Welcome to the board.
Your introductory post raises some issues and I want to outline why, because we all love this breed -- just in case you haven't thought through these issues and are not working with a professional mentor. I am a bit concerned that you might have bred dogs with no awareness of their potential genetic problems that each definitely will carry (all creatures carry good and bad genes, but because purebred dogs come from limited gene pools -- especially limited with cavaliers -- the likelihood for poor matchmaking to make serious, sometimes fatal health problems emerge is very high). Do you understand that many serious health problems are recessive or polygenetic traits, and that you cannot tell if your cavalier parents will pass that terrible disease to all the puppies simply by looking at how healthy the parents seem to be? Two of the most serious problems in the breed, syringomyelia and mitral valve disease, are polygenetic and a breeder needs to know the health history back several generations of each dog to try to avoid such serious and costly problems for the puppies as they mature.
Also, are you aware that cavaliers have a breeding protocol that is followed by all responsible breeders:
1) No cavalier should EVER be bred before age 2.5 due to the likelihood of early onset heart disease in the breed
2) both breeding dogs must be heart tested by a cardiologist (not a vet!) for heart murmurs immediately before breeding and annually thereafter. If the dog is not clear it cannot be considered for breeding
3) the parents of each of the breeding dogs (hence, four more dogs, the grandparents ) must also ALL still be heart clear by at least age 5. If the parents' heart health is not known, or they are under five, then the cavalier must not be bred til age FIVE
In addition because of the high incidence of the serious neurological condition syringomyelia (
www.smcavalier.com), in which the brain is too small for the skull and which affects over half of all cavaliers and perhaps as many as 70-80% over a lifetime, responsible breeders also are encouraged to MRI their breeding stock to obtain SM grading certificates. See:
http://sm.cavaliertalk.com/breeding/breeding/breeding.html
Also, did you have their eyes and patellas cleared by a vet, and did you xray hips for hip dysplasia to make sure they are graded good or better? These are all the standard tests done by responsible breeders to avoid condemning the puppies to any of these painful health problems.
On top of all that, it is very important to understand the breed standard for conformation/temperament. You can see it is quite a lot of work and a heavy responsibility to breed healthy, happy cavaliers.
If you did none of these things, please reconsider breeding any further litters and instead, get involved with showing dogs through your regional club so that you will have the fun of learning more about the breed and learn how to be able to produce beautiful, healthy cavaliers.
As the reputable breeders on this board will confirm, this is a breed under serious health pressures and every random mating only contributes to the breed's potential decline. There are researchers who believe the breed will not survive more than a few more decades directly if indiscriminate breeding continues to worsen both MVD and SM, so resposible breeding is very, very important. Also: be aware that many states have lemon laws that protect consumers against those who sell poor quality dogs and would require breeders to fully pay for health problems and refund the price of the puppy to the buyer, as well as making them liable to costly lawsuits (one breeder of cavaliers in Idaho is currently wearing electronic monitoring ankle bracelets and under sentence and a heavy fine after being being convicted of fraud in federal court by puppy buyers from many other states, for producing poor quality puppies and selling them deceptively). So you need to consider those responsibilities too as once you are offering people puppies, you are effectively selling merchandise and subject to state and federal consumer laws.
In short: with this or any breed, breeding is more than a fun hobby of producing cute puppies. You take on the very serious responsibility of being a caretaker to the genetic health of the breed -- and nowhere is that more important that with this wonderful breed, which is facing two serious health crisis with SM and MVD.
You are very welcome here as this board is a place for learning as well as for cherishing and protecting this breed
-- but please note that further discussions on breeding or of litters is not allowed. If you go back and read the Getting Started section you will see that discussions on breeding are strictly controlled and generally, prohibited -- I only allow such discussions by breeders that I know breed with health as a top priority, follow the heart protocol, and understand the complexities of genetics and pedigrees. Once I know this to be the case, people may post about litters.
Here is my rational behind banning discussions of breeding:
http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=17561
Here are some things to think about if you are sure you wish to continue breeding:
http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=11336
http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=16254
And finally, no one should even consider breeding cavaliers without watching each of these videos of cavaliers with syringomyelia. As a breeder, you need to understand what indiscriminate breeding can produce, and be able to handle the responsibility of having your puppy owners return to you for financial help and advice on how to manage dogs like these:
http://sm.cavaliertalk.com/video/videos.html
PS Actually cavaliers are not rare in Kansas -- not that many may own them, but it is one of the biggest states for mass producing them in appalling puppy mill (mass breeding) conditions. Thousands are sold from Kansas mills every year. See:
http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/get_the_facts_on_puppy_mills/index.html
n 1990, frustrated by the apathy of federal and state officials, The HSUS led a nationwide boycott of puppies from the seven worst puppy mill states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. The boycott captured a great deal of national media attention, including numerous newspaper articles and television reports on shows such as 20/20, Good Morning, America, and The Today Show.
Raids on puppy mills subsequently took place in Kansas, where the state legislature, attempting to protect recalcitrant puppy mill operators by hampering investigators, enacted a law making it a felony to photograph a puppy mill facility.
Lemon Laws
As the horror of puppy mills gained attention, some states responded with "lemon laws" to protect consumers who buy puppies. As of August 2001, 17 states had enacted laws or issued regulations that allow consumers to receive refunds or the reimbursement of veterinary bills when a sick puppy is purchased
