Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breeders.

A serious Cavalier breeder leads with cardiac and neurological health. The breed has known issues with mitral valve disease and syringomyelia, and any breeder who does not raise both topics on the first phone call is the wrong breeder. They show you cardiac clearances from a board-certified cardiologist on parents (not just a stethoscope check at the regular vet), an MRI screen for Chiari-like malformation, an OFA patella evaluation, and a current CAER eye exam. They also follow the breed's mitral valve breeding protocol, which holds dams back from breeding until at least two and a half years old and favors lines whose own parents were murmur-free at five. They ask about your household, because Cavaliers are velcro dogs that do badly in homes empty through the day. Tell your breeder honestly what your schedule looks like.

Typical price range.

A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy from a responsible breeder usually costs between two thousand and four thousand dollars in the United States, with MRI-cleared and titled lines on the higher end. The high price reflects the cost of the breed-specific MRI screening that responsible Cavalier breeders run before they put a dog in a breeding program. Anything under a thousand dollars almost always means the litter is missing the MRI screen, the cardiac workup, or both, and in this breed those two screens are the whole point. Ask exactly what is included: shots, microchip, dewormer, vet check, AKC paperwork, the clearance documents, and the take-back clause.

Health checks worth asking about.

The Cavalier health stack is heavy because of the cardiac and neurological prevalence in the breed. Every breeding dog should have an annual cardiologist evaluation, an MRI screen for Chiari-like malformation and syringomyelia (the EBVS protocol), OFA patella, an eye exam, and DNA tests for episodic falling syndrome and curly coat / dry eye syndrome. Hip evaluations are worth asking about too. The mitral valve numbers are the ones to internalize: more than half of Cavaliers develop the disease in their lifetime, which is why the breeding protocol around age and parental murmur status matters so much. A breeder who can hand you all of this paperwork, and who breeds to the cardiac protocol rather than around it, is the breeder you want.