GENERAL INFO

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a delightfully affectionate, playful, intelligent little dog that repays his owner’s care and attention with an enduring devotion. Cavaliers are not kennel dogs. They are happy, out-going, loving little dogs who want to love you and be loved, an opportunity to run and play in a safe place, and a soft bed in which to sleep, preferably yours, but they are willing to negotiate on that point! They are dogs that thrive on human companionship and are active, sporting little dogs that require regular exercise. They have an instinct to give chase to just about anything that moves and should therefore be enclosed in a fenced yard or they will surely come to grief under the wheels of a car.
For those who are not familiar with cavaliers, they are a small Spaniel, 12-18 lbs, with excellent dispositions and are available in four colors – The Blenheim (named after Blenheim Castle in England) are reddish brown and white, The Black and Tans, The Ruby (a rich reddish brown) and the Tri-Color (black, white and tan over the eyes and the inside of the ears).
While Cavaliers have coats that are very easy to maintain, are clean, rubyintelligent and easy to train, they do shed, occasionally chew things and sometimes forget their manners by barking , making a puddle, etc. In other words, they really are first and always dogs, in spite of their ethereal faces.–
For more information about locating a breeder to buy a puppy from please call Mary Warme (Puppy Referral) or Ken Kates to adopt a rescue. Mary can be reached at (207)825-3193. Ken Kates can be reached at (410)257-7853.

HISTORY OF THE BREED

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of today is descended from the small Toy Spaniels seen in so many of the 16th through the 19th Century paintings. History tells us that King Charles II was seldom seen without tow or three at his heels. So fond was King Charles II of his little dogs, he wrote a decree that the King Charles Spaniel should be accepted in any public place. This decree is still in existence today in England. By the mid-nineteenth century the new fashion of the Toy Spaniel was the look of today’s King Charles Spaniel, also called “Charlies” or English Toy Spaniels. Due to this new fashion, the King Charles Spaniel of the old type as seen in the early paintings was almost extinct.
The renascence of the small spaniel as it was originally known, occurred in 1926 when a wealthy American, Mr. Roswell Eldridge, offered monetary prizes at England’s Crufts Dog Show for Best Dog and Best Bitch of the variety of spaniel seen during the reign of King Charles II. The challenge was met by a dedicated few, who realized this was a tremendous opportunity to achieve a really worth-while breed. In 1928, Mr. Roswell’s prize for Best Bitch was won by Astonmore Florea, while the Best Dog was won by Anne’s Son. Anne’s Son was used as a model, drawing up the standard for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a breed that was to be perfectly natural, with no trimming permitted. In 1945 separate registration was granted by the English Kennel Club.
The CKCSC-USA was founded in 1956 and for the past forty years has been the breed’s official registry in this country. Despite an overwhelming vote by the CKCSC-USA membership to remain autonomous, the American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1995. The CKCSC-USA continues to register Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and to strictly enforce its stringent code of ethics.