Cavaliers are very affectionate dogs seeking human or animal companionship at all times, although they do love to sleep - they have been known to sleep for as much as 18 hours during the day, wanting only a stroke or pet in between, a frolic in the garden and to stop to eat and drink before going back to bed.
They are very good around children and not at all a danger to others; indeed, sometimes it has been known that a parent or adult step in to stop a child for being too rough. As they are very affectionate animals, they will never make a good guard dog as they love to wag their tail at strangers, especially if the stranger makes a fuss.
Also, they can never be allowed off the leash as, although they are a small dog, they do derive from the Spaniel, and therefore have a strong hunting instrict that gets them chasing after butterflies, birds or other small animals; as such they tend to easily run across the road without due regard for their surroundings.
Why am I telling you all these things?
Because this is our Cavalier!
Though we had wanted a puppy, we decided to adopt a slightly older dog. And after meeting him, we realised that we had to give D'Artganan a home.
Yes, that is his name. D'Artagnan - from The Three Muskateers (although the three in the title of the book are Porthos, Athos and Aramis; D'Artagnan joins them by the end of the book).
We were wanting to name the dog differently, but decided that the name was quite fitting, considering that The Muskateers were of a contemporary time period for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. So D'Artagnan keeps his name, though we and others, children especially, have truncated his name to simply Tanyen for short.
He is an adorable, very affectionate dog but incredibly timid. We introduced him to our nieces and nephews and other young children and though they were initially scared of him, he was behind our legs the whole time. As we slowly introduced them to each other, Tanyen slowly allowed them to pet him and to make a fuss over him.
He's been with us now for over 6 weeks and, as time goes on, he's very quickly become part of the family.
