From Pietoro’s Historical Dog photobucket.
An English toy spaniel.
The British use a different term for this breed, but it’s the more exaggerated ancestor of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
In the late nineteenth century and very early twentieth century, this was a very common breed among dog fanciers, especially women.
While sporting gentlemen were busy showing off bassetized sporting spaniels, their wives were show extremely brachycephalic toy spaniels.
The fashion died out, kind of like Disco and the Macarena, but the flat-faced toy spaniels still do exist.
They haven’t changed that much either.
Because spaniels are the smallest of gun dogs, they got a lot of the bizarre conformation breeding in early on.
Toy spaniels have been around for centuries, but this type of toy spaniel was something that could only be created in the mania of the British dog fancy.
And just like all bizarre fashions in dogs, this bubble burst almost as quickly as it began.
There aren’t very many of these dogs left at all.
As a breed, it’s a fascinating artifact about what can happen when fashion dictates selection pressures.
I don’t how good it is for the dogs though.
Those seem to have virtually disappeared from this neck of the woods, but for the full flat faced persuasion there are still boston terriers and those unfortunate pugs sadly still being bred.
Do they have the same brain and heart issues as the Cavaliers or anything similar? I have not investigated them at all. I just know they exist and can ID them.
I recall at one time, not so long ago, there were breeding experiments crossing king charles with cavalier king charles – trying to create a cavalier without the heart and brain problems of that breed. I don’t know where they got to with those experiments but I assume before embarking on them they tried to make sure of the genetic health of the king charles being used to ‘invent’ what went on to become the cavalier breed around 1925 (to obtain the £25 reward offered by some American chap, for first to reinvent the ‘original’ type of king charles going back to – king charles the second no less). Incidentally, we used to own a cavalier back in the seventies and called her lottie. She went on to have two litters and none of the pups we subsequently kept in touch with had either heart or brain problems – which was lucky, very lucky!
The original model for the cavalier standard in the 1920’s was a cross between a king charles and a papillon. Breeders probably threw a bit of springer/cocker in there aswell as early cavaliers where chocolate & solid black which do not appear in the original king charles.
as I understand it the heart problems didnt really appear until the 70s / 80’s after a few affected stud dogs where over used
Yes they do have brain issues , Unfortunately people think the bigger the head the better. There are a few dogs with healthy skull proportions but they are not valued as they should be….
If they are healthy they are usually very intelligent & they don’t have the food obsession of cavaliers.
Their hearts are not as bad ( some countries have more heart issues) i’ve had a few who got past 11 with no MVD which is almost unheard of in cavaliers.
They do not have breathing issues , probably due to the fact they don’t have a lot of padding and loose skin in their airways. my cavaliers have had more trouble breathing. They also have larger ear canals than cavaliers and less issues with their teeth.
As regards fashion if you look at the early cavaliers compared to todays dogs they are getting shorter noses and more domed heads so it is almost going full circle
A recent study that’s relevant to your question: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140212183555.htm