Cavalier Sizes

Hi
A general question please probaly to all the breeder experts, why and how does the size of our cavaliers vary so much.I believe the breed standard says 8-12 kg for weight but Poppy, apart from being a big girl size wise is also (totaly my fault) quite a bit overweight whilst Daisy size and weight is approx 10 kg ,Rosie being only six months i would think will be around 11 kg when shes finished growing , but when i look at all the other cavs i see there is a huge variation in size generally.Even before Poppy came to us i devoured lots of cavalier books for information and i thought even then that 8-12 kilo represented a 50% increase in the size over the minimum and that it seemed an awful lot, so out of curiosity can somebody please advise .It got me thinking again as last Sunday morning Luke and i had the girls out for a walk on West Kirby front when we stopped to talk to a couple who had SEVEN Japanese Chins out for walkies and in the general conversation he said prior to showing his chins he used to breed and show cavaliers and that of our girls only Daisy would be to the required show standard so that got me wondering again about size variation.

Like we humans, dogs in one family vary in size. Show people will, mostly, keep only cavaliers within the size limits but the larger and smaller ones sold can still be bred from and in the case of bybs and farmers, money, not size , or health, matters.

The standard is 12lb to 18lb not Kilos.

As Pauline notes it is lbs not kg. The kg weight would be 5.5 to 8kg. Most show breeders would produce pet and show dogs that almost all remain within these weights (eg correct conformation). They would sell as pet standard, dogs that are smaller or larger, rather than show them or use for breeding. Usually a few will go over the standard. They do say some dogs over the standard do show well, too, anyway, but they wouldn't be much over the standard.

Teddy's brother , Acewall Enigma for Toraylac, is a little oversized, but I notice , as posted on 18th January, his has been made up to champion. 2 ccs here and the last in Poland.

rubys mom

im not an expert but i think as long as there healthy and not to overweight if your not showing them it dosent matter there all indiviuals like us as long as you love them who cares size has never bothered me id have them all if i could no matter what:rah: