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How old do Cavs get?

KingstonsMom

KingstonsMom

Well-known member
It seems like most people on this board have relatively young Cavs. What's the average lifespan for a CKCS? What age is the oldest Cav you've seen or heard about? I'm just curious!
 
it's a good question which I am interested in too!

Karlin posted this not too long ago..

if all breeders had focused on health in the past two decades, we would not be seeing 50% of cavaliers with heart murmurs by age 5, and the average lifespan now described as 7-10 years instead of the 12-15 years it should be for a toy breed
Click to expand...
 
well according to most websites and books they say that generally a cavaliers lifespan is from 9 - 12 years .. i dont know how true this is but yeah...well i only know 3 other cavvies in person (well u cant realy say person :p ) and one of them are 11 years at the moment - this is my friends dog and she hasnt been diagnosed with any health problem so far! nothing at all,...a very lucky dog i must say considering the high risk of heart murmurs, SM etc etc in the breed.., the other two are 5 years and 7 years..
 
I read of one that lived to 18 1/2 the other day.

The average is supposed to be about 11, as far as I've read.

My three waiting at Rainbow Bridge lived to be 12 1/2, 9 and 7.
 
I know of one that reached 19. On many of the breed guides the lifespan is listed as 7-10 years due to MVD badly skewing the charts. I know of two in my area that are 11 and 13, and two that died at 6 and at 7 from MVD.
 
I wonder if that was Tuppence Karlin? There is an article on http://www.cavaliers.co.uk/

under Breed Info
Health Issues

Health Articles - long lived Cavaliers

Tuppence died in April 2005 of cancer, living to one week short of 19 years and 5 months.

Bet Hargreaves has been researching long lived Cavaliers and their pedigrees for some years, she quotes some statistics

16 have lived to 17 years
65 to 16 years
194 to 15 years
334 to 14 years
368 to 13 years
422 to 12 years


I knew one girl who died just short of her 15th birthday, but have personally lost 3 girls, Fillipa at 5 1/2, Peaches at 7 and Isabel at 7.

Rupert is 10 now, his Dam lived to 12 and Sire to 11.


The Cavalier club quotes average figures of 10 - 12.

I was reading something the other day which said that the Kennel Club should be advised of the deaths of all registered dogs...I didn't know this, has anyone else heard of it?

If this is indeed happening, are they using the information for anything?
 
My friend lost one of hers about two years ago aged 15 1/2. She literally did just die of old age :(

Another friend lost one at 12 and he had MVD. Maxx's parents are 11 1/2 and 12 1/2 and both perfectly healthy with good strong hearts :D His breeder's oldest is 14 and still has a good heart and is extremely healthy except for only a touch of arthritis.
 
I forgot about Bobby, my friend's old boy as well. He was 14 when he went to the Bridge. Not bad for a little boy who was diagnosed with MVD at a young age and they never thought he'd make it past his puppyhood :l*v:
 
My last cavalier lived to 7 - we found out after we got her that she was from a puppy farm in wales... it wasn't so well known years ago that puppy farms existed.

I hope that all my 4 babies that I have now live for a good old age like those statistics say.

I wonder do those statistics take into account the size of the cavaliers - my dogs are huge for cavaliers and I read somewhere that the smaller the dog the longer they live ???
 
Love hearing about the oldies. The 19 year old was in Ireland; may have been just shy of 19, but I remember being astonished at the age. :) Fuzzie Bear may know as this was Petra's cavalier, Lyndsey.

Size shouldn't make any difference to health -- I've never heard smaller cavaliers are healthier. I am sure that is not the case -- indeed some small cavaliers have more health problems because the smallness may be due to serious health issues like hydrocephalus and liver problems. While any breeder will produce some oversized and some undersized dogs, in my experience, backyard bred and puppy farm bred cavaliers are a lot more likely to be oversized rather than undersized or standard sized (breed standard is 12-18lbs in the UK, 13-18lbs in the US). Very few pet cavaliers I see here in Ireland are this size (and maybe 1 or 2 of all those I've seen in rescue), though all the show dogs will be this size. So it may be that breed standard ('smaller') cavaliers are more likely to be longer lived because they are more likely to be bred by show breeders who are considering pedigrees, health, and long lived lines. A show breeder whose cavaliers routinely die before 10 would not have good reputation... so there is an impetus to be mindful of health. Just one possible theory!
 
I read about Tuppence too and was overwhelmed- she wasn't that far off 20, which is an excellent age for any dog and absolutely superb for a Cav. I don't know about Holly's parents- except that they've both been rehomed as no longer being suitable for breeding for a number of reasons- but they're both over five and doing well. Chloe's great grandmother is nearly 11, and as far as we know she's doing well too, although the breeders are wondering if she's got heart trouble as she took a 'funny turn' a couple of weeks ago, and then was back to normal. I imagine they've checked it out. Even if it is MVD, they've had no heart trouble with her til now, which is pretty good going.
 
Well, Maxx is a large Cavalier and so are his parents, Amy was too and so was my friends little boy (can't remember his name), the only smallie out of them all was Bobby and he wasn't that small, just small compared to Maxx and my breeders crew.
 
Toby, my rescue from Hearts United for Animals, lived to be 15 years 10 months. He had dry eye at age 8 when we got him and he became deaf and developed arthritis, but both these occurred after he was 10. He really just succumbed to old age at the end. I wish I could have done a heart transplant into Gizmo, who at age 9 3/4, is having quite a bad time with MVD. Gadget, Gizmo's full brother, is 8 3/4 and quite healthy.

Margaret
 
Wow! Over 15 years old! I only hope Jake will hang around and torment me that long! :D I was so sure I was going to lose him at 2 years to the cancer that every year is a total and complete blessing.
 
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