A spaniel that grew up at court
Small spaniels had been kept as companions in England for a long time before anybody thought to name one after a king, but it is the Stuart court that fixed the breed in history. Charles I kept toy spaniels. His son Charles II kept a great many more, and was so openly attached to them that the diarists of the period could not stop writing about it. The dogs went with him through the palace, sat in on business that had nothing to do with them, and eventually attached his name permanently to the type.
The other name in the breed comes from a soldier rather than a king. John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, kept red-and-white toy spaniels at the house that was built for him after his victory at Blenheim in 1704. His line of chestnut-and-white dogs became so closely associated with the estate that the colour itself took the name, and Blenheim is still the correct term for it three hundred years later. The tradition even extends to a marking: a single chestnut spot in the centre of the white blaze on the skull, known as the Blenheim spot or the lozenge, which breeders have prized ever since.
For a couple of centuries after the Stuarts, fashion moved toward a shorter-faced, domed-headed toy spaniel, and the long-nosed dogs of the old paintings quietly went out of production. That is where the story would have ended if not for an American with a fixed idea.
The prize at Crufts that rebuilt the breed
In the 1920s Roswell Eldridge came to England looking for toy spaniels of the type he had seen in seventeenth-century portraits — the flat-skulled, long-muzzled dogs sitting at the feet of Van Dyck’s subjects — and found that essentially nobody was breeding them any more.
So he bought the breed back into existence. Eldridge offered a prize at Crufts for the best dog and the best bitch of the old type, with the longer nose and the flat skull of the paintings, and he committed to repeating it for five consecutive years. The early classes were thin, because there was very little to enter. Then breeders began going back through their pedigrees for the throwbacks, breeding deliberately toward the old outline, and within a few seasons there was a genuine population of them again.
Eldridge died in 1928, just as the effort started to work. That same year the enthusiasts who had taken up his challenge formed a club, chose the name Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to separate the revived dogs from the shorter-faced King Charles Spaniel, and wrote a standard built around a painting rather than a fashion. Britain’s Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1945, and the American Kennel Club recognized it in 1995. A modern Cavalier is, in a very real sense, a reconstruction — and a strikingly successful one, because the dog in front of you looks exactly like the dog in the frame.
Blenheim, tricolour, black and tan, ruby
Four colours are recognized, and each has a name worth knowing.
Blenheim is the best known: rich chestnut markings, well broken up, on a pearly white ground. The ears are chestnut, the eyes are set in chestnut patches, and a white blaze runs up the middle of the face — the ideal being a symmetrical split with the lozenge in the centre of the skull.
Tricolour is jet black and white with the same broken pattern, plus tan markings over the eyes, on the cheeks, inside the ears, on the underside of the legs and under the tail. It is a formal, sharply drawn colour and it photographs beautifully.
Black and tan is a whole-coloured dog: raven black over the body with the same bright tan points above the eyes, on the cheeks and muzzle, inside the ears, on the chest and legs and beneath the tail.
Ruby is the plainest and in some ways the most striking — a whole-coloured, rich red dog with no white anywhere.
All four turn up regularly, and they frequently turn up in the same litter, so anybody who arrives certain they want one colour should be prepared to leave with another.
Size, coat and the weekly brush
An adult Cavalier stands about twelve to thirteen inches at the shoulder and weighs somewhere between thirteen and eighteen pounds, which puts it at the substantial end of the toy group. It is a proper little dog rather than a miniature one: well balanced, level-backed, moving freely with a long stride, and heavier in the hand than people expect.
The head is what everybody remembers. The skull is nearly flat between the high-set ears, the muzzle tapers gently, and the eyes are large, round, dark and set well apart. The expression that comes out of that arrangement is warm and slightly hopeful and has been selling this breed since the 1600s.
The coat is silky, of moderate length, and may carry a slight wave. It is never curled and it is never clipped. Feathering builds on the ears, the chest, the backs of the legs and the tail, and the long hair between the toes is a breed feature that is deliberately left alone.
The routine that keeps it looking right is small. A comb and a soft brush two or three times a week, working through the ear fringes, the chest and the feathering behind the legs, takes ten minutes and keeps everything smooth. Most Cavaliers lie down for it and go to sleep. A bath when the dog has earned one, ears wiped with a soft cloth while you are already combing, nails a little and often, and teeth brushed from the first week so a puppy decides early that the toothbrush is simply part of the evening. Many owners add a grooming appointment every couple of months to handle the feet and a proper blow-dry, and that is the whole job.
Sporting spaniel, drawing-room dog
The Cavalier is unusual among toy breeds in having a genuine sporting dog underneath. Take one out and it walks properly — nose down, tail going, interested in every hedge, perfectly happy to do three or four miles and then start looking around for more. There is still a bird dog in there, and a Cavalier that spots something moving in the grass will absolutely tell you about it.
Then you get home and the other half of the breed appears. This is a dog that wants to be on you: on the knee, along the thigh, wedged into the corner of the sofa against your leg. The transition from cheerful trail dog to warm weight on a lap takes about ninety seconds, and it is the single most appealing thing about living with one.
Socially the Cavalier is everybody’s friend. They greet visitors as though the visit was their idea, they are easy and gentle with children, and they get along with other dogs and with cats they have grown up alongside about as readily as any breed going. Short absences are worth building into the routine from the first week, with something good to chew and no ceremony on the way out or the way back in.
Training and a day together
Cavaliers are bright and eager to please, which is a combination that makes training pleasant for both parties. Positive methods are what work: food, praise, a toy, and short cheerful sessions of two or three minutes rather than long formal ones. Sit, down, wait and come come along quickly, and most Cavaliers pick up tricks purely because they enjoy the attention that follows.
Recall deserves the most investment, because a spaniel nose can pull a dog’s attention away for a moment. Build it as a party rather than a command — call, celebrate, feed, release — and pay it every single time for the first year. House training goes best when it is boring and predictable: out first thing, after meals, after naps, after play, with a proper celebration each time it goes right outdoors.
The day itself falls into an easy shape. A walk in the cool part of the morning, which in a Florida or Tennessee summer is the pleasant hour for everyone. Breakfast, then a doze near whoever is working. A short training game or a food puzzle in the afternoon. Another walk in the evening, and then a Cavalier folded onto the nearest lap for the remainder of the night. They are equally content in an apartment or a house with a yard, provided the walk happens and there is somebody to sit next to afterwards.
Come and meet the Cavalier puppies
A photograph gets the ears and the eyes and completely misses the manner. What you notice standing over a pen of Cavalier puppies is that they come to you — all of them, immediately, with their tails going — and that a Cavalier in your hands is heavier, silkier and more solidly built than the pictures suggest.
Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on with people. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor and let a puppy climb into your lap before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.
