Dedicated to the preservation of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Our Cavalier puppies
Located in Northern Michigan, we occasionally have Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies available to approved companion homes.
Our dogs are raised in our home with our family. Our parent dogs have gone through a variety of health testing, including but not limited to annual Hearts (Cardiologist), Bi-annual Eye (Ophthalmologist) screenings, age appropriate MRI scans, DNA for DE,CC & EF, & patellas.
Please read our Puppy Policies and fill out an Puppy Adoption Questionnaire to be considered for one of our puppies.
Co-Owns
The following are dogs I co-own with friends in the breed.
Bandit
Pixie
Tac/Zac
Skittles
Simon
Retired
We are changing things up in our breeding program. Breeders place dogs for many different reasons. Not every dog shows well, not every dog breeds well, not every dog is a good producer. We desire to be picky about what we breed and we know the type we are striving for. We have added to our health testing and are going in a different direction with our bloodlines. We have been blessed to own many beautiful cavaliers over the years as they were our start. We are very excited about the direction we are taking with our dogs. Our focus is breed type, health and to be competitive in the show ring.
These are some of the beautiful dogs we have owned and have retired over the years:
COMPANION Puppy vs. SHOW potential
COMPANION puppy
This simply means the “breeder” has decided to place the dog with a Limited Registration. (No breeding). We do this for many reasons. Most breeders who invest in their dogs health and bloodlines are not willing to just sell a dog on Full Registration. (Breeding rights)
When a reputable breeder makes the decision to allow someone to purchase a “Full Registration” puppy, they need to know that person purchasing the pup is serious about showing, health testing and breeding to the standard. When sell puppies for showing or breeding, their Kennel name is in that dogs pedigree. We care about our puppies and where their offspring may end up. We are passionate about the breed. We are concerned about who we allow to have our bloodlines and the dogs before ours. There is A LOT of time & research that goes into breeding quality dogs. It is not simply breeding cavalier A to cavalier B. Being serious about health, type and temperament is SO important. Considering the health and type of the generations behind your dogs and the improvements you are striving for is only part of the picture.
So as you can see “COMPANION puppy” does not mean lesser quality. Your puppy will still make a wonderful family member. You also can still compete in other show venues like Agility, Rally, Nose-work, Barn hunt, Lure coursing or Obedience. If well bred, your Cavalier puppy should grow up to look like a beautiful Cavalier. It should a be relatively healthy dog. When well socialized it should exhibit a temperament that is characteristic of the breed. Friendly. (Yes, how they are socialized as a young pup does make a difference)
SHOW Potential
This simply means that the “breeder” feels the dog has the specific qualities that MAY do well in the Conformation show ring. Does this mean they will do well in the show ring? Not necessarily. Everyone has a different eye. Cavaliers are particularly difficult to judge as puppies. The saying in the breed is “Look at them at 8 weeks, then don’t look again until they are two years old”. Cavaliers change. A lot. Unlike some other breeds where what you see at 8 weeks tends to be pretty accurate about what you get as an adult. Cavaliers typically go through some interesting stages of growth. They can get pretty lanky. They tend to come into their own around 18 months of age. Some bloodlines mature quicker and some slower. But generally they start looking nice at about 18 months. Every breeder that has done this for a while has kept a dog as a run on for SHOW that they later decided to place in a COMPANION home. Or placed one in a COMPANION home then later they kick themselves when they see how well they have matured. So SHOW Potential is just that… the puppy shows the “Potential” to do well in the Conformation ring.
What does Pending Litter Evaluation mean?
We are breeding our cavaliers to acquire our own show puppies. There are many factors to consider when choosing a puppy to keep as a run on for show. First understand that conformation rings are very much like a beauty pageant. We are breeding to get the closest we can, to the breed standard. (there truly is NO perfect dog) Each judge has a different opinion about what is correct. Not every judge likes every style of dog. Every judge has a different eye. You can take 1st one day, and not even make the cut on the second day under a different judge. Conformation is very subjective and each judge picks things they feel are most important.
When we are holding puppies for a litter evaluation we are keeping them to at least 8 – 16 weeks of age and then presenting them in front of a number of other breeders or show related people. They evaluate each puppy individually based on structure, markings, breed standard and temperament. Then review the litter as a whole. Then we as the breeder weigh out the pros and cons of each puppy and the goals of that breeding. We score and evaluate how those things may effect our future breeding program. Then the decision is made about if or who to move forward with.
Understand just because a puppy is not picked to move forward as a show prospect it does not mean anything is wrong with it. It may be based on sex (Many small breeders can only keep a limited number of boys), markings (They can either help or hinder the dog in the show ring) and structure (some things are easy to improve on in one generation, some take many to fix). Regardless, your COMPANION puppy is still a quality bred dog. Sometimes there are more than one show potential puppy in a litter. So many factors effect these decisions. Many times the “PICK” of the litter may not even be the breeders favorite puppy. The reality is, if you want to do well in conformation shows, you have to be “overly” picky to move forward in your breed. You also usually have to breed your own dogs to get there. Improving a few things each time. It is not an overnight process. It takes years.
Older pups/dogs
There are occasionally older Cavaliers in need of placement. These dogs vary in age. They may be puppies that were originally kept as run-ons for show potential, Cavaliers that may need to be rehomed, rescued Cavaliers dogs in need of homes, and older dogs either retired from breeding or showing for various reasons.
The nice thing about these dogs is that many times they are a little older and already have had health testing done and are already house broken. All retired parent dogs and come spayed or neutered, have a current dental, are current on vaccinations and wormed. If they are not age appropriate to have been spayed or neutered, then a contract will be signed regarding this. A contract will be signed to return any of these dogs to us if ever you can not keep them.
Our Puppy Policies
- Please first read through Our Policies prior to contacting us…
We are specifically breeding to acquire our own dogs to show. If any upcoming puppies are considered to have show potential, we will not make decisions on which puppies will be available to pet homes the until the puppies are around 9 weeks of age or older, sometimes 5 months of age. We never allow puppies to leave our home before 10-12 weeks of age.
We do not sell puppies with full registrations. Anything with show potential we will most likely keep ourselves, place with a trusted friend, or will be placed as a companion pet on a spay/neuter contract. We consider ourselves guardians of the breed. There are lots of Cavalier breeders out there, and lots of Cavaliers in rescue. This is a lovely breed that is not served well by anyone that is not serious about breed health and breed standards. We are very passionate about this.
We occasionally have older pups or dogs, that either have been kept as a run for show that didn’t work out, or are retired dogs in need of placements. Retired dogs does not mean there are problems with them. We retire our dogs for a variety of reasons. Some dogs don’t mature as we hoped (we want a certain look), they may not like showing, sometimes they don’t pass all the clearances especially as they age. We must consider everything in a breeding dog, they may have whelping issues, nursing issues, a difficult coat to manage, the list is endless. With boys a lot depends on fertility, how they are with other male dogs, marking, what they reproduce? Placing them does not mean they are not healthy or that there was a problem with them. We keep boys for our own use, not to be stud dogs. We look for the right homes for our older dogs. We do not want to have too many dogs in our home making it difficult to groom them, care for them appropriately or spend time with them.
These dogs have a set adoption fee and come spayed/neutered, health tested etc. The advantage adopting one of these dogs is they are housebroken, are already through the puppy stage and their temperament and personalities are well established. Our dogs are a part of a family.
Our Puppies
All puppies come with a copy of a current annual clearance for heart and bi-annual eyes (Cardiologist and CERF) of both parent dogs. All of our parent dogs have received age-appropriate MRI’s to scan for SM. We will also include copies of the parents Hips, Patellas and DE, CC & EF DNA clearances if applicable.
Puppies will have received minimally their first vaccination (depending on when they go to their new homes). All puppies have been wormed on a schedule which includes pyrantel pamoate at 2, 3, 4, and 3 days of Panacur at 6 & 8 weeks.
All puppies are veterinarian checked (a photo, micro-chip, health check is done on every puppy) and they are vaccinated around 9 weeks of age. You have 48 hours once to take your puppy to a veterinarian of your choice. If your veterinarian finds any health issue that was unknown or not disclosed, you may return the puppy for a full refund.
All puppies are sold on a limited AKC Registration. (This means they *cannot* be shown in AKC conformation classes or be bred). However, if you are interested in showing they can be shown in Agility, rally other Performance Venues and become Certified Therapy Dogs. See PET puppy vs. SHOW potential.
All of our puppies are sold on a spay and neuter contract. We suggest altering to be done between the ages of 18 months and 2 years old. We encourage our puppy families to consider an Ovary Sparing Spay or Vasectomy for their dogs. This is an acceptable form of alteration without the side effects of a traditional Spay/Neuter. However, we do not “require” this. Please research the positives and negatives of each option and decide for yourself what works for you and your family.
If ever you cannot keep your puppy/dog for any reason it must be returned to us for placement. After doing years of animal rescue work, I do not want to see any of our puppies change hands and end up in a bad situation. We will always take them back and work to rehome them with an approved family. Any money received for their new placement will be refunded to the previous owner, minus actual expenses of acquiring them and keeping them while an appropriate home is located.
We desire to keep an open line of communication with our puppies’ families. We are here to support you, long after you take your puppy home. We ask that you contact us with pictures and updates. This is a great way for us to keep up with puppy families.
We also hope you will share any health testing you have done, so we can make it a part of our files.
We require a $500 conditional deposit on any puppy to be held for a potential adopter. We do not typically take deposits until puppies are at least 3 weeks of age. The conditions are as follows; In order to “hold” a specific pup/sex/color we require a deposit. (If your circumstances change, please let us know as we are not unreasonable and we do desire our adopters to make a lifetime commitment to our pups.) Please understand if any conditions arise that creates questions of a potential adopter’s suitability, we as the breeder reserve the right to return the deposit and refuse the placement. Also, if a health condition were to arise in a specific pup, it will be disclosed, and the adopter reserves the right to have the full deposit returned.
Our desire is to produce healthy well socialized cavaliers that align closely as possible to the breed standard. We want our puppy adopters to feel confident that we will do our best to support them for the long haul and that we are not just wanting to sell them a puppy.
Our puppies come with Limited AKC Registration, a 3-generation pedigree, first shots, wormed, micro-chipped, vet checked, written health and spay/neuter contract, and with food they are used eating. (We feed the following foods: Orijen, Acana, Merrik, Raw & Freeze dried Primal Patties and we use Answers goat’s milk. We rotate our formulas & protein sources.)
We encourage our adoptive families to visit their puppy and bring a toy, blanket or bed that they can leave here for their puppy and then take home when they take their puppy home. (It helps them to have something that smells familiar when they leave their brothers and sisters to go to their new home).
See PET Puppies vs. SHOW Potential, Understanding this process.
Waiting List & Puppy Adoption Questionnaire
We get many inquiries about puppies. Sometimes it’s very overwhelming. (Priority is always given to families who have already gotten a pup from us). I encourage interested families to check back in with us if they are serious about adopting a puppy from us. I don’t mind check in e-mails about upcoming breeding plans etc. Keeping in touch with us is the best way to acquire a puppy from us.
Please fill out the puppy questionnaire below:
Our Puppy Adoption – Questionnaire – Must be filled out to apply to adopt any of our dogs
