History of the CAVALIER
The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of today is descended from the small
Toy Spaniels seen in so many of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth century paintings by Titian, Van Dyck, Lely, Stubbs,
Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. These paintings show small spaniels
with flat heads, high set ears, almond eyes, and rather pointed noses.
During Tudor times, Toy Spaniels were quite common as ladies' pets, but
it was under the Stuarts that they were given the royal title of King
Charles Spaniels.
History tells us that King Charles II was seldom seen without two or
three spaniels at his heels. So fond was King Charles II of his little
dogs, he wrote a decree that the King Charles Spaniel should be accepted
in any public place, even in the Houses of Parliament where animals were
not usually allowed. This decree is still in existence today in England.
As time went by, and with the coming of the Dutch Court, Toy Spaniels
went out of fashion and were replaced in popularity by the Pug. One
exception was the strain of red and white Toy Spaniels that was bred at
Blenheim Palace by various Dukes of Marlborough.
In the early days, there were no dog shows and no recognized breed
standard, so both type and size varied. With little transport available,
one can readily believe that breeding was carried out in a most
haphazard way. By the mid-nineteenth century, England took up dog
breeding and dog showing seriously. Many breeds were developed and
others altered. This brought a new fashion to the Toy Spaniel - dogs
with the completely flat face, undershot jaw, domed skull with long, low
set ears and large, round frontal eyes of the modern King Charles
Spaniel (also called "Charlies" and known in the United States today as
the English Toy Spaniel). As a result of this new fashion, the King
Charles Spaniel of the type seen in the early paintings became almost
extinct.
It was at this stage that an American, Roswell Eldridge, began to search
in England for foundation stock for Toy Spaniels that resembled those in
the old paintings, including Sir Edwin Landseer’s "The Cavalier's Pets."
All he could find were the short-faced Charlies. Eldridge persisted,
persuading the Kennel Club in 1926 to allow him to offer prizes for five
years at Crufts Dog Show - twenty-five pounds sterling for the best dog
and twenty-five pounds sterling for the best bitch -- for the dogs of
the Blenheim variety as seen in King Charles II's reign. The following
is a quotation taken from Crufts’catalog: "As shown in the pictures of
King Charles II's time, long face no stop, flat skull, not inclined to
be domed and with the spot in the center of the skull" and the prizes to
go to the nearest to the type described.
No one among the King Charles breeders took this challenge very
seriously as they had worked hard for years to do away with the long
nose. Gradually, as the big prizes came to an end, only people really
interested in reviving the dogs as they once had been were left to carry
on the breeding experiment. At the end of five years little had been
achieved, and the Kennel Club was of the opinion that the dogs were not
in sufficient numbers, nor of a single type, to merit a breed
registration separate from the Charlies.
In 1928 a dog owned by Miss Mostyn Walker, Ann's Son, was awarded the
prize. (Unfortunately Roswell Eldridge died in 1928 at age 70, only a
month before Crufts, so he never saw the results of his challenge
prizes.) It was in the same year that a breed club was founded, and the
name Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was chosen. It was very important
that the association with the name King Charles Spaniel be kept as most
breeders bred back to the original type by way of the long-faced
throwouts from the kennels of the short-faced variety breeders. Some of
the stock threw back to the long-faced variety very quickly. Pioneers
were often accused of using outcrosses to other suitable breeds to get
the long faces, but this was not true, and crossing to other breeds was
not recommended by the club.
At the first meeting of the club, held the second day of Crufts in 1928,
the standard of the breed was drawn up; it was practically the same as
it is today. Ann's Son was placed on the table as the live example, and
club members brought all the reproductions of pictures of the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries they could muster. As this was a
new and tremendous opportunity to achieve a really worthwhile breed, it
was agreed that as far as possible, the Cavalier should be guarded from
fashion, and there was to be no trimming. A perfectly natural dog was
desired and was not to be spoiled to suit individual tastes, or as the
saying goes, "carved into shape." Kennel Club recognition was still
withheld, and progress was slow, but gradually people became aware that
the movement toward the "old type" King Charles Spaniel had come to
stay. In 1945 the Kennel Club granted separate registration and awarded
Challenge Certificates to allow the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to
gain their championships.
History of the Bernese
The Bernese Mountain Dog is a native Switzerland dog. These dogs are
also known as the Berner Sennenhund (Bernese Alpine Herdsman's dog). The
breed descends from Swiss peasants' dogs which were used for centuries
as shepherd dogs, draft dogs and watchdogs. Some breeders believe that
they have some blood of ancient Molossian. The recorded history of the
Bernese Mountain Dog was started in the end of the 19th century
History of the Goldendoodle
Two breeds make up the Goldendoodle; the Golden Retriever and the
Standard Poodle.
End O’
Lane Kennels
283 Sinclair Road
Delta, Pa 17314
1-717- 862-3638
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All puppies are Vet checked before
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