August 2011
Edited by Tina & Dennis Homes
CAVALIER CARTOONS
In the early 1920s a British artist named George E. Studdy created a comic cartoon character dog named Bonzo. He was white with black spots and quickly gained great popularity both in the UK and also in the USA. His image was used in quite a lot of adverts and was featured on posters, comic strips and postcards. In fact the comedy rock group of the 1960’s Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band derived their name from this character. This indeed started quite a trend in the twenties for cartoon dogs of all breeds and we have managed to uncover a few that feature King Charles or Cavalier type dogs.
In the early 1920s a British artist named George E. Studdy created a comic cartoon character dog named Bonzo. He was white with black spots and quickly gained great popularity both in the UK and also in the USA. His image was used in quite a lot of adverts and was featured on posters, comic strips and postcards. In fact the comedy rock group of the 1960’s Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band derived their name from this character. This indeed started quite a trend in the twenties for cartoon dogs of all breeds and we have managed to uncover a few that feature King Charles or Cavalier type dogs.
This one indeed shows that the King Charles regards itself as having a lot more class than a common Terrier!!!
"I’d like to make a claim on the loss of one of my lives."
CAN A DOG HAVE A BROKEN HEART?
Earlier this year most newspapers ran the story of Theo the bomb-sniffing Springer Spaniel that died of a broken heart in Afghanistan shortly after his owner Lance Corporal Liam Tasker was killed by a bomb. So do dogs have similar emotions as humans? And can they also suffer bereavement and a broken heart? For a long time it was assumed that dogs and other mammals lived purely for the present and were unaware of the future and disinterested in the past. Anyone who tried to compare a dog’s emotion with that of a human was accused of being anthropomorphic. However, in recent years as more and more in-depth study of animal behaviour has taken place it has been found that dogs have a whole range of emotions.
The most famous story of a dog suffering long term bereavement is of Greyfriars Bobby. He was a Skye Terrier who would spend day after day sitting by the grave of his departed owner John Gray, a night watchman for the Edinburgh police. The only time Bobby would leave his master’s grave was to go to nearby restaurants where people would give him food. This story has become legend and was made into a film by Walt Disney. How much is actually true and what has become urban myth over the years is rather hard to say. But it has indeed been proved that dogs do suffer from the loss of a close companion. Dogs in general do have a very strong survival instinct and in most cases will soon adapt to a new owner as has been found by rescue centres. But there are other cases where the relationship between the dog and its owner has been so intense that separation becomes intolerable. There have been cases of owners dying and their dogs suffering a kind depression which inhibits both their appetite and their immune system and they too die not long after. Theo and his owner were working in a highly stressful situation in Afghanistan which made them become closely linked and inseparable.
Just like humans, dogs can occasionally suffer from bouts of depression. They get moody, lethargic, stop eating, and drink only minimal amounts of water. They don’t seem to want to play and start to lose weight. This can be cause by grief, a change of scenery or even a chemical imbalance. It has also been found that weather can adversely affect a normally happy dog. Losing a playmate is often a reason for canine depression. We may not notice it very often, but pets do grieve, and in some cases dogs can grieve to a dangerous point, and it can be very hard to bring them out of it. If this is happening to your dog, you need to take action and start to make life fun again. Be sure to have all physical aspects of your dog’s health checked out by a vet in the first instance. Lots of attention and fun and games may be the answer to put the sparkle back into your dog’s life.
Dr. Raymond Van Lienden is a vet from Virginia and has made an in-depth study into canine depression. George and Fritz were two canine littermates who spent their whole lives together. Each morning they would squabble over the tastiest treats on offer and would then spend the day playing and getting into mischief such as stealing shoe laces or sneaking into forbidden places. They went on walks together, played and slept side by side. This went on for 14 years until Fritz died. Suddenly George no longer acted like the same dog. He slept more, withdrew from social activities and lost interest in his food. He was brought to Dr Van Lienden who conducted a full medical examination including blood tests, x-rays and an analysis of the dog's health history to see what may be wrong. The only conclusion was that it was probably canine depression. The challenge in diagnosing depression is that symptoms often mimic those for many other health problems. These symptoms may include lethargy, weight loss, lack of interest in food, drink and social activities, and a tendency to sleep more. Medical examinations are critical to rule out health problems that may include anything from a chemical imbalance to a thyroid-related condition. Dr. Van Lienden believes that change is usually at the root of canine depression. This could be a sudden death or disappearance of a valued dog or human companion. It might be an unwanted change of scenery, such as when the owner moves from one location to another. Or it could be an unwanted addition, like a new baby, pet, or housemate that has altered the dog’s routine in some way. If there is a major change to the dog’s lifestyle it is important to try to maintain some order in his life such as keeping familiar toys around him. The good news is that, unlike humans, dogs do live more for the moment. Although grief and depression can linger for weeks or sometimes months, in most cases these feelings and related symptoms are usually temporary. Most dogs will overcome the problems on their own, it may just take a bit of time for them to cope and adjust.
Earlier this year most newspapers ran the story of Theo the bomb-sniffing Springer Spaniel that died of a broken heart in Afghanistan shortly after his owner Lance Corporal Liam Tasker was killed by a bomb. So do dogs have similar emotions as humans? And can they also suffer bereavement and a broken heart? For a long time it was assumed that dogs and other mammals lived purely for the present and were unaware of the future and disinterested in the past. Anyone who tried to compare a dog’s emotion with that of a human was accused of being anthropomorphic. However, in recent years as more and more in-depth study of animal behaviour has taken place it has been found that dogs have a whole range of emotions.
The most famous story of a dog suffering long term bereavement is of Greyfriars Bobby. He was a Skye Terrier who would spend day after day sitting by the grave of his departed owner John Gray, a night watchman for the Edinburgh police. The only time Bobby would leave his master’s grave was to go to nearby restaurants where people would give him food. This story has become legend and was made into a film by Walt Disney. How much is actually true and what has become urban myth over the years is rather hard to say. But it has indeed been proved that dogs do suffer from the loss of a close companion. Dogs in general do have a very strong survival instinct and in most cases will soon adapt to a new owner as has been found by rescue centres. But there are other cases where the relationship between the dog and its owner has been so intense that separation becomes intolerable. There have been cases of owners dying and their dogs suffering a kind depression which inhibits both their appetite and their immune system and they too die not long after. Theo and his owner were working in a highly stressful situation in Afghanistan which made them become closely linked and inseparable.
Just like humans, dogs can occasionally suffer from bouts of depression. They get moody, lethargic, stop eating, and drink only minimal amounts of water. They don’t seem to want to play and start to lose weight. This can be cause by grief, a change of scenery or even a chemical imbalance. It has also been found that weather can adversely affect a normally happy dog. Losing a playmate is often a reason for canine depression. We may not notice it very often, but pets do grieve, and in some cases dogs can grieve to a dangerous point, and it can be very hard to bring them out of it. If this is happening to your dog, you need to take action and start to make life fun again. Be sure to have all physical aspects of your dog’s health checked out by a vet in the first instance. Lots of attention and fun and games may be the answer to put the sparkle back into your dog’s life.
Dr. Raymond Van Lienden is a vet from Virginia and has made an in-depth study into canine depression. George and Fritz were two canine littermates who spent their whole lives together. Each morning they would squabble over the tastiest treats on offer and would then spend the day playing and getting into mischief such as stealing shoe laces or sneaking into forbidden places. They went on walks together, played and slept side by side. This went on for 14 years until Fritz died. Suddenly George no longer acted like the same dog. He slept more, withdrew from social activities and lost interest in his food. He was brought to Dr Van Lienden who conducted a full medical examination including blood tests, x-rays and an analysis of the dog's health history to see what may be wrong. The only conclusion was that it was probably canine depression. The challenge in diagnosing depression is that symptoms often mimic those for many other health problems. These symptoms may include lethargy, weight loss, lack of interest in food, drink and social activities, and a tendency to sleep more. Medical examinations are critical to rule out health problems that may include anything from a chemical imbalance to a thyroid-related condition. Dr. Van Lienden believes that change is usually at the root of canine depression. This could be a sudden death or disappearance of a valued dog or human companion. It might be an unwanted change of scenery, such as when the owner moves from one location to another. Or it could be an unwanted addition, like a new baby, pet, or housemate that has altered the dog’s routine in some way. If there is a major change to the dog’s lifestyle it is important to try to maintain some order in his life such as keeping familiar toys around him. The good news is that, unlike humans, dogs do live more for the moment. Although grief and depression can linger for weeks or sometimes months, in most cases these feelings and related symptoms are usually temporary. Most dogs will overcome the problems on their own, it may just take a bit of time for them to cope and adjust.
A DOG’S SENSE OF TASTE
Watching some dogs wafting down a bowl of food in just a few seconds may cause some people to presume that dogs must have a very keen sense of taste when compared to humans. But this is not true. Surprisingly dogs have around seventeen hundred taste buds while humans have about nine thousand. By carefully watching a dog eating, it may be quite clear that dogs do not appear to really taste and enjoy each morsel of food, they just simply gulp it down.
Eating fast and without paying much attention to taste and flavour dates back to when the dog used to live in packs and hunted prey for survival. Since food at those times was not an every day luxury, it was quickly gulped down to prevent other dogs or other animals to take over. Yet, in a domestic setting, this instinct deeply ingrained in a dog’s mind may still prevail, especially if the dog is forced to eat in close vicinity to other dogs, causing competition to kick in.
However, just because a dog eats fast does not mean that a dog cannot recognize flavours. Rather, the taste buds found on a dog’s tongue have been found to be capable of distinguishing sweet, salty, bitter and sour flavours. Among these, dogs appear to be particularly sensitive to bitter flavours, for this reason, the well known "bitter apple spray" often prescribed in dogs to prevent them from licking wounds or to prevent them from chewing furniture is so effective.
Some dogs will eat almost anything while others can be downright picky. Smell plays an important role in detecting taste as the two senses are highly connected. Dogs and cats being hunters also seem to enjoy warm food. This dates again back to when they were hunting prey and it eating it when it is still warm. For this reason, warming up some dry kibble with some warm broth may turn a boring dish into an appetizing delight. A dog’s basic taste is pretty similar to humans. Taste mainly comes under the headings of sour, sweet, bitter and salty. The taste varies from dog to dog but generally, dogs would prefer sweet over bitter and sour. A dog that has developed a taste for fruits would eat bananas but would probably turn away from lemons and other citrus fruits. As a rule they hate the bitter taste. Dogs are noted to have more receptors for savoury taste. This explains the dog’s preference for meats. At the tip of the tongue are sensitive water receptors. When dogs eat sweet and salty foods, these receptors became more responsive. More liquids are necessary to process these particular foods so that when dogs are given sweets, hams or any other salty and sweet human foods they would require more water. Because of these sensitive water receptors, dogs are noted to be rather choosy with the water they drink. This may seem odd when they ignore their water bowl and step outside and drink from a puddle! But who knows what smell has attracted the dog to the puddle?
Watching some dogs wafting down a bowl of food in just a few seconds may cause some people to presume that dogs must have a very keen sense of taste when compared to humans. But this is not true. Surprisingly dogs have around seventeen hundred taste buds while humans have about nine thousand. By carefully watching a dog eating, it may be quite clear that dogs do not appear to really taste and enjoy each morsel of food, they just simply gulp it down.
Eating fast and without paying much attention to taste and flavour dates back to when the dog used to live in packs and hunted prey for survival. Since food at those times was not an every day luxury, it was quickly gulped down to prevent other dogs or other animals to take over. Yet, in a domestic setting, this instinct deeply ingrained in a dog’s mind may still prevail, especially if the dog is forced to eat in close vicinity to other dogs, causing competition to kick in.
However, just because a dog eats fast does not mean that a dog cannot recognize flavours. Rather, the taste buds found on a dog’s tongue have been found to be capable of distinguishing sweet, salty, bitter and sour flavours. Among these, dogs appear to be particularly sensitive to bitter flavours, for this reason, the well known "bitter apple spray" often prescribed in dogs to prevent them from licking wounds or to prevent them from chewing furniture is so effective.
Some dogs will eat almost anything while others can be downright picky. Smell plays an important role in detecting taste as the two senses are highly connected. Dogs and cats being hunters also seem to enjoy warm food. This dates again back to when they were hunting prey and it eating it when it is still warm. For this reason, warming up some dry kibble with some warm broth may turn a boring dish into an appetizing delight. A dog’s basic taste is pretty similar to humans. Taste mainly comes under the headings of sour, sweet, bitter and salty. The taste varies from dog to dog but generally, dogs would prefer sweet over bitter and sour. A dog that has developed a taste for fruits would eat bananas but would probably turn away from lemons and other citrus fruits. As a rule they hate the bitter taste. Dogs are noted to have more receptors for savoury taste. This explains the dog’s preference for meats. At the tip of the tongue are sensitive water receptors. When dogs eat sweet and salty foods, these receptors became more responsive. More liquids are necessary to process these particular foods so that when dogs are given sweets, hams or any other salty and sweet human foods they would require more water. Because of these sensitive water receptors, dogs are noted to be rather choosy with the water they drink. This may seem odd when they ignore their water bowl and step outside and drink from a puddle! But who knows what smell has attracted the dog to the puddle?
MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
There are quite a number of inaccuracies about dogs that are widely held to be true. Here are just a few.
A cold, wet nose is a sign of good health
This has absolutely no bearing on a dog’s health. The normal temperature of a dog is 101 to 103 degrees but it has often been found that a dog’s nose can be cold and wet when they are running a temperature of 105. Quite often if a dog has been playing on a warm afternoon his nose may feel quite warm and dry.
If a dog wags his tail he is happy
Not necessarily. Quite often a dominant and aggressive dog will wag its tail but more erect with a more upward movement. Dogs do wag their tail if happy, but they also use their tail as a body language symbol for many other things.
A dog will roll over and show its belly as a sign of submission
Again, not necessarily so. It is more likely a sign of bonding with other pack members and to their owners.
Dogs eat grass if they are unwell or have worms
It’s quite normal for a dog to eat grass. Primitive dogs and wolves would regularly eat grass to provide roughage and domesticated dogs often eat grass. If they are sick afterwards it is not a sign that they are ill, it’s just that too much grass is hard to digest and they simply regurgitate it.
Dogs see only in black and white
Inside the eye are photoreceptors, some are shaped like cones and others like rods. The cone shaped photoreceptors are the basis for colour vision. Because dogs have far more rods as compared to humans it was at one time believed that they could not see in colour. It is now known that their perception of colour is similar to how humans see colour in late evening. Colour is still there but not very bright. Nevertheless dogs do have very good eyesight. We will be having an article on canine eyesight in a future issue of Cavaliers as Companions.
There are quite a number of inaccuracies about dogs that are widely held to be true. Here are just a few.
A cold, wet nose is a sign of good health
This has absolutely no bearing on a dog’s health. The normal temperature of a dog is 101 to 103 degrees but it has often been found that a dog’s nose can be cold and wet when they are running a temperature of 105. Quite often if a dog has been playing on a warm afternoon his nose may feel quite warm and dry.
If a dog wags his tail he is happy
Not necessarily. Quite often a dominant and aggressive dog will wag its tail but more erect with a more upward movement. Dogs do wag their tail if happy, but they also use their tail as a body language symbol for many other things.
A dog will roll over and show its belly as a sign of submission
Again, not necessarily so. It is more likely a sign of bonding with other pack members and to their owners.
Dogs eat grass if they are unwell or have worms
It’s quite normal for a dog to eat grass. Primitive dogs and wolves would regularly eat grass to provide roughage and domesticated dogs often eat grass. If they are sick afterwards it is not a sign that they are ill, it’s just that too much grass is hard to digest and they simply regurgitate it.
Dogs see only in black and white
Inside the eye are photoreceptors, some are shaped like cones and others like rods. The cone shaped photoreceptors are the basis for colour vision. Because dogs have far more rods as compared to humans it was at one time believed that they could not see in colour. It is now known that their perception of colour is similar to how humans see colour in late evening. Colour is still there but not very bright. Nevertheless dogs do have very good eyesight. We will be having an article on canine eyesight in a future issue of Cavaliers as Companions.
A VERY CLEVER DOG
Not a Cavalier but a Jack Russell, but I’m sure that you will thoroughly enjoy this You Tube video clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=P9Fyey4D5hg
Not a Cavalier but a Jack Russell, but I’m sure that you will thoroughly enjoy this You Tube video clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=P9Fyey4D5hg
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Spot the Black & Tan! This is Gracie owned by Primrose. She was very put out that her bed wasn’t available to her because she takes her comfort very seriously!! Gracie’s favourite pastime is stealing underwear, and both Primrose’s daughters are always mortified when their friends and boyfriends call round and the garden is strewn with knickers! She is two years old and lives for love and can never have enough cuddles and hugs. She adores playing with her big sister with Phoebe, a four year old Blenheim.
THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH
"One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you are feeling down is that he doesn’t try to find out why"
Author Unknown
"One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you are feeling down is that he doesn’t try to find out why"
Author Unknown
If you have any questions about owning a Cavalier then click on the envelope to email Dennis and Tina who will only be too pleased to try and help you.
However please remember that we are not Vets or Lawyers so questions on these topics should be addressed to the professionals for advice.
Questions and answers that are of interest to other owners may be published on this page.
The Cavalier Club is not responsible for external website content.
However please remember that we are not Vets or Lawyers so questions on these topics should be addressed to the professionals for advice.
Questions and answers that are of interest to other owners may be published on this page.
The Cavalier Club is not responsible for external website content.
Material Copyright © 2011 The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club