Second and third places would receive smaller cash prizes – two and one pound, respectively – and Eldridge announced the arrangement would go on for five years – a commitment that would eventually cost him, in today’s currency, more than $20,000.Įldridge wasn’t the only one to champion a return to the original King Charles Spaniel.
In the early 1900s, Judith Blunt-Lytton, the 16 th baroness of Wentworth, attempted to re-create the original breed using Toy Trawler Spaniels – believed to have descended from Charles II’s earlier-style dogs as well as early ancestors of the Sussex Spaniel. But she was ultimately unsuccessful.Īs for Eldridge’s attempt, despite the financial incentive, the initial response was tepid at best. Part of this had to do with the short notice of only a few months. But a huge factor was the disinterest – and in some cases outright hostility – of those breeders who like their flat-faced spaniels just fine, thank you. More to the point, Eldridge was creating an incentive to show the very dogs that they had been systematically rejecting, precisely because of their long muzzles and flat foreheads.ĭespite the disdain, four dogs did enter Eldridge’s special classes at Crufts in 1926. In subsequent years, breeders had the time to purposefully breed for the restored spaniel that Elridge sought, and the classes at Crufts grew proportionately.Īt Crufts in 1928, the third year Eldridge’s special prizes were offered, several breeders founded a club for the new – or, in this case, not-so-new – breed, which was initially considered a “Cavalier type” variety of the King Charles Spaniel. At that same show, a male named Ann’s Son won Best of Breed (a feat he repeated for the next two years, ending his show career undefeated), and he was used as the template for a standard. His breeder, Miss Mostyn Walker, who bred English Toy Spaniels, also bred Papillons, leaving us to forever wonder from whence he got his elongated muzzle. Other sources suggest that various Cocker Spaniels and perhaps even the Welsh Springer Spaniel were used to nudge along this transformation from “noseless” to “nosey.”Ĭh. Little Dorritt of Ttiweh with her 1949 litter, including influential stud dogs Ch. Jupiter of Ttiweh and Mars of Ttiweh, born four years after the newly revived Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was recognized by the Kennel Club (UK) as as a separate breed. Though the freshly minted Cavalier fanciers were in agreement that this reincarnated style of spaniel should have a longer muzzle, higher-set ears, flatter head, and longer leg, differences of opinion still existed.
Going back to the time of Charles II, litters produced both smaller, more lap-dog-like puppies, and larger, comparatively more substantial ones. In centuries past, the more toy-like Cavaliers became ladies’ lapdogs – referred to as “carpet” or “sleeve” spaniels – and the sturdier ones might still be taken out in the field to flush woodcock.Įldridge’s ad specifically mentioned “Blenheim Spaniels,” a family of distinctively red-and-white dogs named after the palace where they had been bred for centuries. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels come in four patterns or colors – including black and tan, tricolor, and ruby.
0 kommentar(er)
