Renee & Jackson
In about 1980, Renee was watching a TV show hosted by British dog trainer, Barbara Woodhouse. She had a gorgeous little spaniel she was training and mentioned what a wonderful breed this dog was. Living in the Midwest at the time, Renee had never seen a Cavalier in person, but knew she had to have one! We couldn’t find that original show Renee saw, but we hope you will enjoy the wonderful Barbara Woodhouse in action below (and notice the Blenheim Cavalier in her class!)
Through the years, Renee ran into a few Cavalier breeders, both here in the US and in the UK, but the timing was not right--we had young children needing our full attention. Then, in 1995, we decided we were ready to make the commitment of educating ourselves, finding mentors, showing, health testing--all the things a preservation breeder does for the love of the breed.
Because of our love of this breed, we named our kennel Caryse which is a Gaelic term meaning love. We never knew how much love we would gain until we got into Cavaliers--and Renee has had dogs all her life. Our Cavaliers live in our home, sleep on our beds and furniture. They are part of our family.
We don’t breed often, and don’t always have puppies available. We keep a waiting list and must get to know you before we will make the commitment to share one of our precious puppies with you. You get the care and expertise of this breeder for the lifetime of the dog. We WANT to hear from you after you get a Caryse puppy—for the life of the dog! And, we don’t breed to produce puppies just to sell. That is not our sole focus. We breed to produce the next great show dog which will, hopefully, leave a lasting and positive mark on the breed. Unfortunately, not all puppies are destined for the show ring or are not quite what we feel is best to continue on with, so we do make puppies available to carefully screened families. As it is our intention to produce healthy, beautiful and sound Cavaliers, we health test by board certified cardiologists and ophthalmologists, we follow the MVD Breeding Protocol waiting to breed our health tested Cavaliers until they are 2.5 years of age with parents over 5 and heart clear. We do genetic testing for Dry Eye Curly Coat, Episodic Falling Syndrome and, because there’s a new genetic test for Degenerative Myelopathy, we are also using this tool in our breeding program.
Renee has been National Director for the breed club’s rescue for many years and is also a Trustee, is on the board of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of Central Oklahoma as well as the Central Oklahoma Toy Dog Club. Both Dale and Renee are actively involved with the day to day caring for the dogs and making sure they have everything they need and will continue to do everything in their power to protect the breed they waited so long to own.
It is a privilege to be blessed by this breed!
