Cavalier
King Charles Spaniel Club of British Columbia
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A small spaniel - "the Spaniel Gentil or comforter" - can be traced back in English history to at least a century before the reign of King Charles II, for whom the breed was named. King Charles' great-grandmother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and his father, King Charles I, both met their deaths on the gallows and it is recorded that a small spaniel accompanied each of them to the block. When Charles II died he was succeeded on the throne by his youngest brother, King James I, who was equally enamoured of the little toy spaniels. However, in 1689 James was forced to abdicate in favour of his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, and this is when the spaniel so favoured by the Stuart kings began a transformation. William and Mary developed a passion for the Chinese Pug and a widespread craze for flatter-faced breeds ensued. The look of the spaniel with a fine, tapered muzzle gradually changed into the compressed appearance of today's King Charles Spaniel - known in North America as the English Toy Spaniel. In the early 1920s an American by the name of Roswell Eldridge was visiting in England, saw a "comforter spaniel" in an old painting and tried to find a pair of those spaniels to purchase. Not succeeding, Mr. Eldridge challenged breeders of King Charles Spaniels to recreate the old-type spaniel by offering a 25 pounds sterling prize to the Best Dog and Best Bitch to what was described as "the old-fashioned toy spaniel with the long nose." Mrs. Amice Pitt, well known as the breeder of the Ttiweh Chow Chows, and a small number of other breeders took up the challenge and, mostly by selective breeding of the nosey "rejects" from short-face King Charles Spaniel breeders, the desired type was set. At a meeting in 1928 a standard for the breed was formed, based on Ann's Son, a dog bred by Miss Mostyn Walker, and on spaniels depicted in paintings of the Old Masters. It was decided to keep the name ‘King Charles’ and to add the word Cavalier to distinguish this revived type from the then current short-faced spaniels. In 1945, The Kennel Club agreed to separate the two breeds. Amice Pitt, who was president of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, our own CKCSCBC member, Katie Eldred who was secretary, and Mme. Harper Trois Fontaines spent a whole day in the offices of The Kennel Club in London, picking out of the enormous King Charles Spaniel Registers those dogs and bitches that they knew were of slightly longer-nose type or that they knew sired or produced longer-nosed pups. The list prepared became the foundation register of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the pedigree of every CKCS in the world today goes back to a name on that list. The six foundation dogs of this reconstructed type were Ann's Son, his litter brother Wizbang Timothy, Carlo of Ttiweh, Duce of Braemore, Kobba of Kuranda and Aristide of Ttiweh. Aristide was the sire of Belinda of Saxham, Katie Eldred's bitch that won Best of Breed at the very first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Specialty in 1946. Mrs. Sally Brown and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Trudy Brown Albrecht, were the two people responsible for establishing the breed in the United States, where the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, USA. Inc. was formed in 1954. The American Kennel Club did not officially recognize the breed until 1995 with the American Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club becoming the parent club for the breed there. The Canadian Kennel Club recognized the breed in l957 and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of Canada became the parent club in this country.
Cavalier Club contacts:
President: Carol McLachlan 604-463-9534 donm61@telus.net Vice President: Christina Fox christina.fox@rbc.com Secretary: Julie Olson lcr2@uniserve.com Treasurer Eileen Bevis Eileenbevis@shaw.ca Past President: Caryll Forbes 604-530-3524 Thandie@shaw.ca |
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