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The Cavalier King Charles Spaniels ancestors are small spaniels, that we can admire on many pictures from famous painters from the past. Small compainon dogs were first very popular in ancient Orient and the Eueropean toy spaniels were probably the result of breeding bigger hunting spaniels to Oriental toy breeds such as the Japanese Chin, maybe also the Tibetan Spaniel. In the Tudor times the small dogs served their people as hunting dogs, companions, flea catschers, warmers,... And so the toy spaniels became the favourite companions of royalty throughout Europe. Mary Queen of Scots had a black and white spaniel, who refused to leave her side when she was led to the gallows and they removed him later from beneath her skirt. But by far the most credit for the success of the spaniels goes to Charless II, who ruled from 1660 to 1685. There were always several spaniels around him. He was sometimes accused of ignoring concerns of the Kingdom because of the love to the spaniels. After his death the spaniels were slowly loosing their popularity and the pug took over the throne of the dog kingdom. But fortunately the Duke of Marlborough fell in love wtih the small spaniels during the reign of king James II, who has been the brother of Charles II. The duke bred mostly red and white King Charles Spaniels, which became known as Blenheim. When he was away fighting in a battle, his wife was at home worrying about her husbant. At that time she had a bitch, that was expecting puppies and she was constantly pressing the bitche`s forehead with her thumb. When the puppies were born, they all had a red "thumbmark" on their foreheads and this was the result of pressing the thumb to their mothers head. Of course this isn`t true, but it was a popular explanation and Cavalier with the Blenheim Spot are still very popular. Generations of Dukes of Marlborough continued to breed the Blenheim Cavaliers until the early 1900s. Also Queen Victoria had a tricolor Cavalier Spaniel named Dash and when he died, his epitaph read: "His attachement was without selfishness, his playfulness without malice, his fidelity without deceit." The Toy Spaniels were always very popular, but their appearance was changing. In the time of King Charles II the toy spaniels had fairly long muzzles, flat skulls, high set ears, but in the late nineteenth century they had short muzzles, domed skulls, low-set ears. From time to time a dog that was more like the early spaniel type was born, but they couldn`t win in the show ring and for that weren`t popular. The old type spaniel was rescued because of a wealthy American named Roswell Eldridge, who had seen the long-nosed spaniels in old royal paintings. Because of that he traveled to England in 1926 to get a breeding pair for himself and he was very disappointed that he didn`t find a single dog of such type at any show. Mr. Eldridge then offered a dog show class prize of 25 pounds each for best male and female "Blenheim Spaniels of the Old Type, as shown in pictures of Charles II`s time, long face, no stop, flat skull, not inclined to be domed, with spot in the center of the skull." Roswell Eldridge died without ever finding the dog that he dreamed about, but without him we probably wouldn`t have the Cavalier King Chalres Spaniel of today.
LITERATURE:
"The Cavaliers Pets"; Sir Edwin H. Landseer 1845 |
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