Cavalier information please General Chat

We're dog sitting a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel at the moment and I have to say, I'm absolutely falling in love with the breed.

I always liked the breed but had never lived with one or spent a lot of time with one until now.

They seem such loveable, affectionate, friendly and happy little dogs and so easy to live with. They are just an absolute joy to have around. Well, Charlie is anyway!

I can see me owning one in the future, if I'm honest, but the health problems concerned with the breed worry me a lot.

Someone has suggested that the gene pool in the dogs in the UK is very small as many are using the same stud dogs etc and that the problems are very widespread.

I don't know, which is why I'm asking.

Are there more healthier Cavs outside of the UK?

Could someone point me in the direction of breeders who have healthy Cavs who are free from heart problems and SM etc? Ones who do all relevant health testing.

Purely for research purposes at the moment and planning for the future.

Thank you.

http://www.thecavalierclub.co.uk/start.html

http://www.cavaliers.co.uk/

The statistics quoted on PDE were from a study of dogs that either been diagnosed with SM or related to a dog with SM & the percentages quoted were of the study & not the Cavalier population as a whole.

Yes there are health concerns, but there are breeders out there doing their best to reduce them whilst waiting for DNA testing to become available.

We've had 7 Cavaliers since around 1995(not all owned by my family but staying with us at some time on a regular basis). 5 were closely related & 4 bred by what I later discovered were not ethical breeders, who are Championship show judges & successful exhibitors, to ourcost. Only 2 didn't make 10 years of age(& one of those died from Vaccinosis) None had the paiful symptoms of SM(even the one who was MRI scanned & affected)

Our current Cavalier, Roodee, is from 2 generations of MRI scanned SM normal & 3 out of his 4 grand parents are still alive & well & also well over 10 years of age. His other grandparent was over 7 when he produced Roodee's father. Both his parents are well & he is now 3 2/2 & in perfect health. He wasn't bred by a show person, but a lady who cares for the breed & does all available health testing. The lasy who bred his mother has been in the breed for many years, she doesn't show much now as she is more into working her other dogs.

You do have to be very careful & look for a fairly open pedigree & as many as possible generations of SM scanned normal dogs as well as a full pedigree of eye & heart tested dogs. The parents should both be over 2 1/2 years of age before being bred from & the older the stud dog the better for obvious reasons, the bitch cannot of course be over 8 years of age as the KC will not usually register puppies from an older bitch.

They are almost unique amougst dog breeds as they are very much people & dog dogs, loving both equally.

Cavaliers outside the UK are from the same gene pool as the UK so buying in a dog from abroad doesn't really offer any real solution

That is really useful and informative information. I have to always liked CKCS's but like the orginal poster have issues and concerns with the health of the breed. Your post is very helpful.