Please can someone advise me on how good King Charles Spaniels are as family pets. My brother and his wife are complete novice's with regards to dogs and are contemplating getting two of the said breed. They have got a 9 yr old daughter, and so obviously have many children of the same age in and out playing. Are they a healthy breed, easy dog to train, laid back, happy go lucky nature, do they get on in pairs?, or should they go for something completly different. I myself have got two rescue X-breed dogs, that are really very much Hienz 57's, and have proven to be reletively problem free with health and training. I have no knowledge of King Charles and said that I would see what I could find out. Many thanks.

whatever breed - its not a good idea to get two puppies at the same time! it can be a nightmare training wise!

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/englishtoyspaniel.htm 

good luck!

My exact words to them was " is that wise", bearing in mind that they have know experience with one puppy/dog, let alone two! I'm not trying to put them off of getting a dog, but try and point them in the right direction. We didn't get our second rescue dog until we had had the first for about 9mths and he had been to training classes and had completed them sucssessfully. Unfortunatly as he is my elder brother by 5yrs, he seems to think he knows it all and his other half is as bad.

As they are not used to dogs I would say that two pups at the same time would be a huge mistake. Far better to get one first, and train it properly, then get a second, rather than try to do two at once. You know the saying "Two's company, three's a crowd"? Well, the pups are likely to be the 'company' and their owners will be the unwanted crowd!

As for how good a King Charles would be, their best bet would be to contact some breeders - there is a list of breed clubs at the bottom of the Breed Standard. There are few King Charles about (especially when compared to the numbers of Cavalier King Charles) so they may have a long wait.

As jeangenie says, the King charles is hard to find.  However, confusion often occurs, people actually want a Cavalier King Charles, dont realise there are 2 seperate breeds.  Of the 2, the Cavalier is perhaps the better choice as a family pet, slightly more robust, and less short nosed so can keep up with energetic family play.  And to echo what everyone else says,  for a novcie dog owner, 1 will be much easier.

bye
Gwen

Thanks for everyones replies. You are all just echoing my own thoughts and opinions with regards to getting two pups/dogs at the same time. Also they seem to think that this is a breed that is easily available, but to be honest with you all, I have not seen that many round abouts where I live, which is in the east anglian area(Norfolk way). I didn't mention that they actually live in Scotland! So as to how popular the breed is up there is anyones guess or how suitable there weather is, for what I imagine to be a delicate breed, is.

King Charles or charlies as their fans call them are not delicate dogs but they are very different to cavaliers in character. They are not very common as they can be quite hard to breed & there are not many breeders so you may have to wait for quite a while

Maybe the fact that the breed is not very common, in my brothers case, is a good thing as this might put him and his wife off trying to get two of them. As I have said they have got no experience of dog ownership. I have suggested to them that they might do better to give a home to an older(prehaps 6-8yr old) rescue dog, one that is already trained, and of any breed. This will let them see how much work goes into keeping a dog and also give a dog that has been given up, due to change in the owners circumstances a home.