Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

							Cavalier King Charles 
							Spaniel 

							The Origin of the Breed

							by Dennis Homes

							The origin of most dog breeds are 
							the subject of speculation, though most experts seem 
							to agree that the ancestor of the toy spaniel 
							originally came from the Far East. It’s most likely 
							that they were first brought to Europe from China by 
							Italian traders in the 12th and 13th centuries. Many 
							of the earliest paintings of toy spaniels were by 
							Italian artists and they showed small red and white 
							spaniels not too dissimilar to Blenheim Cavaliers.
							
							
						

							Up until the latter part of the 
							nineteenth century small toy type breeds were mainly 
							kept by the wealthy as most people required their 
							dogs to have a working function such as herding, 
							guarding, hunting retrieving or simply to kill 
							vermin. During the first part of the nineteenth 
							century shorter faced toy breeds such as Pugs, 
							Pekinese and Chins were becoming very popular as 
							lady’s pets among the upper classes and it is quite 
							likely that cross breeding between these dogs and 
							toy spaniels took place to produce the short faced 
							spaniel that we now know as the King Charles 
							Spaniel.

							In 1925 Roswell Eldridge, an 
							American businessman, was disappointed to find that 
							there were none of the longer nosed King Charles 
							Spaniels of the older type around. He therefore 
							placed a small advert in the 1926 Crufts schedule 
							offering £25 for the best dog and best bitch nearest 
							to the type depicted in many old paintings to be 
							exhibited at Crufts for the following five years. 
							This advert did in fact set the wheels in motion to 
							revive the breed that we now know as the Cavalier.

							Twenty five pounds back in 1926 
							was quite a large sum of money. According to a 
							retail price index calculator £25 in 1926 would be 
							worth £1,030 today. Twenty five pounds was awarded 
							both to the best dog and the best bitch, plus two 
							pounds for the second place of each sex and one 
							pound for the third place. As this was to go on for 
							five years the total amount of cash offered by 
							today’s rate would be £11,530! 

							Miss Mostyn Walker was a breeder 
							of short faced King Charles Spaniels and in 1926 she 
							bred a dog called Lord Pindi to a bitch called Ann. 
							In that litter there were two puppies that appeared 
							to be throwbacks to the earlier longer nosed 
							varieties. These were Ann’s Son (a blenheim) and 
							Wizbang Timothy (a black and white). These puppies 
							did have the required longer noses and so she 
							thought that they would be ideal specimens to enter 
							in these special classes at Crufts. Ann’s Son was to 
							take the first prize and Best of Breed for three 
							years running in 1928, 1929 and 1930. When he 
							reached the age of nine he made his last appearance 
							at Crufts and then was eventually retired from 
							showing. Throughout his show career he remained 
							unbeaten.

							The red letter day in Cavalier 
							history was at Cruft’s in 1928 when a group of 
							enthusiasts gathered to discuss the formation of a 
							club for these ‘Old type King Charles Spaniels’. 
							They decided to add the word Cavalier in front of 
							King Charles Spaniel to differentiate the two breeds 
							The standard was drawn up and Ann’s Son was placed 
							upon the table as a living guide for the breed 
							standard. It was agreed that as far as possible the 
							dog should be guarded from fashion and there was to 
							be no trimming. 

							During the 1930s Cavaliers were 
							still registered as King Charles Spaniels and if 
							classes for ‘King Charles Spaniels-Cavalier type’ 
							were to be put on at shows then someone had to 
							sponsor these classes. Many of the early breeders 
							would regularly put their hands in their pockets to 
							fund these classes. The Cavalier King Charles 
							Spaniel Club approached the Kennel Club and asked 
							for the two breeds to be separated. An example of 
							each breed was taken along to the Kennel Club and 
							placed on a table for the Kennel Club Secretary to 
							inspect. He stated that he couldn’t see any real 
							difference between them. 

							Throughout this period the 
							dedication and resolve of those early pioneers of 
							the breed was slowly starting to establish itself in 
							the dog show world. However, with the outbreak of 
							World War II dog showing and breeding took a big 
							step backwards with many kennels of all breeds 
							either closing or severely restricting their 
							breeding programmes. Throughout the war the breeding 
							of all dogs was reduced dramatically; in fact there 
							were only sixty Cavaliers registered with The Kennel 
							Club between 1940 and 1945. Once the war was over 
							and with greatly reduced breeding stock these hardy 
							enthusiasts carried on with their quest and another 
							approach was made to the Kennel Club in 1945 for 
							separate registration. This time it was agreed that 
							the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the King 
							Charles Spaniel were two very distinct breeds and 
							should be separated.

							Slowly breeders began to pick up 
							the pieces and try to resume their quest of building 
							up the breed that they had worked so hard on. There 
							were no breeding plans other than to try to go back 
							as near to the original source and that was back to 
							Ann’s Son. Just prior to the war Mrs Amice Pitt, who 
							had been at the forefront of the breed’s revival, 
							had a kennel of around 60 dogs but during the war 
							the number dropped to just three. The Cavalier breed 
							was more or less saved from extinction by two 
							breeders, Madame Harper Trois Fontaines (de Fontenay), 
							and Mrs Bessie Jennings (Plantation) who both 
							managed to maintain a kennel of sufficient numbers 
							throughout the war. It was from these two ladies 
							that Amice Pitt was able to get back stock that was 
							descended from her Ttiweh line.

							Mrs Pitt heard that there was a 
							blenheim dog puppy for sale by a ruby dog named 
							Cannonhill Richey out of a blenheim bitch named 
							Daywell Nell, who was by Ann’s Son. Mrs Pitt bought 
							this puppy unseen from his breeders, but when he 
							arrived she was not particularly impressed and said, 
							“He is not in the least like Ann’s Son. He’s a 
							rather stocky and stuffy puppy with a curly coat, 
							but he does have a most lovely expression and huge 
							dark round eyes.” This dog was Daywell Roger and at 
							the time Mrs Pitt was not to know just how great an 
							influence Roger was to become. She just thought that 
							he would be useful! 

August 29th 1946 was the date of 
							the very first Championship Show. This was Daywell 
							Roger’s first big outing, and although still a 
							puppy, he won the Dog Challenge Certificate and was 
							soon to become the first Cavalier champion. 
							Throughout the fifties and sixties both the Club and 
							the breed slowly but surely made strides in 
							establishing the Cavalier’s popularity. In 1973 
							Alansmere Aquarius was to make breed history by 
							taking the accolade of Best in Show at Cruft’s. This 
							breakthrough in the breed’s history created a big 
							rise in both the popularity and population of 
							Cavaliers which soon saw them rise to become the 
							largest breed in the Toy Group. 

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