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You can also buy a Cavalier from Britain. The same procedure. Contact The Kennel Club (of great Britain, simply called "The Kennel Club"), get their approved breeder's list, and go from there.
I'm going to add that I have noticed this: many of the reputable breeders stopped breeding with Covid because they don't want strangers coming to their house to look at puppies. So the number of puppies available has been greatly reduced and that drives the price way up.
I watch the hunting Springers, waiting for the right litter and the price of Springers has tripled and the type of pedigree I am looking for isn't available this year. This is a difficult time to find a puppy if you have specific criteria.
I watch the Braccos, not because I want a new puppy, but just to watch what happens in the breed. Same thing. The price has doubled and the best pedigrees are not available this year,
I have also heard that some breeders are getting increasing numbers of nasty online posts and even threats from more unreasonable militant members of the "adopt don't shop" crowd. Info can spread so quickly now online all over the country that many are afraid to give their address out. We all know how crazy FB posters and the like can get so it's a legit concern. Dog theft is an issue too.
Some smaller reputable breeders have expressed sentiments that the stress just isn't worth it anymore. Add CoVid concerns to these existing issues and I am not surprised to hear of a great reduction in breeding.
Cavaliers are a wonderful breed, very sweet, affectionate, and easy to live with. They are also beautiful to look at, so there is high demand.
Raising strong healthy puppies with good temperaments costs a lot of money, no matter what the breed. Raising a good strong litter of Cavaliers is especially expensive because they have health problems in the breed that must be tested for and bred away from. Time must be invested in research of the pedigree.
Some of the health testing must be repeated every year, such as the tests for genetic eye disease.
High expense to breed a litter and the breed has small litters, so very few pups to spread the expense among. It costs as much or more to breed a litter of Cavaliers as it costs to breed a litter of Labradors and the Labrador has 10-12 puppies to spread the cost around and the Cavalier might only have two.
Occasionally, a cavalier might require a C-section, which adds a couple of thousand dollars to the cost of the litter and the breeder must have those funds set aside, just in case of emergency.
You can buy a healthy Cavalier if you are careful how you shop for one. This is a breed that you should never ever buy from a pet store or a backyard breeder.
If you go to the AKC website, they have a page that will tell you how to get in touch with the Cavalier parent club. You contact the parent club and they will have a list of approved breeders. You contact a breeder, get investigated and approved, and then go onto a waiting list.
Interesting...Thanks for all the detailed info! I appreciate it.
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Cavaliers are a wonderful breed, very sweet, affectionate, and easy to live with. They are also beautiful to look at, so there is high demand.
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High expense to breed a litter and the breed has small litters, so very few pups to spread the expense among. . . .
All very good advice you've gotten so far, although I would say they health issues have been understated. All King Charles Cavalier Spaniels are descended from 6 dogs. Talk about inbreeding!
One other point - about the cost. The demand curve, in economics, has two essential ingredients: what the supplier is willing to sell for, and what the consumer is willing to pay. Oregon puts it nicely - with Lab breeders, the producers are in competition - and are willing to start their pricing at a lower price. Demand is high, but so is supply. For KCCS breeders, the lowest price starts much higher. Demand is also high, but supply is not - so the buyers are competing for what supply there is - and the buyers play a significant role in keeping those prices high.
The same is true for French Bulldogs - another breed that, AFAIC, should not even be allowed to breed anymore, due to the extreme health issues. But people want to buy them anyway, so the prices are sky-high.
Love spaniels but every single one I've known has died early due to health issues.
Health issues aren’t inevitable with spaniels. My family’s field-bred Springer made it to age 16 with no significant health problems. My parents’ first Cavalier was euthanized just a few days short of his 17th birthday, and their current one is still going strong at age 12. Both Cavs did develop heart murmurs around age 10, but did well with medication.
But if you want the best chance for a healthy spaniel, you need to get one from a breeder who is very familiar with their health issues and is breeding away from those problems. (Which is true for all breeds, but especially true for Cavaliers!)
My three Springer Spaniels lived to nearly 16, 14.5 years, and almost 13, respectively. My current dog, an English Cocker, is almost 14.
I would love to have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but I believe that 20-50% of them get heart disease (mitral valve degenerative disorder?); and I don't want to get a dog that has a good chance of dying before he or she is 12.
Yep. Springers and Cockers are a different story, each breed. Both have some issues, but the KC Cavalier is in a completely different realm of issues. Responsible breeders can breed away from the issues, but that creates a new set of issues. You see, every time you breed purebred, and breed away from one issue, you are REDUCING the gene pool of that breed. Breed-wide, that practice will eventually reduce the gene pool for the whole breed - even more than it already is. Any OTHER health issues become MORE likely.
Personally, if I were a KCCS person? Although this is a radical approach amongst dog breeders (not so much for other 'purebred' livestock animals), I would be looking to introduce a series of outcrosses to revitalize and recreate the breed, with a larger, and hopefully healthier, gene pool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aredhel
. . .But if you want the best chance for a healthy spaniel, you need to get one from a breeder who is very familiar with their health issues and is breeding away from those problems. (Which is true for all breeds, but especially true for Cavaliers!)
Outside of the philosophy of continuing these breeds, should one still want to get a KCCS, Aredhel is 100% spot-on with this advice.
Personally, if I were a KCCS person? Although this is a radical approach amongst dog breeders (not so much for other 'purebred' livestock animals), I would be looking to introduce a series of outcrosses to revitalize and recreate the breed, with a larger, and hopefully healthier, gene pool.
That's what ultimately needs to happen. The breed club needs to start an appendix registry to allow for controlled outcrossing to other small spaniel breeds in order to increase genetic diversity while still preserving type. (All breeds really need to do that, but with Cavs it's essential!)
Dog breeders could really learn a lot from livestock breeders, if they'd just toss aside their Victorian-era ideas of 'breed purity."
I would love to have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but I believe that 20-50% of them get heart disease...
They ALL get it. It's just a question of how old the dog is when the murmur develops. Obviously, the older, the better. There's a huge difference in prognosis between a dog who's heart murmur starts at age 3 and one whose murmur starts at age 12.
But as Hiero has said, ultimately the breed club needs to open up the studbook to allow for controlled outcrossing to healthier small spaniel breeds. To really fix the problem, more genetic diversity is what is needed.
Edited to add a sad update: My father called me this afternoon to let me know his 12 year old Cavalier died of congestive heart failure this weekend. She was doing very well on medication - until very suddenly she wasn't. If you have a Cavalier, the odds are high that you will lose the dog to heart failure; it's just a question of when. 12's not too bad, although it's a shorter lifespan than you expect with most small-breed dogs (but about average for a Cav), but some of them go much younger.
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We had two of them, brother and sister. We bought them about 1987, before they were recognized by the AKC, for $300 each, from a home breeder. The grandmother and mother were imported from England, the father came from there a few years earlier, from another local breeder in California. Another of the litter ended up having a heart condition, but ours made it to 10 and 12 years, about as expected (9-14 years). They were both wonderful, affectionate, and I rarely use this word, sweet dogs. Absolutely no worries around young children. They do need considerable brushing effort, especially the ears. The only problem at all was when they want to sit on your lap on a hot summer day.
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