanted Sue. The bond was immediate.
On the other hand, when Sue put each of the female dogs on her lap, all they would do was wiggle and squirm. They didn't really want to be there.
Decision made.
Of course I held Benjy too then and he acted the same for me, calm and happy to see me.
The breeders had not really intended for us to buy Benjy because they sometimes pick the best dog from a litter to save for showing him/her. They almost didn't let us see Benjy at all, but they brought Benjy out too because they figured Sue would choose a female. Wrong.
The breeders said it has been their experience, and that of their breeder friends, that male Havanese pups are more likely to attach themselves to female owners than male owners. This has certainly been our experience.
Benjy shows no signs of aggression toward me, like some small dogs do when they pick a favorite. But he cries harder when Sue gets out of the car than he does when I get out of the car. LOL
If you try to sleep on the couch, he will sleep on top of you. He sometimes sleeps pushed against either one of us in bed. Sometimes by himself at the foot of the bed. He doesn't sit on our laps when we watch TV (unless we have picked him up to snuggle). He is either on one of his mattress pads or behind the couch. (I mean if he isn't playing. He is good at making up games to entertain himself and us.) In the car, he sits on whoever isn't driving. When we eat, he lays at our feet under the table.
Sue was a kindergarten teacher for 30 years. And if there is a baby in the room, no one else stands a chance at getting a turn with the baby. Which works out well. Benjy wants to be held. He loves putting his head across your shoulder (either one of us) and going to sleep there. He follows us from room to room, unless he is really zonked out asleep.
My favorite dog I have ever had was a Cairn Terrier. I got her at a per shop 20 years ago when I didn't know about puppy mills. She was old for a puppy, about 4 months and the store said she was really wild because she had been there so long. Her hair was so matted, a groomer had to shave her. But somehow she was already potty trained. I went in a cubicle "test area" with her and when they put her on the floor she went wild. She kept running from wall to wall, sliding and hitting the walls because she was out of control. BUT when I picked her up and sat her on my lap, she was immediately calm. She was an entirely different animal. We bonded instantly and we both knew she had gone home.
Sorry, Benjy, about saying the Cairn Terrier was my favorite dog. YOU will be after we have had you a little longer.
Back to Benjy. At the risk of offending some people, when we first got Benjy, he would jump up and sit on our laps when we were sitting on the toilet!
He is a very playful, high energy dog. He is always smiling. Everywhere we go, people make more of a fuss over him than they do a human baby. He is an escape artist. He has broken out of every carrier/create we bought. But the heavy duty exercise pen we bought holds him. He is a thief. He likes to grab things and run down the hall with them. (I think he just wants chased. LOL) He loves to shred paper, kleenex, toilet paper and cardboard boxes (if it doesn't have staples). He loves everyone. He gets along with all dogs so far. There is a cat he is cautious with because it growled at him and swiped at him.
About the Cavalier/Havanese mix... I think mutts can make wonderful pets. But I don't recommend hybrid breeds if you are looking for specific traits. You don't know which direction its gene pool is going to splash.