The Cavalier Improvement Project’s goal is to produce dogs who look and act like a Cavalier, with good health. The main health goals are:
- Eliminate IVDD /CDDY
- Eliminate MVD heart disease
- Eliminate SM /CM
- Eliminate Brachycephalic traits
- Reduce inbreeding to below 10%
- Increase better overall health and longer lifespan of Cavaliers
To achieve this goal, a wide assortment of families of Cavaliers should be bred to a huge assortment of types of dogs. Then these half Cavaliers should be paired together for subsequent generations. This means keeping the Cavalier generics approximately 50% of the pedigree.
Former outcross projects of many types of dogs, including Cavalier, have shown that breeding the outcross directly back to the project’s purebred was not successful in improving health. Meaning offspring with 75% (or higher percentage) of the project’s breed genetics added in resulted into the same health concerns as the pure-breds.
Our best chance of improving Cavalier’s health is to pair dogs who are half Cavalier to half Cavalier, with a wide assortment of “other” types of dogs added in for the “other” sides of the pedigree.
Half Cavalier offspring who are kept for breeding should be disese tested and chosen based on health, temperament and lastly, physical traits of a small spaniel type. But, different than our modern day Cavalier, we need to adjust the head type. The goal is to create a small size spaniel type dog with a longer skull to eliminate SM/CM. In addition, the dogs should have no Brachycephalic traits.
Tell me more! How can this be achieved?
A Cavalier is crossed to an “other” type of dog. The offspring is half Cavalier. The “other” dog should offer genetic and structural health improvement in more than one category.
On subsequent generations, we need to pair dogs who are both half Cavalier, but the “other” side of both dogs do not share many ancestors. We want to avoid line-breeding on the “other side”. Having a wide variety additions of types of dogs added in can repair the offspring’s “fixed genes” that are causing the poor health of Cavaliers. Adding in a wide assortment of new genetics can result in offspring who are genetically diverse, less inbred, and robust. We are creating a healthier dog by adding in genes that are missing in the Cavalier plus reducing autosomal recessive genes (passed from both parents to offspring). Too many traits in Cavaliers are a “fixed gene” due to the small gene pool of founder dogs 100 years ago, plus, repeated inbreeding of all Cavaliers over the past 100 years in a closed gene pool. This practice has led to poor health of our dogs today and a majority COI over 35%.
In the Cavalier Improvement Project the only dog type we want to “line breed” on is the Cavalier, since this is a Cavalier project. Our goal is to produce dogs who look and behave like Cavaliers, yet have high diversity of genes, and eliminate Cavalier specific health issues.
Types of dogs added should be an attempt to improve more than one health concern for each pairing.
Breeds that may be good choices:
- Poodle, Bichon, Maltese, Coton, Papillon, Mi Ki, Havanese
- Spitz: Pomeranian, Am Eskimo, Schipperke,
- Asian: ShihTzu, Shiba, Tibetan Terrier, Lowchen
- Terrier: Rat, DSF, Australian, Jack
- Mini Aussie, Sheltie, OES, Collie
- Retrievers: Golden, Lab
- Llewellin Setter, Brittany, Springer, ECS
- Whippet, Silken,
- Beagle
- Parent dogs with a wide variety of types of breeds blended together is an ideal way to add diversity in one pairing to a Cavalier
Show me how this done?
Below is an example of how a first generation pairing can be done to achieve the goals listed above. Each of the health goals are explained.
In our example we choose two dogs who are well tested with OFA and DNA disese screenings.
Jazzy is a Cavalier, bred to a mini Poodle, Cooper. The following examples show how we can improve health by choosing a mini poodle to pair with a Cavalier.
The long term goal is to blend dogs together who are 50% Cavalier, but the other 50% of the genetics are highly diverse.
In just a few generations of pairing half Cavaliers to each other we can choose offspring who look and behave like a Cavalier. In just a few generations we can live with Cavalier look-a-likes, who are far healthier than Cavaliers of today.
IVDD/ CDDY
Cooper is IVDD/CDDY clear.
Jazzy has 2 copies of IVDD /CDDY, as do 100% of all Cavaliers.
This means the half Cavalier puppies can only inherit 1 copy of IVDD/CDDY. This puts us one step closer to IVDD/CDDY clear dogs. On the pairing of a Jazzy/ Cooper offspring to another half Cavalier with 1 copy of IVDD/CDDY, we can then choose a Clear/Normal offspring by DNA testing and choose the next generations breeding candidate. IVDD/CDDY can easily be eliminated in the 4th generation and beyond.
MVD Heart Disese
Mini poodles can have late onset MVD at senior age, and often they never have MVD
Cavaliers often have early onset MVD and die young. Experts say most Cavaliers have MVD if they live long enough.
A poodle added into Cavalier improves the odds of later onset MVD, or no MVD in the offspring
SM / CM
Poodles do not have SM or CM
Most Cavaliers have CM, and about half of the Cavalier population has SM
The longer skull of a poodle added into the small domed head of a Cavalier can improve the offspring skull shape to eliminate SM and CM. Offspring chosen to continue the Cavalier Improvement Project should have a longer flatter skull, and/or MRI scan showing no CM or SM.
Brachycephalic
Poodles have a long nose and do not have any Brachycephalic head traits.
Most Cavaliers have a Brachycephalic head/nasal passage structure
The offspring of these two breeds produces a moderate head/nasal passage that is rarely Brachycephalic in structure.
In Subsequent generations dogs should be chosen as breeding candidates who have no brachycephalic head traits.
COI and Inbreeding
Many mini poodles are highly diverse and often have a COI of 3%-15%.
All Cavaliers are highly inbred and all have a COI over 25%, the majority are over 35%
The offspring of a Poodle and Cavalier can range between 0%-5%, meaning the offspring has high diversity and low inbreeding.
The second generation of half Cavaliers with unrelated “other” side of the pedigree can be 3%-10% COI.
Overall Health
Poodles have a few of poodle specific health concerns, and a few small-breed dog common concerns. Some of these diseases are able to be eliminated with DNA disese testing and/or careful breeding. Overall, mini poodles are known for a long healthy life. Very few health concerns are shared by both breeds.
Cavaliers have a long list of ailments that plague many in the population. Many of these ailments are rare in most healthy varieties of dogs and there are no DNA tests for the conditions. All Cavaliers are closely related to each other, so the opportunity to breed away from health concerns is nearly impossible.
Poodles and Cavalier share only a few similar health concerns. Overall, poodles are generally healthy type of dog. The offspring of a pairing of Poodle & Cavalier gives way for better health and longevity due to high diversity, low inbreeding and healthier structure of the offspring’s head shape.
To help out, please join the Companion Dog Project and Registry
By joining the Companion Dog Project and Registry you can help facilitate the Cavalier Improvement Project with your financial contribution. In addition, we need breeder-members and puppy owner members of Cavalier cross dogs who are part of the project.