The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is usually a sort of rich brown color on white with some black markings - however there are actually four recognized patterns of markings. The Cavalier King Charles can be a rich chestnut on a pearly white background and this is known as a Blenheim King Charles; then there is the black, white and brown and this is known as the tricolor spaniel; there also the black and tan and the ruby which is a rich red all over - so for all you purists out there the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel can come in a coat of many colors - a bit like Joseph really.

What eventually became known as the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was originally a breed of toy spaniel brought over for King Charles. The dog became very popular with the ladies because it was small enough to be cuddled on the lap and took very well to this. So much was the King's heart taken with this beautiful little animal that he decreed that nobody could refuse a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel entry to any building, including Houses of Parliament - in a sense this made it the free dog of buildings.

Originally the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel did not look too different from the way that we see it to this day. The shorter snouted dog that we know today was brought about by selective breeding. In America a man called Roswell Eldritch started breeding dogs with longer snouts in the early nineteen hundreds and it was this that brought about the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that we know today.

Did you know that the actress Courtney Cox has two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, one called Hopper, and the other called Harley Hopper. One writer claims that when a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was crossed with a Kerry Blue they got a B.B. King Ray Charles Blues Special and a Grammy award.

Most websites will tell you that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has very few health problems when they can in fact be subject to a number of hereditary diseases. The actress Jennifer Love Hewitt has a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who is on Prozac because of his tendency to keep on licking himself. Because the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is becoming so popular among the new celebrities in some quarters it is now being called a designer dog. One article sites the reason for the growing popularity of toy breeds like the Cavalier King Charles is because they are so small that they can fit into the large designer bags. There is even an advert with Paris Hilton carrying a small dog in her latest purse. In some quarters the Cavalier King Charles is reputed to have originated in Malta and that these and other toy breeds have always been kept as companions for human beings.