Hi everyone,

I know there are several Cavalier owners on the board, and I was just wondering, do any of your dogs have a really high prey drive and love to chase anything that moves?! My Cavalier is 2 years old and has always been a very active dog, she can run for miles and still want to go further, she never ceases to amaze me. She also has a really high prey drive, on walks she will purposefully go into the bushes, under brambles etc to find things to chase. Once she has found somewhere she wants to go she goes "deaf" and will not respond to anyone calling her. Sometimes she is gone for 15-20mins but I hear her excited barking as she sniffs out something exciting. I always take bait out with me on walks and unless she is on the trail of something, her recall is very good and she is generally obedient and very eager to please. She is more like a working gundog judging by her mannerisms on walks, although at home she fits the role of a lapdog very well (she's lying at my feet as we speak!) Does anyone else have this with their Cavalier? I used to walk a male Cavalier and he was not like this, he did used to disappear for 10 minutes sometimes, but that was only because he was lead astray by a naughty Samoyed.

Would be very interested to hear on other people's Cavaliers walking habits....

Alice :-)

Is this a well bred Cavalier or an oversize one from less reliable sources?

The reason I ask is that it is known for puppy farmers to use a Welsh Springer bitch and mate to cavalier, and then the bitch pups to Cavalier again, thus giving them larger litters. 

A Welsh Springer is all gundog.

Of course your Cavalier might just have inherited strong working Spaniel traits from way way way back :D

Hi Brainless

She is quite well bred, her mother was a pet (but did have some champions in her pedigree), her father was from a show kennel, she's just the right size for a Cavalier so not oversize, people often comment on how "small" she is for a Cav, but only coz some of the ones round here are huge! (we are not too far from the notorious north west puppy outlet). I did think about the Welsh Springer thing as I'd heard about puppy farmers using them for larger litters, but looking back at her pedigree I very much doubt she has Welsh Springer in her. I asked the Cavalier people at Discover Dogs and they said that it was to be expected as they are Spaniels after all, and were bred not only to keep the royals company but to keep the rats and mice at bay, however Gypsy seems to think that includes birds and rabbits too :-)

i always remember that famous wager brian Plummer had a few years bac....and he always reckoned he got his to stay to fox below....so i guess its possible :)

Hi Alice,

Funnily enough I was just writing this to another webring this morning.
I have two distinct families of Cavaliers bred from two original bitches.
The ones from the T line are bird-dogs and we call them Bog-Offs because that is precicely what they do and no amount of distraction will get them off their prey. They are besotted with toys and squeaks drive them wild. The matriarch of the house sat on guard for days when we had a mouse in the house.
'The L line however has little prey drive and are not as lively nor are they as athletic. They stick close on walks and tire more easily.
The T line are independent and dont seem to need to know where I am but the other line watch me all the time. The Ls are more food driven and will only join in with toy-play for short periods, giving up the toy is no hardship for them.
All are reared the same, trained the same and all are extremely well bred with no 'non-show' dogs in their pedigree.All have qualified for Crufts (those that are old enough.)
The two lines have never been mixed as I've never owned the most suitable dog for my bitches.
It's hard to imagine which trait would be dominant though.... the Bird-dog or the Lard a**e. :-)

Hi

One of my cavaliers has a high prey drive - disappears into the bushes all the time sniffing about - not interested in playing etc with my other two and has a deaf ear when there is a particularly good smell, also squirrel holes in trees - he will try to bite the tree down !  He is on the large side - actually huge side  :)  My other two are much smaller, more playful and sociable and more interested in toys than sniffing...

The only thing is I dont know their history as they are all rescues - so I was very interested to read about the welsh springer theory -

When I first met my second husband I had an English Springer and he had a Cavalier. They ended up working together in the field on a regular basis. (My husband used to shoot with friends.) The Cavalier was a better gundog than the Springer ;-)

The Cavalier was used as a bird dog many years ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if some still retain the instincts.

My little girl loves nothing better than a good bird chasing session .. the swallows are her favorites .... and she gives me the willies on the beach when she starts with the seagulls as most of them are bigger than her ...lol...i have visions of her being carried away by one .one day ...
My girl too is very petite and i often get asked if she is a pup.. people are surprised when they hear how old she actually is , but round here ther are quite a few tubby and rather large cavs so i guess people just presume mine is not quite right ..lol

Hi Tooolz,

That's really interesting about your two lines of Cavaliers - Gypsy would definitely be classed as a Bog-Off! She loves her toys as well, in particular a soft toy hedgehog and a squeaky ball. How strange that they have such different traits - I wonder if they have any of Gypsy's relatives in their lines? Oh and by the way, I just love your avatar picture, what a sweetie :-)

Shusky1, Gypsy loves chasing the swallows as well, we also have a lot of Canada geese here at the moment and she loves to chase them - she's not bothered about what size it is, if it moves, she can chase it!! It's funny as I always get asked if Gypsy is a puppy, then they're surprised when I say she's fully grown.

Hi Alice,

Just the title of your topic made me laugh as I have a small female cavalier and she is exactly the same!!

She will walk for hours with me off lead, chasing and running after nearly everything that moves. If I call her back she is good and will 99% of the time return to me. She comes from good lines and is small for her size, I get alot of comments about her age as she will be 4 in September but is still like a puppy! I love her to bits and do agility and obedience training with her once a week which she loves, especially the agility, she is so quick I can't keep up!

She once went in to a field of long grass and got the scent of something, she started squeaking and her tail was going mad, we stood and watched as she went around the whole field, nose to the ground, and finally two pheasants leapt out of the grass and that was obviously what she could smell and wanted to get. It was great to watch, the birds obviously got away but she thought it was great fun! She also has a total obsession with feathers which can be a nightmare but I am working on getting her to leave them now rather than carrying 10 home with her!

At home she is really calm and is fast asleep as I type!

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a mad, energetic cavalier, I was thinking it was just me.

Sarah x

Hi Sarah,

I'm glad I'm not the only one then, your girl sounds so much like Gypsy! I bet Gypsy would love agility. I do a bit of obedience with her, she's so quick to learn and wants to please all the time, bless her :-)

Gypsy does the squeaking thing as well when she sees or smells something exciting - we've decided though that she barks to make things come out of the trees and bushes so she can chase them! She loves running whole fields too, especially if she is chasing a bird. I think she thinks the faster she runs, the more the chance that she will take off and start to fly!! hehe.

Funny you should say but Gypsy is also calm at home - most of the time- she does have an obsession with animals on the TV though. If she sees another animal (especially a dog) she leaps up and starts barking and clawing at the TV!!

What's your girl called? She sounds just as fun as mine :-)

Must be a small cav thing then .. My little one makes loads of noise at the telly too.. especially animal planet , which is my daughters favourite programme ... and she can't abide one cartoon , its a thing about imaginary friends and its a boy and a blue thing ...lol... i thought my girl was just trying to fit in with the huskies with her speed (she has a go at keeping up but then gives up and heads back to me ..lol )

Must be a small cav thing then  Well that shoots down the Welsh springer theory!!

AliceC  Thanks. The avatar is BigBird our puppy the 'Great White Hope'.

shusky1 : Yes mine too are very vocal at the TV ( usually animals) but only the Bog-off family - the others are oblivious.

It is nice to think that so many of the Cavaliers still have proper Spaniel traits.  Is it woodcock they were supposed to be used for?

It was indeed Woodcock, although no one has told my Joedee this, he decided to stalk & kill a Stogie(Wood pigeon)yesterday, he was obviously going to provide a meal for himself & the cats !!

My dearly departed Elka did that in my Dads garden once when they were looking after her, she would not come in until she had eaten it, and they were too squeamish to take it from her. :D

In her defence there have been no European Elk in the UK or a looooonnnng time ;D

I am certain that there is a Cavalier somewhere that is worked as a gundog and has done very well, so it must be in them somewhere!

There is a shoot somewhere in Scotland where the keeper has Cavaliers(as well as the traditional breeds) & they flushed the game better than the bigger spaniels according to a friend who went on a shoot there !

Both my current and last Cavalier used to love chasing. Mostly birds - my last Cavalier was never interested in the rabbits.

Mine are just the same !! They love getting out over the fields with their noses down and tails going at a zillion wags a second !! If they find a pheasant or rabbit they are off like a shot and almost yodel they get so excited. They once found a bird nesting right next to the fence and would not leave it alone, they were barking a digging like mad things, I had to put up a whole new barrier so they couldn't even see her. Funny enough they never bother with my own chickens and guinea pigs though.

Debbie

Well this has been really interesting, glad it's not just me with a Cavalier who loves to chase things. She has been out again tonight over the fields and managed to spot two rabbits so had a good chase of them! She's covered in mud now, that doesn't seem to bother her either, although she won't ever go in water. Funny dog!

Hi Alice,

Her name is Hazel.

She also loves animals on the TV and when Crufts is on or Animal Planet (with dogs barking) is on she leaps at the TV cabinet trying to get at them; I'm sure one day she will go straight through it!

It seems alot of people own mad and excitable cavaliers which is always good to know. She is my first dog so I have learnt loads and will carry on learning for as long as I live I think! Everyday she amazes me with something new or a funny little trait!

Gypsy sounds great fun too and seems just like Hazel!

Sarah x

That is so true about learning something new everyday ... When i got my cav i expected her to be a mouse compared to the huskies ...a walk in the park so to speak... but i have learnt it is not so ..  She is noisy ,quick , and an attention seeker ....Goodness knows what she will show to be in later life ( she is only young )But she also has all the good traits i had heard about the cav's . Loving ,devoted and loyal.. It amazes me how my little lapdog (because she easily fits that catagory too) can turn into a whippet on little legs when out in a field ...lol..

Hi
This is so nice to read.  I have a small 2 year old Cavalier called Nacho, and she just loves hunting.  I have a special collar with bells on it, so I can hear where she is in the undergrowth. I walk her with two labs at the weekend first thing in the morning, which she outruns every week. When she was a year, I took her in the nearby fields (it was just before dusk) and she was a real naughty girl seeing all those rabbits jumping around.  She appeared 2 hours later.  I was stood in the middle of the field in the pitch black, watching her running around (fortunately she had one of those flashing collars on), so now she is not allowed off the lead when its near dusk, as there seems twice as much prey around.  I was frantic.  She is always very faithful to me, she follows me everywhere. She sleeps curled up in our bed. We had a cavalier prior to Nacho, who was not prey driven at all.  Nacho has improved now, she realises that I don't wait any more and if she doesn't come on first call, she gets left behind

I've heard of a Cavalier being worked as a gundog too, I believe one of my boy's relatives was used for this - she must have had some funny looks when she turned up at gundog trials!! My friend has some Cavaliers who have rather too much prey drive, they once broke into her neighbours garden and killed several chickens - not amusing!! And yes, these are well-bred pure Cavaliers!

Hey everyone x
I have a male cav 5 months old, in the garden i can not get him back in!!
He needs to sniff everything eat everything and bring it all in with him
He forgets he needs to wee and number two(sorry)out there and insteads runs around very crazily! I cant catch him
most of the time!! and its beggininng to be real difficult as he has started to wee(number2) inside!! in the lounge carpet!!
I need a way to call him back to me please can someone suggest.... i have tried toys and food
At night he runs and runs in the garden and its so hard to catch him! He has plenty of excersice on
his walks and he humps all his toys!!!!!!!  at 5 months do you think i can get him neutured now?
and how do i call him back in from the garden!! Please help me! Thanks love gumi x

He is too young to get him neutered yet, and i don't think it would help except with the humping.
When he goes out to toilet, keep him on the lead until he has done it. Then either bring him in if you want to, or let him off the lead to run in the garden if you want him to do that. Do not chase round after him in the garden, as that is a game, which he is controlling. If he won't come back in the garden only let him go out on a long lead and train him to come back to you out there, just as you trained recall in other places with him.
Watch him inside as if he were a baby again, and scoop him up and outside if he starts to go. Make sure you are cleaning up your carpet accidents using specialist pet cleaning product or non-bio detergent has been suggested by someone else before. When you can't watch over him shut him out of the room he goes to toilet in.

ok i will try this and let u know the outcome
Thanks soo much!!