Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Named for the king who was said never to be seen without two or three of them. A spaniel that kept the sporting instincts and lost the need for a field.
Overview
The Cavalier is a toy spaniel bred purely for company, and it is one of the most affectionate breeds there is. It was recreated in the 1920s from the flatter faced King Charles Spaniel, deliberately breeding back toward the longer muzzled dogs in Restoration paintings.
UK data gives a life expectancy at birth of 10.45 years, and the reason it is not higher is heart disease, which affects this breed more severely than almost any other.
Temperament
Gentle, adaptable and universally friendly. Cavaliers are good with children, good with other dogs, good with cats, and delighted by strangers, which makes them useless as watchdogs and excellent as company.
They want to be with people constantly and they are prone to separation anxiety. They are easy to train, soft in temperament, and among the least demanding breeds to live with day to day.
Care and grooming
A silky feathered coat that needs brushing two or three times a week, with attention to the ears, feet and feathering where it mats. Moderate shedding.
The two inherited conditions define the breed. Myxomatous mitral valve disease affects the great majority of Cavaliers eventually, and a Swedish study found heart murmurs in over half of six year old Cavaliers. Syringomyelia, a painful condition where fluid filled cavities form in the spinal cord, affected 38 percent of screened dogs in one Dutch and Danish population, falling to 27 percent under MRI based selection.
Living and exercise
Forty five minutes a day plus play. They adapt to almost any household.
Buying is where the decision actually gets made. Look for a breeder using both the heart scheme, with annual cardiologist auscultation, and MRI screening for syringomyelia, and be sceptical of anyone who says their lines do not have it. The screening schemes measurably reduce prevalence and they only work if buyers insist on them.
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