We added Cavaliers to our Red-Dawn pack a few years ago. We’ve always kept a few “little dogs” over the years along side our big dogs. Our first little in the 1980’s was a rescue dachshund / chihuahua cross. Later in the early 2000’s we became a BOM for Chinese Cresteds and hold some top AKC dog show rankings with them. After that in 2009 we switched to Mini & Moyen Poodles. Most recently added are our Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, CKCS.
Our goal at Red-Dawn Cavaliers is to improve the health of the breed, by adding in genetic diversity. Health must trump good looks, size, coat color, coat length, head shape, type etc. If we don’t have good health then we are adding to heartbreak for every pet owner who gets a puppy. Nothing is worse than to later have that sweet dog plagued with horrible health.
The Cavalier’s unique breed specific health problems come from their high COI = the very close relatedness of ALL Cavaliers.
COI means Coefficient of Inbreeding
Based on DNA testing, all CKCS are 25%-50% inbred, with the majority near 35%. As a comparison, if full siblings from genetically diverse genealogy were to produce offspring, their children’s COI is about 25%.
The only way to improve the health of Cavaliers is to:
Increase Genetic Diversity
That equals adding in new varieties of dogs into Cavaliers, then crossing those 1/2 Cavalier offspring dogs together and choosing offspring to reproduce who have:
DNA testing to eradicate any health issue that we have DNA screening for
Thorough screening of parent dogs with MRI scans, OFA testing and honesty about dog’s health issues
Choosing dogs that look and act like Cavaliers so we can get back to our favorite traits in just a few generations.
Exactly how are the Cavalier cross projects done?
As of 2024, most projects have bred a Cavalier to “other breed” then cross this 1/2 Cavalier back to Cavalier. This has proven to produce the same health problems as full Cavalier.
Data and science has taught us that we must produce 1/2 Cavaliers with a wide variety of “other breeds” to create a vast amount of diversity in parents that are 1/2 Cavalier. This means we reduce line-breeding to only the Cavalier side of the gene pool.
1/2 Cavaliers are bred together for each generation. We avoid pairing 1/2 Cavaliers back to Cavaliers. Instead we only cross a 1/2 Cavaliers to another 1/2 Cavalier, with the goal of diversity of genetics from the “other breeds”.
Breeders may choose to keep dogs whose phenotype resemble a Cavalier to create a Cavalier appearance in a dog with a greater diversity.
Most Cavalier Improvement Project breeders agree that the Cavalier standard head type must be changed. The goal is a longer skull and longer nose. We do not want our dogs to suffer from CM/SM nor brachycephalic health problems. To achieve this, dogs must not be bred for short noses nor wide square shaped skulls.
Cross-Breed Project to improve CKCS
In Sweden and Finland there are an active breeding program to cross Cavaliers to other breeds, then pair these dogs together to produce a genetically diverse CKCS. After a few generations these offspring will enter the kennel club registry again as “pure” Cavaliers and be allowed to show in the breed ring. This forward thinking dog breeding project is the way of the future for all of us who want to save highly inbred dog breeds. It is only by adding genetic diversity that dog breeds can improve their health.
IVDD / CDDY Intervertebral Disk Disease / Chondrodystrophy – all Cavaliers are genetically affected because they have 2 copies of the gene. This means we can not breed away from IVDD / CDDY by only breeding Cavaliers together. Not all dogs with IVDD genes end up with pain or disk disese, but they are all likely to be clinically affected due to their genetics. Learn more how IVDD clinically affects dogs in this video.
Our Dogs are all Embark DNA to get an overview of health and other traits. In addition, we test with other DNA companies as health tests are invented. Recent DNA tests for 2023/2024 include: MCADD & MVD
We do OFA certificates on Hips, Elbows, Heart, Eyes, Patella.
Some dogs are PennHip certified and Cardiac Echocardiogram tested.
The product of the 1/2 Cavalier to 1/2 Cavalier will be MRI scanned for proof that genetic diversity was able to stop SM / CM.
Cavalier puppies sold by Red-Dawn are not AKC registered and are not considered “pure”. This equals a more genetically diverse dog with fewer or no health problems. Getting a Cavalier from Red-Dawn means you want a dog who has a higher chance at living a very long and healthy life.
Guardian Program
We need willing participants in our Cavalier genetic diversity breeding project to co-own or be “guardians” of intact boys and girls. This means the dog is your pet, but we breed it only if it passes all the health screening. This allows us to get more generations of dogs bred, sooner, but not overwhelm us with too many dogs at home. If you live a reasonable drive from Dallas Texas, you may qualify as a Guardian.
We are connected with Cavalier breeders all over the world. We may be able to connect you as a Guardian to a breeder near you.
Help us! We need non-Cavaliers!
We, like many other breeders participating in the Cavalier Cross-Breeding Improvement Project, need access to healthy good tempered dogs of many breeds (and cross breeds) to use as parents to be crossed with our Cavaliers. If you have a dog that might help improve the Cavalier breed, please contact us! If you have an intact Cavalier or Cavalier cross, also contact us.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are all highly inbred. The average COI is 35%. The least inbred a Cavalier dog has shown on DNA testing is 25%. For comparison, the offspring of full siblings from 4 unrelated grandparents is 25%. Cavaliers are more inbred than the child of full siblings.
This graph shows all Cavaliers tested at Embark DNA have a COI that is dangerously high.
By crossing a Cavalier to “other” breeds, we can minimize or stop the Cavalier specific health problems. This is because genetic diversity and low inbreeding helps mammals thrive.
Below are some examples to show DNA proof inbreeding of Cavaliers
Maude & Shelby are not related on paper. Their pedigree show each dog’s great & great-great grandparents. Each girl was matched with the exact same studs on Embark’s Matchmaker tool, showing the DNA COI of potential matches. You can see that these unrelated ladies have virtually the same COI of potential offspring with the same studs.
Our Cavalier, Oliver, comes from mostly “pet” bred American genetics with a little American Show. His COI is 29% and his lowest possible match on Embark’s Matchmaker Tool is 25%. He is not related to Jasper when looking at their pedigrees.
Jasper is our mostly European pedigree Cavalier boy. His DNA inbred score is 33% and his lowest match with all Cavalier ladies in the Embark DNA database is 25%. Oliver and Jasper are not related on paper, they come from vastly unique pedigrees and continents. But yet, they can NOT match below a 25% COI with the Cavalier ladies on Embark.
Genome comparisons
Parent: Cavalier 35% COIParent: Poodle 10% COI
Offspring: 1/2 Cavalier + 1/2 Poodle = 2% COI. Look at the golden yellow tick marks between the Cavalier, Poodle and their offspring! It is clear from these pictures what is most healthy.
By crossing two mostly unrelated breeds with majority not-shared health concerns of each breed, the offspring has a greater chance of not inheriting any recessive traits that plague either of the parent’s breeds. We do not know how to stop some of the breed specific health concerns of Cavaliers, like SM/CM or MVD. We do know that skull shape is associated with SM/CM. And we know Cavaliers are highly prone to MVD in the heart. By crossing a Cavalier with a breed that does not have SM/CM or MVD, we likely reduce (if dominant) or eliminate (if recessive) those health problems. What we do know from history and science of multiple species, inbreeding is not creating as healthy offspring as outcrossing.
Article by The Guardian, interview with Dr Clare Rusbridge, a professor in veterinary neurology at the University of Surrey
The vitamin Co Q10 has shown great promise for Cavalier’s heart health. CoQ10 is found in meat and poultry, especially organ meat such as liver, eggs, oily fish such as salmon, tuna and sardines. Ubiquinol is the bio-available version of Co Q10.
The genetic consequences of dog breed formation—Accumulation of deleterious genetic variation and fixation of mutations associated with myxomatous mitral valve disease in cavalier King Charles spaniels
The result from this investigation indicates that the prevalence of MMVD in six-year-old cavalier King Charles spaniels, born 2001 and 2003, is at least 50% and lacks signs of decrease despite the current breeding program introduced in Sweden 2001.
For those who want to understand the reality of CDDY / IVDD, I encourage you to listen to the interview of Danika Bannasch, the scientist at UC Davis that discovered this gene and is a leading expert on the subject.
What level of Inbreeding is too much? See data on longevity of humans and multiple dog breeds, based on how inbred they are. “…this will require these breeders to step out of the bubble of ideology and misinformation that has justified ridiculous and completely unnecessary levels of inbreeding, and use the tools and information of science to return to breeding strategies that maintain type without compromising health.”
Institute of Canine Biology Carol Beuchat, PhD (USA) Scientific Director, ICB; Population Genetics & Biology of Dogs
