Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Twin Finder: 151 in the Pool

To find your Cavalier King Charles Spaniel's twin, upload one clear photo to PetMatch and the model compares your dog's face against the 151 Cavaliers already in the pool, returning the real dog whose face sits closest to yours. The crop it scores shows long feathered ears set high, large round eyes, and a short full muzzle. The skull is only slightly rounded. The domed head people expect belongs to a different toy spaniel.

Ears that fan the face

The AKC standard, approved on January 10, 2023, calls the Cavalier an active, graceful, well-balanced toy spaniel. The ears are set high, but not close on top of the head. The leather is long, with plenty of feathering, and wide enough that when the dog is alert the ears fan slightly forward to frame the face. That fringe reads as pendant ears, while the set stays high. A low ear changes the outline the model is matching.

Height stays mostly outside the crop. The standard's ideals are 12 to 13 inches at the withers and 13 to 18 pounds, with slight variation allowed. The photo has the ear leather, the eye, and the muzzle.

Slightly rounded, and flat to look at

The skull is slightly rounded, but without a dome or peak, and it should appear flat because the ears sit high. The stop is moderate. The eyes are large, round, and not prominent, set well apart in a warm very dark brown, with dark rims and cushioning underneath. The muzzle is full and slightly tapered, about 1½ inches from the base of the stop to the tip of the nose. Nose pigment is uniformly black.

The dome belongs to the English Toy Spaniel. That AKC standard calls it a compact, cobby toy dog with a short-nosed, domed head: the skull is high and well domed, the stop is deep, the muzzle is very short with the nose well laid back, and the ears are very long and set low. Both breeds come in chestnut and white, tricolor, ruby, and black and tan. A Cavalier skull should look flat under high ears. English Toy Spaniels are not a separate breed in the PetMatch pool, so a short-faced, low-eared dog is scored on the face in the photo.

Four colors, and the lozenge

The coat is moderate in length, silky, and free from curl, with a slight wave allowed. Feathering on the ears, chest, legs, and tail should be long. No trimming is permitted, except hair between the pads, so a clipped ear and a full feathered ear are two silhouettes of the same dog.

Four colors are allowed. Any other color is a disqualification. Blenheim is rich chestnut well broken up on a clear pearly white ground: chestnut ears, color surrounding both eyes, and a white blaze between the eyes and the ears. In the center of that blaze may be the lozenge, or Blenheim spot, unique and desirable though not essential. Tricolor is jet black on the ears and around both eyes, with a white blaze, plus rich tan over the eyes, on the cheeks, inside the ears, and under the tail. Ruby is whole-colored rich red. Black and tan is jet black with rich tan in those same places, plus the chest and the legs. Heavy ticking on a Blenheim or a tricolor is a fault, and so are white marks on a ruby or a black and tan. Two Blenheims still separate when the blaze is wide on one dog and narrow on the other.

The Cocker in the same crop

The sporting spaniel that shares this crop is the Cocker. The AKC calls the Cocker Spaniel the smallest member of the Sporting Group. The ears are lobular, long, well feathered, and placed no higher than a line to the lower part of the eye. The skull is rounded, with no tendency toward flatness, and the stop is pronounced. A Cavalier ear is set high, and the skull should appear flat. The Cocker Spaniel twin finder covers that head. PetMatch lists 287 dogs in the Cocker Spaniel pool, separate from these 151.

A dropped-ear Papillon can land nearby for a different reason. The Papillon twin finder covers the 190 Papillons in that pool. The Phalene carries the ears completely down, set on the sides and toward the back of the head, and ears set too high are a fault. The muzzle is fine and about one-third the length of the head. A Cavalier muzzle is full and about 1½ inches, and the ears fan forward from a high set.

When the twin is a mix

Mixed-breed dogs are the largest group on PetMatch, at 10,182. A mix that kept the high long ear, the large round eye, and the short full muzzle can place ahead of the registered Cavaliers. The model is matching the face in the photo.

A photo that shows the set

Shoot head-on at eye level in open shade, mouth closed, with both ears in the frame so the high set and the long leather show. When the dog is alert, let the ears fan slightly forward. Direct sun blows out a pearly white blaze and hides the Blenheim spot, so different chestnut-and-white faces start to look like the same mask. Open shade keeps chestnut distinct from ruby and keeps the dark eye readable.