The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

A little piece of her

2009-12-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

After 11 months of procrastination, here's a doggie post. As you would have guessed, Nikki is no longer a lil puppy by now. People always say that kids grow fast, in a blink of eye, but dogs grow even faster! Without us realising, Nikki grew so much within a year- in terms of size, weight, height and even attitude. She is no longer the kiddo pup that she used to be. Now, she is a rebellious teenager, always going against our wishes.

The kiddo her used to run around not knowing what's happening in the outside world. Now, she'll communicate (bark) with other dogs or at least respond whenever they try to contact her. As Nikki grow older, she tends to become more attached to us rather than isolating herself. She'd stick to us all the time rather than watching the world go by. Right now as I am typing this, she is sleeping beneath my chair <3

Quickie facts
*She's fat ( I can't even carry her for more than 10 mins ) The ideal weight for a Cavalier is between 4-8kg.
*She's a scardy cat.
*Poo 3 times a day despite eating only once a day
*Destroyed most of her toys already, including my room door, although it is not a toy
*Makes funny sounds while sleeping
*Afraid of water! (weird dog)
*Bullies tiny insects ( But get bullied by bigger dogs )
*Sheds loads of fur
*Her tail is now like a broom
*Always try to portray the I-am-so-fierce-look but failed miserably

Although you have quirky attitudes
and you get on my nerves at times
but bear in mind that you will
always and forever be my Nikki.

Captured Memories

2009-01-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

Picture Time!

2009-01-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

Princess of K9

2008-12-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

While some dogs are starving from hunger, hiding from the rain and being shoo-ed from one place to another, Nikki is definitely being pampered like a princess. For meals, Nikki consumes Blackwood Puppy and as for treats, she has her dog biscuits and her special salmon biscuit. She's living a Hakuna-Matata life now for sure :)

Daddy uses those biscuits to train her. Dogs being dogs, they get conned easily into doing certain things even though they are not willing to. ( Just for the sake of the treat ) As a result from that, Nikki learnt to sit, lie down and stand on command. Dogs are indeed very intelligent animals, they do understand what we humans say. Treat them more humanly and they would behave like one.

6-star premium dog food

Nikki has already started consuming her NEW dog food. It's called Orijen Puppy, no grains AT ALL. Loads of protein with a super strong fish smell. I think that's bad. But anyways, will just try out this new food first.

She loves it though :)

Say Cheese!

2008-12-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

Vet Visit

2008-11-28T21:38:00.000-08:00

This morning, mummy, daddy and I took Nikki to the Vet as it was time for her to get her 2nd immunisation. We took her to another Vet before but decided not to bring her there this time. That place doesn't even look like a vet, more like a drug addict hideout, so we are afraid that the vet might be bogus. No record was taken as the Vet said it's not needed (sounds fishy). So we took her to Yeoh's Veterinary in Taman Megah instead.

At the vet there were many other dogs, mostly Labradors and Beagles. There was this Shih Tzu that has a broken lower jaw :( So its tongue is always hanging outside since its jaw can't close. The owner had to feed him all the time and the vet couldn't fix the jaw as there is not enough space to fit the wire in. The reason why its jaw was broken because its owner sent it for grooming and I guess they didn't handle her properly.The groomer refused to explain what had happened and just gave the dog back to its owner. I guess the groomer must have treated the dog really harsh till its jaw broke.

The vet took some blood sample from her ear, by poking a hole at the tip of her ear and then squeezing the blood out *ouch!* Nikki also has ear mites infection so she got another jab which really hurts. Pain was written all over her face *sniff sniff* Now she is feeling weak after the jabs and won't be active for some time.

Family Tree

2008-11-25T22:25:00.000-08:00

-Nikki's roots-

Nikki's grandpa

Nikki's father ( Destiny )

Destiny

Nikki's mother ( Isabella )

Nikki and her siblings

3 girls and 1 boy

Nikki and her sister

*These pictures do not belong to me

Eating Habits

2008-11-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Humans definitely have eating habits, and everyone has their own unique one. However, I didn't know that even dogs have eating habits.

Nikki has a weird eating habit which we noticed the first time we gave her her doggie food. She takes a few pieces and puts them down on the floor somewhere else, then only eats them. After finishing, she goes back to her bowl and continue doing this till the food finishes. She tends to drop her food on the floor while chewing but she never fails to pick them all up before getting new ones.

First Exposure to The Camera

2008-11-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

For the first time peeps, meet Nikki!

The curly end of her ears will be more prominent when it grows longer. I'll take photos of her without the cage soon, currently busy training her so she's not allowed to run around outside the cage most of the time.

Tyra Banks always says "Smile with your eyes"

And I think Nikki always does smile with her eyes =)

Potty Mess

2008-11-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

It is indeed difficult to train a dog to pee and poo at a specific place. We have been trying a few methods and so far nothing seems to work. We wanted her to do her business in the toilet but she somehow just refuses and we can't really have it in the toilet if not it will be unusable anymore. We placed a plank over the toilet bowl to avoid her falling into it. Yea my house still has those squatting kind of toilet bowls. And so Plan A didn't work. Moving on to Plan B - making her pee and poo on newspapers.

Currently working on it, hoping that she recognises the smell of newspapers when she pees on it every time. Every 2 hours or so we would bring her out to the garden to pee, but sometimes she doesn't. So, we monitor her almost ALL the time. *tiring* Since she has not mastered this skill, she is not allowed to sleep in my room with me. So, Nikki better be a good girl if she wants better comfort. She doesn't bark AT ALL when she want to go pee, so we have to observe other behaviour of hers.

Mission possible : Train Nikki to pee and poo at the correct place!

Welcome to The Hood

2008-11-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

On the 16th of November 2008, I was surfing the net on dogs. I was more interested in smaller toy dogs compared to those huge dogs. As I was browsing through the pictures, I came across a very beautiful dog but with an unusual name - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

I fell in love immediately with that dog and I knew i had to have a dog of that breed. So the next day, I was calling pet stores asking them about this dog but all of them said that it is hard to get this breed. I decided to search online for breeders instead, and finally I found one!

On the 18th of November 2008, Dad, Mum and I went to the breeder's house to view the puppy, and we bought it! Nikki is now part of the family :)

Few facts about Nikki
1) The tip of Nikki's ear's are curly
2) Nikki slides whenever she walks or sits
3) She doesn't bark (unless offended )

Nikki's Diet

2008-11-18T22:42:00.001-08:00

Nikki currently consumes Blackwood puppy dog food which is said to be better than Eukanuba, and thus MORE costly. She is a big eater for such a small-sized pup, but she is expected to be bigger in size than her mother when she grows up.

Ingredients

Poultry Meal, Ground Rice, Ground Corn, Chicken Fat [Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E) and Citric Acid], Plain Dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Dried Potato Product, Menhaden Fish Meal, Brewers Dried Yeast, Natural Flavors, Dried Whole Eggs, Flax Meal, Lecithin, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, DL-Methionine, Dried Cheese, L-Lysine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Ascorbic Acid, Dried Garlic, Vitamin E Supplement, Biotin, Niacin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Dimethylpyrimidinol Bisulfite (Source Of Vitamin K Activity), Citric Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate

At 3-4 weeks of age, begin feeding pups BLACKWOOD Puppy softened with warm water. Feed as much as they will consume three times a day. Introduce puppies to dry food as soon as possible and keep bowl filled

Introduction

2008-11-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a small breed of dog of Spaniel type, usually considered one of the toy dog breeds. It is a small spaniel with a substantial silky coat of moderate length, often with a mild wave, and long ears.

Four colors :
Bleinhem (rich chestnut on pearly white background )
Tricolor ( black and white with tan markings on cheeks, inside ears, on eyebrows, inside legs, and on underside of tail )
Black and Tan ( black with tan markings )
Ruby ( rich reddish-brown all over )

The breed originated in the 20th century, though has its roots in the older King Charles Spaniel of the Restoration.

Nikki has Bleinhem fur and also some reddish colour on her face

History

2008-11-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

For many centuries, small breeds of spaniels have been popular in the United Kingdom. Some centuries later, Toy Spaniels became popular as pets, especially as pets of the royal family. In fact, the King Charles Spaniel was so named because a Blenheim-coated spaniel was the children's pet in the household of Charles I. King Charles II went so far as to issue a decree that the King Charles Spaniel could not be forbidden entrance to any public place, including the Houses of Parliament. Such spaniels can be seen in many paintings of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These early spaniels had longer, pointier snouts and thinner-boned limbs than today's.
Over time, the toy spaniels were replaced in popularity by short-snouted, dome-headed dogs of Asian descent, such as the Pug and Japanese Chin. The King Charles Spaniel was bred with these dogs, resulting in the similar-shaped head of today's English Toy Spaniel breed. The King Charles Spaniel remained popular at Blenheim Palace, home to the Dukes of Marlborough, where the brown and white version was the most popular - resulting in the name Blenheim for that color combination.
In the 1920s, an American named Roswell Eldrige offered twenty-five pounds as a prize for any King Charles Spaniel "of the old-fashioned type" with a longer nose, flat skull, and a lozenge (spot) in the middle of the crown of the head, sometimes called "the kiss of Buddha," "Blenheim Spot," "lozenge" or "Kissing Spot". So, the breed was developed by selective breeding of short-snouted Spaniels. The result was a dog that resembled the boyhood pet of the future Charles II of England ("Cavalier King Charles"), hence the name of the breed.

Source: wikipedia.org