So despite all my previous warnings about the expensive vet bills of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, you decided to get a puppy.
Well, if you’re rich enough and stubborn enough to want to get this adorable little genetic disaster zone, then I guess I’m going to have to warn you again about how much WORK it will be to find a healthy puppy.
Healthy pups can be tricky to find – and due to the amount of health testing that they need, are likely to be far more expensive than you planned.
How much does a Cavalier puppy cost?
Be prepared to drop £2000 – £3000 on a fully health tested pup, with Champdogs stating that the average price in 2024 is £2212 – still a full £800 more expensive than pups born just before the pandemic. However, in my recent searches, I’ve seen pups listed for almost £5000. Ouch.
Prices have been slowly falling since the pandemic puppy price spike in 2021, but pups still remain massively overpriced. For context, in 2016, these pups cost around £800. I know, I know, I’m heartbroken too.
Sidenote: you could just take your money and find a different breed that is cheaper to buy and overall healthier and you’ll still have cash left over to get yourself an ice cream and congratulate yourself on a decision well made. And depending on which breed you get, you might be able to get yourself a second dog – two for the price of one Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy.
I add in this piece of advice, because many people get hung up on their favourite breed and often ignore other breeds. Or they don’t open their minds to any other possibility. There are many other dog breeds that are just as affectionate that are not affected by terrible genetic health problems.
I spell this out so bluntly because the cost of a Cavalier is high – high to buy, and you will have more expensive pet insurance, and a high likelihood of many expensive trips to the vet. Buying another breed that does not have as many genetic health problems will be cheaper overall – and you’re less likely to end up heartbroken when your dog crosses the rainbow bridge before his/her time.
Okay, moving on.
Even if you do find a good breeder, you’ll still have a LOT of checks to perform before you even meet the puppy.
Treat this exercise the same way as you would with any other expensive purchase – with extreme caution. Imagine you’re buying a used car and you’re talking to dodgy used car salesmen, who will use lies and deceit to try and sell you the duffest car in the shop by telling you it’s got a new set of tyres.
How to find a healthy Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy
First off, you’re going to want to use a website like Champdogs, and the Kennel Club puppy listings to start looking for puppies and breeders. Talk to as many different breeders as you can about their pups, and especially, the health of the parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents of the pup you plan to take home.
Remember – vet CHECKED means a very simple visual health check at the vet. Health TESTED means bloodwork will have been done to determine whether either the sire or the dam is affected by any genetic health issues.
You’ll want to see the results of the health tests of both parents – and if any of the results aren’t anything but perfect, you should walk away at that point. This also goes if any of the grandparents or great grandparents have been tested but show any results that are less than favourable.
Remember – health testing alone as a check is just the first step, the next step is reading the results and understanding what they mean. A good breeder will happily talk to you about what the health tests mean and they will tell you the truth, rather than trying to gloss over the issue.
You should be looking for ‘hereditary clear’ and ‘unaffected’ across all of the following health tests:
- Mitral Valve Disease (MVD) – a disease of the heart
- Episodic Falling (EF)
- Curly Coat (CC)
- Dry eye (DE)
- Luxating patellas
The breeders ideally should have a ‘green’ result from the CKCS Kennel Club heart scheme. This is something you should insist upon as the breed is known to have rampant heart problems, with some pups even born with a heart murmur. Don’t forget to check the results from grandparents of your chosen litter and even the great grandparents for a chance of getting a healthy puppy.
Chiari Malformation (CM) and Syringomielia risk (SM)
Okay, so you got good health checks across many generations.
On to the next stage: checking whether your breeder voluntarily MRI scans their dog’s brains. Why? Because these little fluffballs suffer from a condition called Chairi-like Malformation/SM which means their brains literally don’t fit inside their heads and their brains start to squish and ooze slowly outside the back of their skulls.
Dogs can have it without any symptoms, so parent dogs who are NOT scanned can have the disease without any signs and pass it on to their pups. I cannot imagine literally anything worse than my brain leaking into my spinal cord. Ouch. So definitely check for that in the parents, grandparents, and great grandparents of your chosen litter of pups.
How do you find out if your breeder scans their dogs before breeding? First off – ask the breeder. If possible, ask to see the actual scans or vet reports. A good breeder won’t be intimidated by this and should react well to the request. If you see any squirming or your breeder seems uncomfortable about it, it’s likely that they didn’t MRI scan their pups before breeding.
A word of warning: even KC registered pups with all the other health tests in place may have been bred from parents who have not been MRI scanned. So it is absolutely worth checking with your breeder.
You can also do your own research – the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club has a list of MRI scanned dogs. So you can check the name of the sire and the dam to see if they are on the list. If not, the breeder might not be a member of the club (not all breeders are). Those who are club members are more likely to have scanned their pups (or at least according to my research at the time of writing) – though it might be that your breeder has in fact MRI scanned but is not a member.
Those that do test their bitches for CM/SM should be choosing a stud that also tests – so make sure to check both parents out. Ideally you should be looking at the report and looking for a grade of ‘0’, which means a normal result (i.e. no CM/SM is present). Prepare to back out if grade 1 or 2 is present, as this tells you that CM/SM is present, and how severe the case is. Champdogs thankfully has a list of possible test results and what these should look like, so you can interpret the results more clearly, as vet reports and test results can be confusing if this is your first time purchasing a puppy.
What red flags should you look for in your breeder?
Okay, so you found healthy pups. Hooray! You’ve achieved the almost freakin’ impossible.
If you’ve got this far, there is a good chance that your breeder really does care about their dogs’ wellbeing. Unfortunately, even a quick internet search for Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies will bring up a raft of adverts from potential puppy farmers – which you should know to avoid at all costs.
However, at this point you might wish to ask for information about other litters that your breeder has bred in the past. How often do they breed? How many litters has the bitch had? Hopefully, the bitch hasn’t been bred from in the past 11 months. More than this and you should be wary of purchasing, as some breeders can sometimes get carried away with litters and overbreed their bitches.
Ask for recommendations from owners who have bought from them in the past. If possible, ask for contact details and call them to see what they thought of their experience buying from your chosen breeder. This is a good chance to get to know the possible aunts and uncles of your chosen puppy and find out their temperaments.
Cavaliers are known to be ‘velcro dogs’ and can often suffer from separation anxiety, and although generally are not known to be aggressive dogs, they may have some other unwanted quirks such as nervousness or fear.
Steer clear of a litter if the mother appears anxious of new people, cowers in the corner, or has a tail that is tucked. This is a breed that generally LOVES people and has a happy disposition, with a tail that almost constantly wags. So if you see any other behaviour other than the infectious ‘I love everyone’ personality, it is a sign that the litter may also behave this way too.
Cavs are a sensitive breed who are bright, intelligent, obedient dogs – but they can be sensitive souls, so if you sense that the breeder uses anything but positive reinforcement (such as an e-collar or bark collar), then this is a big red flag.
What questions should you ask the breeder?
Your breeder should also be keeping the puppies indoors, with a whelping box used for the early stages. If there are no photos or video clips from when the puppies were born to the moment you met them, this is a sign that the breeder might not be the actual breeder (another red flag).
You should ask about what early socialisation and training your breeder does with their puppies. A good one will introduce the pups to household noises such as vacuum cleaners, children, other dogs, other pets, and other household sounds. Ideally they will have begun toilet training, and (if you want crate trained pups) they should have begun to introduce a crate.
If you want your pup to compete in agility – then ask whether the puppy parents have competed or won any agility competitions. If you want to get into dog shows and eventually show your dog at shows such as Crufts, then ask if the parents of your pup have had any success at the job. The same goes with if you want your Cavalier to be a therapy or assistance dog. Nothing will ensure success more at your chosen ‘job’ for your dog than knowing how successful your breeder’s dogs have been at showing, agility, or therapy work.
For therapy or assistance dog work – this becomes especially important. You should find out whether your pup’s parents, grandparents, or great grandparents were therapy or assistance dogs and what jobs they did. Find out whether they passed the Public Access Test and at what age. Ideally, your potential therapy or assistance dog should come from a long line of therapy and assistance dogs.
You should also ask your breeder if they do any puppy temperament testing. This can help match you to the right sort of puppy. If you’re looking for a more active puppy, ask your breeder if any of the pups seem more active than others. Alternatively, if you prefer a pup that likes to be more lazy, ask your breeder if there is a puppy with a more relaxed personality.
Remember – even though picking a breed will give you an ‘average’ type of dog personality, there will still be different personality types within the breed. So if you like a dog who is more snuggly, ask for the pup who likes to cuddle the most. Or if you prefer a more independent pup, who is happy to sit next to you rather than being always on you – ask your breeder.
Of course, if you have a preference for male or female or specific colour in mind – of course ask for those. But personally, since all the different colour combinations of Cavaliers are attractive in their own ways – I’d go with the personality that matches what you are most looking for so that you can live a long and harmonious life with your new furry friend.
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