Hi,
I was initially thinking of having a Cavalier, but probably a cross breed could have better health, hence started looking at Cavajacks as another option.  I wonder whether anyone may have experiences to share, the pros and cons ?
Many thanks,
Mel

You are thinking of hybrid vigour which can exist if the parents are from different subspecies(horse x donkey for example)however to cross two parents from the same species( i.e. two different breeds of dog) does not produce hybrid vigour it produces crossbred puppies. Cavajacks are NOT a breed they are cross bred dogs, each will to inherit 50% of their parents genetic male up. They are no more likely to be healthier than their parents than offspring of two parents of the same breed.

Are you likely to find puppies from FULLY health tested parents of these crossbreeds ? Er sorry a big fat NO. both parents would need a full set of DNA & clinical tests & they cost money & breeders of this type of dog are very unlikely to spend money on such testing.

They have health conditions in common e.g. HD, ED, slipping patellas, etc that don't have a DNA test for & genetic conditions that occur in each breed.

What type of Jack Russell is going to be the mother? Pedigree Parson Russell, Pedigree Jack Russell Terrier or non pedigree short legged JRT ????

What about temperament & character & prey drive ??? Cavaliers are more Spaniel than toy & all the three types of Russell Terriers are Terriers with all that this entails. What about coat type ???

You will not even be able to guess what such a cross will look like as an adult because the parents are so different in appearance.

If you want a cross breed you would be best off getting a rescue puppy & not line the pockets of commercial producers of designer crossbreeds

Many thanks for the advice... I am in fact interested in hearing/reading the experiences that the owners may have.
Kind Regards,
Mel

I doubt there are any owners of this type of commercial cross breed on here.

What type of Jack Russell parent are you interested in you didn't answer that question?

I've yet to meet one, they are not a common cross even with the wealth of such crosses that I see on a daily basis as a trainer.  So you may struggle to find anyone to share experiences, but I can give general experience based on all of the crosses I've worked with, including numerous ones of both those breeds.

In any case, Tommee's post is excellent and her information is just as important as experiences of owning and raising them - health plays a HUGE part in the life of a dog and in how they behave, and finding a pup of any pure or cross breed from health tested parents is indescribably important for every aspect of owning and living with that dog. I cannot count the number of these small crosses I have been to see who have luxating patella, for example.

I have met many cavalier crosses who still make noises in line with dogs with restricted airways, as quite a lot of cavaliers have, so there's no guarantee on that front.  And many jack crosses with the patella issue so again, no guarantees.  I've seen dodgy backs, front and back legs, and temperament problems.  The particular cross you mention is also a high drive terrier crossed with a spaniel, which can result in a difficult to handle and manage dog - not always, it depends what gets passed down from the parents but the problem with crossbreeds is that it's a complete lottery!

If health is what you're looking for then whatever breed or cross you go for, you must buy one from health tested parents that are in sound condition themselves (a dog with no luxating patella could still have badly shaped front legs and not be suitable for breeding) and your chances of finding that for a "cavajack" or almost any cross is small.  There are however a decent number of cavalier breeders breeding only from fully tested, healthy dogs, trying to undo everything the greeders have done to the breed.

You may luck out, find one and have no problems but again, it is a total lottery unless you stack the odds in favour of health (and temperament).

With mix-breeding, even if somebody has a mix like this, another puppy may be totally different so their 'experience' with their dog could be quite unlike any puppy of this particular mix, you might find.  The 'beauty' of buying a purebred dog is you should be able to be confident about what you might get - bloodlines and the individual puppies in any litter apart.

If u were thinking of a cavalier why not explore the options there with breeders who do all health tests and are seeking to improve the breeds health?

> Many thanks for the advice... I am in fact interested in hearing/reading the experiences that the owners may have.

You may want to ask on a different forum then - this one is "champdogs" as in champion dogs as in purebred dogs.... I don't think any one here owns "cavajacks" whatever that might be

Because a crossbreed is as such there will not be any uniformity because they will be am unknown especially considering the various types of jacks about. 
I know someone that wanted a chihuahua x jack because their friend had one and liked it. Well they found a pup of this cross and do you know what it was nothing like her friends in looks or temperament. The friends was Chi like in temperament and the friends was a fiesty little whotsit more akin tok the Jack. Both looked totally different and a massive variation in size.

Have a good think because you wont hace a clue what you will end up with with any crossbreed.

My advice is to find a breed which you like and would suit your lifestyle and then seek out breeders via champdogs or the breed clubs of breeders who care about the health and temperament.

I've groomed a couple and they seem nice enough dogs in temperament, but of course with a crossbreed you could have looks and temperaments ranging anywhere from the Cavalier to the Jack Russell. If you fancy a Cavalier, I would agree with the advice to seek out a breeder who does proper health testing, there are plenty of Cavaliers out there living a full healthy life into their teens. www.thecavalierclub.co.uk is a good place to start, and there are facebook groups for health tested Cavaliers. I don't know how you would find a crossbreed and have any confidence that the breeder had done any research into the breeds.

I would disagree that Cavaliers are more like spaniels than toys. Yes they enjoy a good free run and are game for most things but they do not have the prey drive of the working type spaniels. Rolling in ****  is about the extent of their spaniel habits in my experience. CKCS are lovely little dogs, always happy with wagging tails and no aggression, able to do an hour's walk easily and willingly. Mine are convinced they are Golden Retrievers and do all that the Goldens do, including swimming ( well, one does.) They don't deserve the reputation of a dog for the elderly who only want a slow stroll round a boring park and with a shaved hair cut to boot.. JRT on the other hand seem more than willing to rise to any challenge or even invent one! Not my cup of tea.

The ancestors of your Cavaliers(especially the Blenheims)were used to hunt Moorhens & were noted good flushing & retrieval of this & other waterfowl. Not surprising then that one of yours likes swimming.

Perhaps as yours live with Goldens they behave more like Golden than Cavaliers. A friend has several Cavaliers brought up with working Cockers & working Jack Russells(they don't breed from any of their dogs BTW so are not a possible source of the cross the OP is interested in) Their Cavaliers often go off hunting alongside the other dogs & proudly come home with their trophies of mice etc ! Obviously no one has told them they are a toy dog that should  prefer a lap to sit on to being a spaniel !!

I hate seeing the fat shaved ones who just sit on old peoples' laps eating biscuits. Mine love to sit on my lap for sure - but they also love long walks, running through puddles, exploring woods and beaches, and they love training, working obedience, rally, agility, HTM and much more!

Why would you buy a cross breed when you can get a health tested pure breed for far less money?

Sorry so late but, I just finded chat. And We have lovely. Adorable Cavajak Sally. She is 5 years old. We had her when she was 8 weaks. Never regret, even one day. She is our Life. The best dog ever.

I’ve got 2 Cavajacks who are beautiful little dogs & I also have their mum (Cavalier) & did have their dad (jrt).
They are the healthiest dogs I’ve ever had in 25 yrs & I’ve had a border collie, Cav x Corgi, WHWT, 2 Corgis, SBT, PBT. I’m also a groomer & used to train at ringcraft & have shown my Corgis (who did very well in their short show career) so consider myself quite knowledgable.
They have both Cavalier & Jack Russell traits & out of a litter of 7 (all delivered by myself & with no problems) the 1st born was like a little version of his Dad & the next 6 were black & tan with various coat types in texture & length. 1 was always mistaken for a Dachshund & 1 had exact markings of a Rottweiler right down to the pencil marks on his toes & 3 have rough coats & beards &  eyebrows.
Personally I consider myself a dog lover not a breed lover & I don’t care what their pedigree says or what they look like I love them all
To the original poster, I love them & they are very playful, loyal loving little dogs & very intelligent & like to be busy but also love a cuddle.  if you go on Instagram & #cavajacks there’s quite a few also try Pinterest

You are a breeder though. Did you bother to health test the parents before breeding from them ?

Even crossbreeds & out & out mongrels should be health tested BEFORE being bred from. A chappie in the nearest village to me breeds Bedlington x Whippets for working & he has his dogs health tested(hips, elbows, heart, hearing & clinical eye test) plus Bedlngton for COPPER TOXICOSIS & he health tests the crosses he keeps too( he doesn't breed from them though).

There is no such breed as a Cavajack, they are cross breeds & just as likely to inherit genetic conditions from their parents ad a pedigree is, especially if you don't know what conditions the parents have the genes for

> they are very playful, loyal loving little dogs & very intelligent & like to be busy but also love a cuddle.

.....as are most Jackies.  Having lived with them in close proximity for 2 years I totally changed my ideas about them being snappy and noisy.  Yes, they can be noisy, but they are all of the above.   I have no first-hand knowledge of the Cavalier however.

I would just add that I have no problem with people getting into living with a mix-bred dog PROVIDED they don't add to the income of the BYB.   Personally I prefer living with an animal that is a good example of it's BREED and for sure I care what a pedigree 'says'.   I spent hours working on two 10-generation pedigrees for my foundation bitch and a male we bought in who was back of all our hounds from him, and is now back of any number of hounds back in the UK.   I guess I'm just a stickler for 'history' and keeping a breed pure.

Well said !

Ditto !

Well said

> plus Bedlngton for COPPER TOXICOSIS & he health tests the crosses he keeps too

I can confirm that even a cross can suffer from some health conditions that only appear in one parent breed.

My friend looks after a Bedlington x Poodle and he was having unexplained health issues.  I suggested Copper Toxicosis and on testing this is in fact what the poor boy has.  It is being managed with medication and diet and he is a lot better.

@ Brainless.  Interesting, if not something most of us here, know re mix-breeding and 'health'.   And to add to all this, I've just noticed on another website, Cockapoos being advertised at £1K, with bitches even more than that.    Obviously this is all about money and a willing market although whether they actually get these ridiculous asking prices, is another matter.   I suppose there are people with money to burn, who think buying into all this means they do in fact have 'something special'.

Add -   There is another litter on the same website, advertising Cockapoos at £1600 and saying the parents have been tested.   The mixbreeding area on that website would make anybody concerned about what's going on, weep.   Even if, again, the puppies are so appealing.

> Even if, again, the puppies are so appealing.

My friend has quite a large proportion of the Cocker x Poodles as clients and they are largely very nice little souls, quite often a little nervous, but soon come out of their shells with the socialisation they get.

They seem far more homogenous in temperaments and size than some of the other crosses, more or less similar size but coats vary from similar to wheaten terrier to poodly.

Cockapoos do have a UK breed club, and the more serious breeders arear to be health testing.
See, www.cockapooclubgb.co.uk They seem to be taking the breeding of subsequent generations seriously, though I might quibble with the terms F1 and F2 as descriptors.

Cocker spaniels cross poodles are NOT a breed, they are crossbreeds & unless the breeders aim is to produce a dog whose size, shape, coat & character are uniform, then they are eventually breeding mongrels, no matter how much health testing they do that will not produce a new breed.

For example the Cesky Terrier, a recent breed created by František Horák, a dog breeder & amateur genetist. He crossed a Scottish Terrier with a Sealyham Terrier to produce a hunting dog suitable for Bohemia. He did not however give the breed a silly name part one breed part the other. He bred multiple litters keeping the dogs nearest to what he wanted & breeding from them, until he produced a type that was obvious & that bred ttue to it's parents. He selected his starter dogs with great care & kept only the offspring that improved on the previous generations.

Unlike the breeders of these"designer" digs whose only aim is to produce dogs to sell at a profit.

I must 'fess up to doing some deliberate cross breeding myself, but only with my sheep. I have rare breeds & am part of a world wide scheme to preserve them & also use their genes to improve more common breeds. My beloved Herdwicks, are amongst the hardiest of all sheep breeds, they survive & flourish in the poorest of environs & have few if any inbred health issues, so crossing the males with less hardy breeds & keeping the best off spring to breed on with is trying to improve sheep & no I don't make up silly names for the F1 generation they are simply Herdwick x Leicesters for example. I'm rhinking of getting a Merino tup to put to my Dorper ewes to try put the quality of wool of the Merino into the fleece shedding dorpers-being done for a local weaver who is experimenting with wool from such a cross, but is having difficulty sourcing fleeces in the UK or abroad(cheaper obviously if the sheep are local). Done for a purpose & deginitely not for profit

> I must 'fess up to doing some deliberate cross breeding myself, but only with my sheep.

Clearly it's not frowned on WITH LIVESTOCK.   Farmers will often breed for specific points in another breed and understandably because it's done for something like increased milk production, and meat.  But, as you've so rightly pointed out, this isn't done FOR MONEY plus in general farmers/livestock breeders know what they are doing   There are of course, still those who are determined to keep certain breeds pure, particularly with the rare breeds.

What's going on at the moment (and I found 50 pages of mix-bred puppies for sale on Pets4) is just horrendous.   And the prices being asked, for some not all, would definitely suggest this is for income, not the result of accidental matings.   I can honestly never understand why any dog breeder would put the effort needed with any breeding, into mix-breeding (other than for the almighty buck) when it would be so much better to concentrate on continuing a good line of PUREBRED dogs.

> I can honestly never understand why any dog breeder would put the effort needed with any breeding, into mix-breeding (other than for the almighty buck) when it would be so much better to concentrate on continuing a good line of PUREBRED dogs.

I agree, bearing in mind the limited breeding potential of a good bitch and risk involved with breeding, that anyone would waste her on crossbred litters.

This for me means either the bitch is of poor quality (so should not be bred from ) or is being overbred after her maximum possible 4 KC registered litters.

Also it could also be that the bitch if purebred has restrictions on her KC paperwork, or worse case may be stolen or without papers. 

There are no good reasons for a purebred dog to nto be KC registered when all that is required is ownership of the bitch and both parents to be KC registered with o restrictions.