Cavalier King Charles Spaniels come in four patterns or colors – including black and tan, tricolor, and ruby. In centuries past, the more toy-like Cavaliers became ladies’ lapdogs – referred to as “carpet” or “sleeve” spaniels – and the sturdier ones might still be taken out in the field to flush woodcock.Įldridge’s ad specifically mentioned “Blenheim Spaniels,” a family of distinctively red-and-white dogs named after the palace where they had been bred for centuries. Going back to the time of Charles II, litters produced both smaller, more lap-dog-like puppies, and larger, comparatively more substantial ones. Though the freshly minted Cavalier fanciers were in agreement that this reincarnated style of spaniel should have a longer muzzle, higher-set ears, flatter head, and longer leg, differences of opinion still existed.
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Jupiter of Ttiweh and Mars of Ttiweh, born four years after the newly revived Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was recognized by the Kennel Club (UK) as as a separate breed. Little Dorritt of Ttiweh with her 1949 litter, including influential stud dogs Ch. Other sources suggest that various Cocker Spaniels and perhaps even the Welsh Springer Spaniel were used to nudge along this transformation from “noseless” to “nosey.”Ĭh. His breeder, Miss Mostyn Walker, who bred English Toy Spaniels, also bred Papillons, leaving us to forever wonder from whence he got his elongated muzzle. At that same show, a male named Ann’s Son won Best of Breed (a feat he repeated for the next two years, ending his show career undefeated), and he was used as the template for a standard. In subsequent years, breeders had the time to purposefully breed for the restored spaniel that Elridge sought, and the classes at Crufts grew proportionately.Īt Crufts in 1928, the third year Eldridge’s special prizes were offered, several breeders founded a club for the new – or, in this case, not-so-new – breed, which was initially considered a “Cavalier type” variety of the King Charles Spaniel. More to the point, Eldridge was creating an incentive to show the very dogs that they had been systematically rejecting, precisely because of their long muzzles and flat foreheads.ĭespite the disdain, four dogs did enter Eldridge’s special classes at Crufts in 1926. But a huge factor was the disinterest – and in some cases outright hostility – of those breeders who like their flat-faced spaniels just fine, thank you. Part of this had to do with the short notice of only a few months. But she was ultimately unsuccessful.Īs for Eldridge’s attempt, despite the financial incentive, the initial response was tepid at best. In the early 1900s, Judith Blunt-Lytton, the 16 th baroness of Wentworth, attempted to re-create the original breed using Toy Trawler Spaniels – believed to have descended from Charles II’s earlier-style dogs as well as early ancestors of the Sussex Spaniel. Second and third places would receive smaller cash prizes – two and one pound, respectively – and Eldridge announced the arrangement would go on for five years – a commitment that would eventually cost him, in today’s currency, more than $20,000.Įldridge wasn’t the only one to champion a return to the original King Charles Spaniel. So in his now-famous ad, he offered a first prize of 25 pounds sterling – almost $2,000 today – to the male and female spaniels that came closest to his published description. These were the dogs Eldridge hoped to uncover.
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Periodically, among the litters of flat-faced toy spaniels, some longer-muzzled throwbacks would crop up. The dogs that appeared in court paintings from Charles II’s day and earlier – including a famous oil by van Dyck in which the then-princeling poses with his two sisters and a pair of long-legged, long-muzzled red-and-white spaniels – basically disappeared. A fascination with flat-faced breeds from Asia, including the Pug and Japanese Chin, created a fad for short muzzles and domed skulls.
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But after Charles II died in 1685, the descendants of his eponymous spaniels began to change in appearance – by the 1800s, quite dramatically.