Changing faces

Just starting to get my head in to gear for the next stage of our breeding, and it is good to be reflective. So I've tried to get some profile photos of what we have done so far in trying to improve head morphology. First what we can see happening using the Poodle first cross, and then seeing what the offspring of that union produces, when put back to the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Amazingly, we managed to keep a lot of the good the first cross did. Not to much doming, the skull length is longer than the width and a really good nose length with teeth all looking in good order and well spaced. Ernest will be MRI scanned in the summertime, and I will be tightly crossing my fingers, hoping for an improvement in Chiari Malformation (CM) grade. His Mum is SM free, but we still had CM 2 grade. Realistically though, I'm not sure we will see an improvement of CM grade though at this stage, but I think the changing in skull shape will mean that like his Mum Treacle, he will be less predisposed to prolapsing of the brain at the back of the skull and developing Syringomyelia (SM). 
I would suspect the biggest changes will be seen with CM in the Brittany/Cavalier crosses we have done, and when we bring the Brittany/Cavalier lines together with the Poodle/Cavalier line. 

First Generation cross Poodle/Cavalier

Dad

Reggie (Miniature Poodle)

Mum

Dolly (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

Daughter

Treacle (F1 Cavapoo)

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Second generation cross 

Dad

Toby (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

Mum

Treacle (F1 Cavapoo)

Son

Ernest (F1b Cavapoo, 3/4 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and 1/4 poodle)

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Below are photos showing the result of a first cross Brittany with a Cavalier. Note how much length of nose and cranium that has been achieved in one cross. This though makes for a bigger spaniel on the small/medium dog size, and we hope that using them with Ernest our F1b Cavapoo will reduce size a bit (as Ernest is smaller than his Cavalier Dad), but keep the improvements in the head shape. Our two oldest (Now 2 years old) Brittany/Cavalier girls will be MRI scanned along with Ernest later this year. It would be great to see a CM 0 grade for this cross, but again I must be realistic, and the real change I feel will come when the two lines come together producing a 5/8 Cavalier, 2/8 Brittany and 1/8 Poodle offspring, or with the Brittany being a spaniel type, you could look at the offspring as 7/8 spaniel, 1/8 Poodle. So I'm just waiting for Bumble (One of our two year old Brittany/Cavalier crosses) to come off heat, and I will look to book Ernest, Blottie and her in for MRI scanning at Bristol, and after MRI scanning it will be getting them booked in for their cardiologist vet heart examinations. Our other two Brittany/Cavalier girls Sasha and Bertha, we will get MRI scanned next year, when around two years old, to hopefully breed from in 2019. All going well with our first Brittany/Poodle/Cavalier litters we hope to breed in 2018.

First generation cross Brittany/Cavalier

Dad

Henry (Brittany Spaniel)

Mum

Primrose (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

Daughter

Sasha (F1 Brittany/Cavalier)