I could waste a lot of time watching Ernest patrolling our property against bird invasion. He has a beautiful lightness and effortless to the way he moves with the rhythmical wagging of his magnificent brush (tail) as he catches sights and smells. The other day I said to one of our daughters, "He has a bit of the Phalène about him." She asked me, "What is a Phalène?" So I searched it on the computer to show her. You can certainly see a passing resemblance to the painting of a Phalene below and you can certainly get a feeling how the Phalene came about or could be reproduced if you wanted to go down that road to bring more gentic diversity in to this very small gene pool breed. Imagine if the Poodle bit in Ernest was Toy instead of Miniature which would of produced a smaller dog if we also selected very small type Cavaliers alongside that. Personally though I believe breeding for such small heads even though not brachycephalic is fraught with health implications for dogs. We are seeing more and more cases of Syringomyelia not only in brachycephalic dogs with Chiari-like Malformation, but also in breeds without Chiari-like Malformation, but have been very miniaturized. As these studies show that not only malformation at the back of the skull may be the only conformational pointer to a dog's likelihood to later in life develop syringomyelia The prevalence of Chiari-like malformation and Syringomyelia in several Toy breeds in the Netherlands (ONDERZOEK 11-12 P.G.Limburg (SM prevalence Netherlands).pdf) and Association between frontal-sinus size and syringohydromyelia in small-breed dogs
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“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
AuthorHello, I am Jane! Archives
March 2022
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