Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Like a plush stuffed animal come to life, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is the perfect dog for cuddling and coddling. Affectionate, gentle, playful, and sweet, the Cavalier is the ideal companion for people who want a living love sponge.

Por que as pessoas amam a raça

People love Cavalier King Charles Spaniels because Cavaliers love them back ten-fold. Cavaliers are the embodiment of sweetness, with a sweet face matched only by a sweet personality. They live to love, and love to live.

It’s impossible to feel lonely if a Cavalier is part of your family. They expect to spend days in your lap, nights in your bed, and to share every trip you make to the bathroom. If a stuffed dog could be programmed to come to life and exist just to share your love, it would come to life as a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They’re affectionate and are not shy about sharing and showing their love.

Not only do Cavaliers like their own family, but they’re welcoming to friends and visitors—even burglars are made to feel welcome. So no, they can’t claim fame as guardians or protectors. They have good manners, get along seamlessly with other dogs and pets, and make great companions for people of every age.

Queen Victoria, who was a lover of many dog breeds, described her favorite dog, a King Charles Spaniel named Dash, in a way that would fit any modern Cavalier: "His attachment was without selfishness, his playfulness without malice, his fidelity without deceit."

Aparência

Cavaliers look like stuffed animals. Their baby-doll eyes and plush padded muzzle makes them almost irresistible to kiss. Everything about them is soft and cuddly.

When it comes to appearance, Cavaliers are a combination of cute and regal. The “cute” comes from their big, round doe-eyes, with cushioning beneath that that gives them a soft, endearing almost pleading expression. Add to that a well-cushioned muzzle that’s irresistible for kissing, and long hanging spaniel ears, and abandon all hope when a Cavalier looks at you asking for a bite of your dinner. The “regal” comes from the high head carriage, flowing coat, and well-plumed tail.

The Cavalier is a toy spaniel in appearance, longer than tall, with moderate bone size. The head is rounded, with long, high-set, well-feathered ears. The tail may be docked in areas that allow, with no more than one-third removed, but is generally left long.

The silky coat is long and feathered, either straight or with a slight wave. The color choices are solid red (called Ruby), chestnut and white (called Blenheim), black & tan, or black, tan & white (called tri-color).

As toy spaniels, they are in the American Kennel Club (AKC) Toy group, but they are one of the largest breeds in that group.

Cuidados

Cavaliers and their people tend to enjoy the bonding time involved in their grooming. Grooming takes just long enough to lull them to sleep but not so long that it tires you out.

Grooming the long silky coat is fairly easy. Every day or two use a pin brush and comb to keep the coat free of mats. Remove any twigs or sticks immediately, as mats form around them. Regular bathing and conditioning will decrease the coat’s tendency to tangle.

The long “bedroom slipper” hair on the feet can be left long, as it’s a breed trait. However, you can clip the hair short on the bottoms of the feet to keep the dog from slipping and from tracking debris into the house.

They are not big shedders as they have little undercoat.

Cut the nails as needed, and brush the teeth every day. Check the ears weekly for debris, but only clean when needed. Keep the ear canals dry after baths or swimming, as the heavy hanging ears can slow drying, which in turn makes them susceptible to infections.

Temperamento

If you want somebody to love, and to love you back, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is the ultimate love-machine. They love to cuddle, play, and just be your best friend.

Cavaliers are so keen on sharing the love that they tend to love everyone: strange people, strange dogs, strange animals, kids, elderly…everyone. They tend to make exuberant playmates for children, cuddly bedmates for the elderly, and quiet sofa companions for anyone just needing a break. Their spaniel heritage is not shy about emerging, and they equally love to hike around the block or down the trail, searching for birds along the way. They are adaptable to many situations, and generally happy wherever they find themselves—as long as there are people to love.

They are fairly quiet, calm, and seldom bark without good reason. They are gentle, demonstrative and perpetually happy. They are eager to please, and they learn fairly quickly—but precision obedience is not really their forte. While generally calm, they enjoy rowdy but gentle play sessions and vigorous walks where they can sniff and explore the neighborhood.

Exercícios

Cavaliers are spaniels at heart, and need to get out and exercise every day. Fortunately, their needs can be met in a small area—even indoors—and within a fairly small time.

Although Cavaliers are calm dogs, like all dogs they need to exercise. Their needs can be met with a walk around the neighborhood, an outing to the dog park (as long as they are not sharing with large or aggressive dogs), games in the yard, or even games in the house. True to their spaniel heritage, they enjoy outings where they can search out different scents. Many also enjoy swimming and retrieving in water.

Favorite games include fetch, finding a hidden object, tug, and tag. They do well in agility but prefer lower jump heights. They especially enjoy trick training and challenges that involve using their nose to find hidden scents. They do well in nosework competition, and have even succeeded in tracking trials.

Treinamento

Cavaliers are eager to please and extremely biddable. But they’re not high energy dogs, so keep training sessions short.

Training a Cavalier is usually very rewarding. They naturally want to please, and they’re smart enough to succeed at it. Their spaniel heritage gives them an inborn ability to follow directions, as was needed when hunting and retrieving in the field. And their subsequent selection for an easy-going companion further produced an easy-going, biddable dog. Nonetheless, don’t expect a hop-to-it obedience wonder dog. Cavaliers tend to take their time but they do get around to doing what you ask.

Cavaliers are very sensitive. Reward and praise-based training is much more effective than coercion methods. They learn house rules easily and are generally easy to housetrain. Cavaliers have been trained to the highest levels of obedience, rally, agility, and trick training.

Occasionally some Cavaliers can be shy. Socializing them early will help avoid it, but if they become shy don’t push them. Don’t let strangers push themselves at them if they don’t want to be touched. Take it easy and maybe, in a few months, they might be back to their gregarious norm.

Alimentação

Most Cavaliers have no special diet concerns. They just demand that it be tasty.

As puppies, Cavaliers should eat puppy food three to four times a day until ~4 months of age, then two times a day thereafter. For puppies, feed them as instructed by your veterinarian, but if they start to become chubby as older puppies you may have to slightly restrict their intake.

Adult Cavaliers will do well on high-quality commercial brand food. Some Cavaliers can become overweight, so be careful that you don’t overfeed as your dog ages and slows down. They’ll need fewer calories then. You should be able to feel the waist and see some indication of a narrowing through the loin from above. You should also be able to feel the ribs with minimal probing.

Discuss any special diet concerns with your veterinarian.

Problemas de saúde

Most Cavaliers can live long lives with appropriate veterinary care, but it’s true that the breed has some serious health concerns. Ethical breeders are working hard to correct these problems.

História

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has had three incarnations, starting with its first role as a working spaniel, then morphing to a toy short-nosed version that we now call the English Toy Spaniel, and finally being bred back to the longer-nosed dog we call the Cavalier.

The Cavalier’s ancestors were probably smaller spaniels bred to Oriental toy breeds such as the Japanese Chin or possibly Tibetan Spaniel. According to DNA, their closest relative is the Cocker Spaniel.

They were called comforter spaniels and used as foot warmers, hot water bottles, and lap dogs for the Tudor blue-bloods. They may have even been used to attract fleas away from their owners.

In the United Kingdom, the dogs became so closely associated with King Charles II in the 1700s that they were called King Charles Spaniels.

After King Charles’ death the Duke of Marlborough became the breed’s major guardian, he favored the chestnut and white color, which was named Blenheim (pronounced blenim) after the Duke’s estate.

They continued to be popular as a pet for the wealthy, but the shorter-nosed ones became much favored. By the early 1900s the show dogs all had flat faces. Then a wealthy American offered a big cash prize for the best “pointed-nose” specimens, and breeders started to produce longer-nosed dogs that looked more like the originals. The longer nosed dogs were renamed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

Only a few Cavaliers remained after World War I. Six dogs became the foundation of the modern breed.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) recognised the Cavalier as a breed in 1996 in the United States. They quickly rose to be one of the more popular breeds. They are in the AKC Toy group.

Famous owners include Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Diane Sawyer, Sylvester Stallone and the Osbournes.

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