Hello hope someone out there can help me, its my daughters 7th birthday is in march 05 and she has her heart set on a king charles spaniel, hopefully a black and white one, she has been in love with this type of dog for as long as i can remember, her bedroom is over flowing with king charles cuddly toys, and she has been on at me for the last 2 years for her own dog. Up untill now ive always said no to her explaining that she was too little to look after a dog, but after a very adult conversation with her where she pointed out to me that she was no longer a baby and quite prepared to clean up, walk, feed and most of all love her new friend that i decided that she is now old enough to have her own dog. My daughter recently lost her father and both sets of grandparents in tragic circumstances and we have both found the last year very hard, her especially, shes very much a lonely child who finds it hard to make friends because shes scared there going to leave her, so i also feel not only will she have a friend in her dog but also a faithfull loving one that can teach her to come out of herself, but i have absoluntly no idea about king charles spaniels, my daughter explained to me that she would like a black and white one with brown eyebrows (thought she was pulling my leg) untill i looked at a few pictures of them.
So if there is anyone out there that can help me make a little girls dreams come true, could you please contact me my email address is Laceylacey1@aol.com or MuckinFuddle1111@aol.com or you can contact me on my mobile which is 07766444022
Thanks so much for listning to me
and hope to here from someone soon
Love from
casey

You will be very very lucky to get a Charlie(King Charles) puppy in just 6 months they are quite thin on the ground, so much so they are classed as an endangered breed by the Kennel Club. They only have smallish litters to boot.

Are you sure it is a Charlie your daughter has fallen in love with & not the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel the more popular bigger breed with a longer muzzle ?

Please join so you can tell us exactly which breed you are looking for

Just a thought instead of getting a puppy for March next year, take her to Crufts(in March) or Discover Dogs(in November) so you can make sure you are looking for the right breed-you will be able to talk face to face with owners & breeders as well as meeting the dogs

Hello big thanks to all who replied i will try to answer all the posts, Moonmaiden you are quite right it is the caverlier king charles that i was looking for, lucky for me a breeder from this site contacted me today she has got a litter ready to leave next week, im so excited, will be going to look next week.

That's good news MumsTheWord. 

Please make sure that both parents (copied from a previous MM post!!) have current(within a year of the birth of the puppies)heart & eye certificate, preferably hip scored for HD & checked for slipping patellas, or course they should both be MRI scanned clear for Syringohydromyelia & both be over 2 1/2 years of age - this is the veterinary advice from the Cavalier specialist vets.

Given the sad time that you have both had, it would be wise to ensure that you took a wellbred and healthy puppy into your family.

thankyou for that information val greatly appreciated im writing it down now so that i can ask all these questions when i go and see the pups

Can I suggest that you ask the questions before you go and visit?  It's soooooo easy to get swept along by cute looking puppies when health issues should be dealt with logically and not emotionally. ;)

good idea val will ring the breeder tomorrow  and then i can go from there

In my (admittedly small) experience Cav breeders don't check for hips and patella, just hearts and eyes. They should ideally be scanned unaffected for SM but this is pretty difficult with the problem being so widespread. But try to get a puppy whose parents and grandparents are living to a healthy age with no major problems, and hopefully your puppy will do so too! :-)

You obviously want to do a kind thing for your daughter but this idea is a non starter unless you are equally keen to own a dog after all you are not going to be asking your daughter to walk the dog on a dark winters afternoon after school are you? :) in fact at 7 years old she is not going to be walking the dog on her own at any time.  Whilst owning a dog brings many, many pleasures if you browse the Behaviour and Health boards you will find posts from adults driven to, quite literally, describe themselves as at the end of their tether with behaviour and health problems, again I am quite sure you are not going to be asking you daughter to shoulder the worries of anything along those lines so again down to you.  You will also come across many posts from the parents of children, even dog loving ones, unable to understand or cope with the behaviour of puppies and young dogs, the often very painful play biting, the destruction of their toys and beloved trainers etc.  All training will probably be down to you too as, at 7 years old, I think your daughter will struggle to understand the complexities of it, for example not rewarding unwanted behaviour with even negative attention, again if you read the posts you will see many adults struggle with this and it will be all too easy for such a young child to just want to treat the pup as a rather benign baby :)  I think you need to consider all these aspects in conjuction with exploring which breed may be right for you both.

Oddly enough I bought my first dog aged 7(just before my 8th birthday)& it wasn't a toy breed but a GSD & I had written to the breeder & spoken to her on the telephone(supervised by my parent naturally)& I chose the puppy & I was solely responsible for her from day one. Some 7/8 year olds have the ability to look after their dogs & I trained for obedience as well

A couple of weekends back a 7 year old young lady won an obedience class with a dog she trains & cares for herself  :D  so I am not unique

I suspect you and I come from "dog orientated" families.  I could be wrong, but I have a feeling Guest does not fall quite into that group so it does no harm that they should consider all these points prior to giving her daughter the go ahead.

isabel thanks for your post, and in answer to your question yes i am equally keen to have a new friend in our house, and yes i do relise that most of the looking after will fall on my shoulders and yes im quite prepared for that, as for walking the dog on her own there is no way i would let my daughter do that but anything she does do will be closely supervised by me untill i feel that she is able of doing it by herself, as for the behaviour and health worries surely thats comes with any loving relationship being human or animal? and i will deal with those issues if and when they arrise, i have thought about getting her a dog for a long time now and i truely believe that she will shoulder any responsibility she is given..
thanks again

I am delighted to hear you are looking forward to this prospective purchase as much as your daughter that was really my only concern a little girl shouldn't really have any responsibilities at all ;) just a carefree life and the fun of enjoying your new companion.  Good luck in finding the dog you are looking for :)

thanks isabelxx

The other worry of course, and hopefully many years away if and when you get yoru puppy, but dogs ahve relatively short lives, and if she has already lost so much she may find theis very difficult whoudl the worst happen. 

For this reason it is even more essential that if you are looking for a CAVALIER King Charles Spaniel and not the flat faced King charles that you buy from only a reputable breeder who has generations of heart tested stock, as early death causing heart problems are entrenched within the breed.

Also the colour you describe is not black and white but Tricolour.  the tan would be on the eye brows and also cheeks, under the tail and on the chest.

I suspect she is after a Cavalier King Charles, specially if she has seen any, not just pictures, as the Charlies are so rare. I can definitely recommend Cavaliers as wonderful pets, but I agree with another post, you will have to be equally prepared to help her walk it, train it, groom it, feed it, etc etc etc! Also agree with Brainless, be very sure you have selected one with parents and grandparents tested clear for heart and eye problems, and if possible (not easy as it is so widespread) tested unaffected for the brain disease SM. Then you have a good chance of getting a lovely affectionate pet who will entertain you both for the next 12 years! :-)

Why not join? If you go ahead with the puppy you can let us all know how it goes!

ps Brainless I understand Charlies have the same problems, just not as widely advertised as they are so much rarer.

Charlies do have all the same problems sadly :( but they are even less talked about than Cavalier health issues & I think they must have a smaller gene pool

Thanks for your post lucy ... ive joined up still got to find my way round the site tho so still all new to me can u recomend a good site for caverlier king charles or will i find all the information i need on here, any links will b greatly appreciated
thanks

Hi Mums the word, I suggest you try the official Cavalier club site http://www.thecavalierclub.co.uk/ or the other main site http://www.cavaliers.co.uk/ which both have lots of info, including details of the difference between Cavs and Charlies.

Brainless yes u are right after a telephone conversation today i found out that it is tri colour im looking for  and it is the caverlier king charles

Well fingers crossed that the breeder you have been in contact with is all they should be and parents have had all the health checks, and you end up with a lovely pup who has a good chance of living into it's teens.

I sold a pup to a lovley family some years ago (it is in fact their 8th birthday on Saturday) and sadly the husband died within about 9 months, and the wife told me that their son who was 14 at the time found a great deal of comfort in the non judgemental unconditional love of their canine family member.

well after reading vals post i now am armed with information that will hopefully help me to get a healthy pup, so fingers crossed as u say xx i know my daughter will find a great friend in her dog and like wise for the dog, its whats she needs at this time in her life,
thanks

Common folks, we can do better than crossing our fingers! :)  We can ensure that you stand the best possible chance by making sure that the parents have had all the relevant health tests for the breed. :D  It's particularly important in this case that nothing further goes wrong.

yes very true, just so hoping the dogs are all ok, just dont want anything to b wrong and for everything to go ok, right ive got to go now thanks to you all for all the help and information, will keep in touch and klet you know how things go
thanks again

There are as far as I am aware only two screened SHM clinically clear male cavaliers One is a 6 year old dog & the other is a young dog under 2 years of age so it will be very unlikely that either is the sire of the litter you have been contacted about. If the breeder tells you that their dogs do not have SHM in their breeding they are not being honest as it is accepted by the researchers that allcavaliers have at least one line to a known carrier or sufferer. So my advice is to steer clear of breeders who claim their dogs do not have a genetic link

My dog has SHM as did his father & evey puppy in the litter he came from is at the best a carrier & at worst a sufferer like my beautiful boy(who has no symptoms as yet thank goodness)

There's a few more than that, a list is on the Cavalier club website. But some of them are in America which isn't much use to us!! :-)

I've never been able to access the list

They should also have a list of affected dog/bitches as well for people to be aware of which dogs are carriers as some people are not exactly honest about their dogs health status like being the brother/sister/mother/father etc to an affected dog. I wouldn't mind my dog being on one.