Puppies Heads

How do puppies heads evolve? Do they generally flatten out or stay rounded?

Is this for you??? If so then how old? Depending on how old he or she might be going through the "Gangles".

rajacadoo said:

Is this for you??? If so then how old? Depending on how old he or she might be going through the "Gangles".

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What is the gangles. My pup, Anna, whom I pick up this week has a pretty rounded skull as of the last time I saw her a week ago. I picked through the 8 or so books I have on Cavaliers and the other 4 on puppies, but nothing really touches on it. I know she doesn't have good markings, but I was hoping that at least she is gonna be correct anatomically. Her Sire and Dam both had great looking heads, but I don't know what to look for. I got Teddy after he was fully grown.

Cavalier heads really go thru so many stages! It is so hard to predict which puppies will be show quality and which ones will not because they do change so much. I've read about and listened to breeders discuss how cavaliers are so different from any breed they've dealt with and how frustrating it is to see a puppy that gets sold to a pet home wind up correcting a bad bite and turning into a perfect example of the breed....after being spayed/neutered and being given the life of a pet. Cavaliers are also slow to mature and, according to my breeder, you won't really see what you have until they are somewhere between two and three years old...unlike most other toy breeds. Bandit is going thru a gangly stage right now BIG-time.

[edited -- sorry I won't allow that particular breeder to be discussed or her website referred to here]

My boys both had rounder heads when they were little, but over time they have flattened out and I think they look a little better now They went through some odd-looking phases, especially Miles!

Miles around 4 months


Truman around 3 months


Miles now...


Miles and Truman now, with flatter heads...

The Gangles is the 'awkward' stages they go through in their development as small pups. i.e. one week they will look fine, the next they seem all legs, the week after they are nicely in proportion, then suddenly put on another growth spurt and look much too long in the back. On and on it goes for months.
The heads do flatten out a bit later as they mature. Amber is 13 months now but still has a tiny 'baby' head in comparison to Bobby who has just had his 2nd birthday.

diddy said:

The Gangles is the 'awkward' stages they go through in their development as small pups. i.e. one week they will look fine, the next they seem all legs, the week after they are nicely in proportion, then suddenly put on another growth spurt and look much too long in the back. On and on it goes for months.
The heads do flatten out a bit later as they mature. Amber is 13 months now but still has a tiny 'baby' head in comparison to Bobby who has just had his 2nd birthday.

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I couldn't have said it better myself. Some dogs don't mature up fully for a year or two!!!

I'm glad to hear that the heads change size... I've often worried that my pup's skull was too small for her. (It makes me think that she may be at risk for SM down the road.) But, perhaps I should not worry so much... now that I compare her head today, at 11 months, to when she was younger, I can see that it has elongated and flattened out slightly.

Melissa