By Marry Sorensen
Super Bowl Sunday 1998 holds a special place in Chris Susen's heart. But when this 6-foot, 3-inch former jock from St. Paul, Minn., talks about the day, he barely remembers the game. A doe-eyed pup with fuzzy ears and a wagging tail stole the show at his big game party, where 15 of Susen's college buddies each bigger and brawnier than the next had gathered to yell at the television, eat pizza and party.
The culprit: 10-week-old Colette, a tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Her crime: being irresistible. The game-eclipsing moment: when, despite efforts to keep her away, she dragged a full cup of beer to a guest so she could play with the cup. (She only spilled a little.)
"Colette was just having a blast," Susen said of his now 9-month-old dog. "She was very small and these were very big men. They'd pick her up and, no matter what, her tail would be constantly wagging."
A tail in perpetual motion is signature Cavalier. As are those big, expressive, melt-your-heart eyes and ears that beg to be stroked. Few can resist a Cavalier, and that's good, because the average Cavalier lives for attention and has never met a person it didn't like.
The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel's agreeable temperament didn't develop by accident. For hundreds of years, they were bred for no other reason than to serve as companions, royal bed-warmers and even hot-water bottles. Early Toy Spaniels, the assumed forebears of today's Cavalier, appeared in paintings and tapestries as early as the 15th century.
What's in a Name?
The breed's tongue-twister name honors its close ties with King Charles II known as Cavalier King Charles who reputedly took his Cavaliers with him everywhere during his reign from 1660 to 1685. "There are wonderful stories of diarists at the time who spoke of the noisome, smelly dogs that were constantly surrounding the king," said Martha Guimond, a breeder in Green Lane, Pa., and corresponding secretary and historian for the American Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club. "He was more interested in his dogs than he was in affairs of state, they wrote. That's exactly what you have: a dog that is devoted to the people it is around. It's 400 years of dogs not bred to do anything except be with you."
Changes in fashion inspired by a fascination with all things Oriental nearly caused the Cavalier to become extinct during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras in England. It wasn't until 1926 when an American named Roswell Eldridge went to Great Britain looking for examples of the Cavalier that interest in the dog resurfaced (he offered cash prizes for the best examples). The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club formed in England in 1928; its American counterpart was founded in 1956.
The Cavalier's energy often surprises owners who assume companionable means docile pillow-warmer. With its sporting Spaniel background, the Cavalier remains an active breed capable of joining its owner for laps around the park as easily as for lap time on the couch. And lookout around birds and squirrels. "They will chase something that flies and runs," Guimond said.
Cavaliers excel at obedience, agility and tracking, and their sweet yet hardy nature makes them ideal therapy and assistance dogs, said Dawn Glaser-Falk, a breeder and obedience instructor in Princeton, Minn. The editor of the breed club's newsletter, Glaser-Falk founded the assistance-dog group Paws for People and competes with her Cavaliers in the show ring, obedience circuit, tracking field and agility course. Her dogs also swim and cross-country ski with her. "A lot of us describe them as Golden Retrievers in a little body because of the variety of things they like," she said.
When Susan Adams, a veteran breeder in Glen Rock, Pa., and breed club rescue coordinator, placed a dog with a woman who taught severely handicapped children, she got another lesson in the versatility and beauty of Cavaliers. "She brought the dog to school each day to work with the children," Adams said. "The dog took to one autistic child. One afternoon the teacher called the parents and said, 'You have to come see this.' The boy was interacting with the dog and he was laughing. No one had ever heard him laugh before. To me, that typifies what this breed is about."
Adopt a Cavalier and you'll soon feel you have a new friend at home, one who tunes into your emotions and comforts you when you are down or plays when you are up. The rest of your family will find the same. "This is not a one-man dog," Guimond said. "They usually love everyone in the family."
Don't expect the Cavalier to sleep in the corner on a rug while you carry on with your busy life. It will be happiest in the middle of any activity, even if that means riding along in its crate while you run errands. "This isn't a toy you take out on occasion, then put up on a shelf," Adams said. "You really have to want to live with this dog and make it part of your life. This is a dog that sleeps on your bed, sits on your lap when you watch television, goes for a hike with you, hops in the car for a ride when you take the kids to get ice cream. And you give it part of the ice cream cone."
Of course, you want to watch your Cavalier's waistline closely. The breed has inherited the Spaniel propensity for putting on excess weight. "They look at you with those big eyes," Adams said. "The next thing you know you are giving them treats that they shouldn't have and then they start looking like sausages on legs."
Generally quiet and well-mannered, a bored Cavalier, like any other breed, may dig, chew, jump or get into other mischief. "As angelic as they are, they are still dogs and will let instinct overcome them sometimes," Glaser-Falk said.
A Cavalier with access to a fenced yard and a playmate will generally exercise itself. Short of this scenario, a daily walk and a little playtime satisfy the breed's exercise needs. The Cavalier's field-dog nose and toy-dog trusting nature mean owners need a containment system to prevent the dog from running off.
Grooming is simple: Bathe and brush regularly, especially the long silky hair of the ears, legs, chest and tail that tends to gather debris. Keep the ear canal clean and dry to avoid infection and trim excess hair between the toes to keep your Cavalier comfortable.
You can easily train most Cavaliers. Praise and food highly motivate them. Because they are very sensitive, don't use negative training, Guimond said. "What they want is your praise. The biggest punishment you can give a Cavalier is to withdraw your attention and affection."
Because of their small size, Cavalier pups must be protected from young children and other pets that may play too rough, but grown dogs thrive on companionship of all kinds. With no human lap to crawl into, several Cavaliers are likely to pile up on top of each other for a nap.
Glaser-Falk raised her three children, Nick, Brett and Coree Mueller (now 18, 16 and 13, respectively) with Cavaliers, and the dogs and kids always had a good relationship, she said. In fact, when Glaser-Falk twisted her ankle before a recent conformation show, her daughter Coree, who had never handled a dog in a show ring, stepped in and won a Best of Opposite her first time out.
Cavaliers tend to do well in the show ring, Guimond said, with several Best of Shows awarded in recent years. "They don't do as well as, say, Toy Poodles because they are a natural dog and don't have the showiness of the cut," she said. "We present our dogs in a totally natural way; in other words, we don't [pose] them and make them look like statues. Our breed standard says, 'The tail should be in characteristic motion at all times.' It should be wagging. They should go around the ring looking happy, maybe not as fabulous and statuesque as the Poodles, but that's what the Cavalier is."
Heart-Wrenching Issue
After researching the breed, Susen nearly didn't adopt Colette. The reason: mitrovalve disease, a heart-murmur condition affecting nearly all Cavaliers that is responsible for its relatively short life expectancy of 9 to 11 years, though some may live to 14.
While research continues and reputable breeders struggle to purge the disease, progress is slow. "Probably 99 percent of Cavaliers will have a heart murmur by the time they are 10," Adams said. "Statistically, close to 50 percent will have it by the time they are 4 to 5 years old. It's in every line; it's in every color. It's equally divided between the males and females. Anybody who tells you their dogs do not have murmurs has either not been in the breed or is not telling the truth. It's a fact of life."
Murmurs affect each dog differently. Some live normal lives while others die in weeks. "There isn't any degree of predictability as to when it appears and what the severity of the disease will be," Adams said. Her 12 1/2 year old Cavalier developed a severe murmur at the age of 7 but remains active and medication free. "He bounces around with no problem," Adams said. "Knock on wood, he's going to do this for long time. On the other hand, I had one drop dead at the age of 4."
Occasional incidences of hip dysplasia and retinal dysplasia (an eye condition that generally does not affect vision but mandates a dog not be bred) occur. As in most small breeds, patellar subluxation (knee dislocation) can be a problem.
With the shroud of heart disease ever in the background, Cavalier owners live in the moment with their "love dogs." Susen is determined to enjoy Colette and her Cavalier ways.
"They are addictive," he said. "The love they imbue upon their owners is fantastic. It's contagious. I can come home from a terrible day at work where all I want to do is sit and stew, and one look at Colette and I forget everything I was upset about."
Come January and the next National Football League extravaganza, Susen might have to forget turning on the TV, too. Colette will be there, basking in the attention of friends and family, and Hoover, a Cavalier pup who will soon join the family, will be at his show-stopping cutest. Go, team!
Marry Sorensen is a free-lance writer based in Costa Mesa, Calif.