Tri facial markings

Last year hubby and I were walking our girlies in St Anne's Park. We happened upon two teenage girls who had a little Blenheim Cavalier (she looked about eight weeks old and was off lead) trotting along behind them. I went over to say hello and I chatted to them for a while. I was very careful about what I said to them but basically, I let them know that the pup shouldn't be out before all vaccinations had been given, it shouldn't be running along AT ALL behind them etc. To my absolute horror they told me that if I liked the pup they had another ten at home.

What they were actually doing was advertising

I meet a LOT of people with Cavaliers and None of them have ever heard of SM and when I explain it to them, they just shrug their shoulders

Claire L said:

Last year hubby and I were walking our girlies in St Anne's Park. We happened upon two teenage girls who had a little Blenheim Cavalier (she looked about eight weeks old and was off lead) trotting along behind them. I went over to say hello and I chatted to them for a while. I was very careful about what I said to them but basically, I let them know that the pup shouldn't be out before all vaccinations had been given, it shouldn't be running along AT ALL behind them etc. To my absolute horror they told me that if I liked the pup they had another ten at home.

What they were actually doing was advertising

I meet a LOT of people with Cavaliers and None of them have ever heard of SM and when I explain it to them, they just shrug their shoulders

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All of sudden I fell so lucky to be in Iceland.!!! Upp here the FCI cavaliers are few (about 600 hundred i think),the breeders are few and there are very strickt rules in terms of breeding:
Bitch must be at least 2.5 years old, have her heart checked&eyes and come out clear of course.Also the dogs parents need to be clear at age 4 before breeding their offspring.
she must have been shown and had exellent or very good in order to get blessing from the cavalierclub. Since it is such a small community it is not likely to "pay off" to "breed" without the blessings of the cavalierclub.Everybody knows everybody and its would be very hard if not impossible to sell puppies which are not recomended from the club.
Also we are very lucky that the biggest breeders upp here are very passionate about breeding and are regularely importing new dogs from healthy bloodlines.
Would like to add that the first breeding stock came upp here 1991 0r 1992 so cavaliers are still very young upp here

Your post made me remember an unusual meeting I had with a couple that had 2 Cavaliers in Williamsburg Village, VA. We were there with our kids (without Daisy) last summer and we were walking on the large lawn in front of the governer's mansion and we passed a couple with 2 tri-colors. Of course I stopped them and we talked Cavalier for about 15 minutes. She brought up SM to me and we talked about it for a while. She had just had one of her boys to New York to have surgery for it and was on her way back home! Her other dog was MRI'd and came up clean. She was talking about breeding him. She said she bought her affected dog from a vet and when she went back to him to talk to him about her dog's condition, he said he had no idea what she was talking about. She found a good surgeon on her own in New York and had gone all the way up there from I think it was Alabama to have the surgery.

Very nice lady! I asked her if she posted on here and she said 'sometimes," but I didn't ask her posting name. I was just so shocked to talk to a Cavalier owner who had a single clue about the health issues with our dogs, and I'm sure she was, too -- it's the first time ever outside of a Cavalier show! If you recall having such a conversation, let me know! (You can PM me if you like.)

Then there's the other end of the spectrum. The lady who cleans our house recently bought a Chihuahua at a pet store. Since the deed was done, I didn't get on my soapbox, but I sure wanted to.

And sending your kids out walking a young puppy as advertising? That's as bad as parking outside a store with a sign up saying Cavaliers for Sale! And if they had 10 more at home, they were definitely "in the business." You should see the Target parking lot in our town every Saturday morning. There will be 10-12 cars parked at the edge of the lot with puppies of all varieties in playpens or x-pens either selling them (usually) or giving them away. I always crane my neck to look to see if they have any Cavaliers, but I've not seen any -- yet. Since I rarely go to that shopping area on a Saturday, though, I wouldn't be surprised if there have been several there. I'm sure they thoroughly question their buyers about how the dogs will be treated, give restricted papers, etc.! Not.