I am looking for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy to purchase and several breeders have warned me about the heart disorder in Cavaliers. What should I look for when interviewing with breeders?
Make sure that both parents of the puppy you are considering to purchase have been heart cleared within the past 12 months by a cardiologist preferrably. Also try to obtain information about the heart clearances on ancestries for each parent. Heart murmurs are believed to be inherited through a polygenic mode of inheritance. All dogs have heart disease in their genetic history, however the Cavalier often shows signs earlier than most other breeds and therefore the studies in Cavaliers have been more extensive than other breeds. Polygenic genes are believed to need a specific number of markers passed on for the disorder to appear. One parent cannot give enough markers to cause the disorder and it takes two parents to pass on markers that add up to the certain number needed to cause the disorder to appear. Most Cavaliers probably carry markers, but at this time a specific marker or DNA profile has not been established. If you are getting a puppy from a breeder who has several generations
