The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a delightfully affectionate, playful, intelligent little dog that repays his owner’s care and attention with an endearing devotion.  Cavaliers are not kennel dogs. Because of four hundred years of close contact with their owners and their development as lap dogs, they make wonderful companions. They are happy, outgoing, loving little dogs who want to love you and be loved, to run and play in a safe place, and to sleep in a soft bed – preferably your bed, but they’re willing to negotiate on that point! They get along well with children, cats, and other dogs.

Because young Cavalier puppies are so small, some breeders are reluctant to sell a puppy to a family with children under age five. Such families may find that an older puppy or grown dog may be more suitable. Cavalier puppies do not thrive when left all day without human companionship or the company of another animal. They are highly intelligent and require the same consistent and loving discipline as does a child.

Cavaliers are active and sporting little dogs that require regular exercise. They have an instinct to give chase to just about anything that moves, and should either be on a leash or in a fenced yard or they will surely come to grief under the wheels of a car. Because Cavaliers never become “street-wise,” some Cavalier breeders require a fenced yard as a prerequisite for Cavalier ownership.

While Cavaliers are clean, intelligent, and easy to groom and train, they do shed, occasionally chew things, and sometimes forget their manners by barking, making a puddle, and so on. In other words, they really are first and always dogs, in spite of their ethereal faces!