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Peter Moxon, for 40 years kennel editor of Shooting Times, recommended the Cavalier King Charles as the ideal canine companion for the sportsman, or woman, who had had to give up their springers or labradors but still wanted a proper dog. There’s more to a cavalier than meets the eye. Chloe, another holidaying cavalier and not the most energetic of dogs, astonished me once by pursuing my chickens with what seemed like deadly intent. Here, strangers came up, made a fuss of her and declared that they used to have a cavalier just like her. One, fittingly a Blenheim, even accompanied me to a Game Fair at Blenheim. I’ve never seen a cavalier in the shooting field but I have had plenty of experience of the breed as several cavaliers belonging to friends have enjoyed holidays at Maison Tomlinson. There were acres of wild gorse in the park, inhabited by countless rabbits, and these little animals which one is accustomed only to think of in connection with a lady’s lap, used to face the dense and prickly covert with a determination and keenness which would have done credit to any of their larger cousins.” MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE In Claude Cane’s The Sporting Spaniel, published originally in 1906, the author recalls enjoying excellent sport “some quarter of a century ago over a team of King Charles spaniels in the south of Ireland. If you search the spaniel literature, references to both Blenheims and cavaliers are frequent. These became known as Blenheim spaniels, and today one of the four recognised cavalier colours is the chestnut-and-white Blenheim. The first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, kept diminutive, red-and-white spaniels for shooting and they were described at the time as “excellent and indefatigable, being in great estimation with those sportsmen who can become possessed of the breed”. A photograph of Barley retrieving a partridge strengthened her mistress’s argument, while Tansy was pictured emerging from dense cover while out beating. This past year there were two: Tansy, claimed to be “the hardest working cavalier in the country” (she’s out shooting two days a week) and Barley, who goes picking up and whose owner claims she is the “best working cavalier in the country”. The Field’s annual gundog awards include a class for ‘the best gundog that does not belong to a gundog breed’, and every year there are strong entries from cavaliers. If he’s not sitting on a lap or getting a belly rub, nothing makes him happier than to flush a bird and then attempt to retrieve it.” Remarkably, I think that’s true. One breed profile I found insists that the cavalier “retains the sporty nature of his spaniel ancestors. The latter may be toy spaniels, bred originally to be foot warmers and lapdogs in Tudor England, but they’ve never quite forgotten their spaniel ancestry and many still display an unlikely enthusiasm for hunting. I reported this in my article, only for a trialler, as renowned for his skill in the field as his lack of sense of humour, to challenge me on the idea of gamebag gundogs.Ī couple of decades later, I’m coming round to the idea of gamebag gundogs in general and cavaliers in particular. You could pop it in your bag on a shooting day and get it out when it was needed, such as when looking for the runner that all the labradors had failed to find. He assured me, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, that the cavalier was the perfect gamebag gundog. Many years ago I interviewed a gundog breeder and trainer with a passion for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
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Read cockerpoo gundogs: the rise of the cockerpoo. They could make pocket rocket gundogs, worthy of The Field Gundog Awards.įor more on spaniels, David Tomlinson wonders whether cockerpoos are here to stay in the field. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels were bred to be foot warmers and lapdogs in Tudor England, but they haven’t forgotten their spaniel ancestry, says David Tomlinson.