Educate yourself on popular dog breeds of the world:

Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

THE King Charles spaniel originated in the renaissance era of Great Britain as a companion dog for royalty.

The King Charles spaniel got its name due to a Blenheim-coated spaniel, the children's pet in the household of Charles I. King Charles II even preferred this Toy spaniel's company to that of his courtiers. Such spaniels can also be seen in many paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Over time, the toy spaniels were replaced in popularity by short-snouted, dome-headed dogs of Asian descent, such as the Pug and the Japanese Chin. The King Charles spaniel was bred along with these dogs which results with the similar-shaped head of today's English Toy Spaniel breed.

The Cavalier is by most measures the largest toy breed. However, it is clearly a lap dog. It is nonetheless quite small for a spaniel. Breed standards call for a height of about 36 centimetres and weighing five to eight kilograms.

Unlike most spaniels, the Cavalier has a full-length tail well-feathered with long hair, which is typically carried aloft when walking.

The breed naturally possesses a substantial silky coat of moderate length. A coat free from curl, with a slight wave permissible is a sign of a good breed standard.

In adulthood, the Cavaliers grow lengthy feathering on their ears, chest, legs, feet and tail. This breed has four recognised colours: Blenheim (rich chestnut on pearly white background), Tricolour (black and white with tan markings on cheeks, inside ears, resembling eyebrows, inside legs and on underside of tail), black and tan (black with tan markings), and Ruby (rich reddish-brown all over).

The Cavalier King Charles spaniel is a highly affectionate companion and is considered as the ultimate lap dog. Most dogs of the breed are playful, extremely patient and eager to please. They make good companions for children and other dogs. A well-socialized Cavalier will not be shy about socializing with much larger dogs.

This breed suffers from a number of severe genetic defects. If you consider buying a Cavalier King Charles puppy, ask to see its parents' heart and eye certificates. Virtually all Cavaliers suffer from mitral valve disease.

This cause progressive heart murmurs leading to heart failure. This is known as the leading cause of death of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Syringomyelia is a condition affecting the brain and spine. The symptoms range from mild discomfort to severe pain and partial paralysis. This is also a widespread disease in this breed though it is rare in other breeds.

Sensitivity around the head, neck, or shoulders, often indicated by a dog whimpering or frequently scratching at the area of its neck and shoulders are signs of the disease.

These symptoms typically appear around the age between six months and three years. Episodic Falling, Hip dysplasia, Luxating patella and Keratoconjunctivitis Sicea are other health problems that the breed suffers from.

The Cavalier King Charles spaniel is quite popular among the Western society. Neal, is the pet Cavalier King Charles which belongs to actress Liv Tyler. Jennifer Love Hewitt too has a Cavalier while the crown princess of Sweden owned one Cavalier.

Due to its inborn affectionate and gentle nature, it is no wonder that the Cavalier King Charles spaniel has captured hearts of many.

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Flower of the week:

Glorious Petunias

Gloriously beautiful Petunias come in an array of attractive colours and bi-colours. Easy to propagate and multiply, this simple flower will light up any flowerbed.

There are dozens of different plants in the Petunia family. They come in various colours, bi-colours, shades and shapes but with equal grace and beauty. There is no flowering plant as the Petunia to add colour to your garden. Petunias are easy to propagate and needs alternation once established.

Varieties

Dream - five plain colours with pink tending to dominate and a long flowering period. Being a grandiflora, the flowers are large.

Joy - A well balanced mixture of seven colours including two stars and a pink with white throat. It is weather resistant but considered inferior to modern multi floras.

Mirage reflections - The best of the veined mixtures with five closely matched pinks, mauve and red.

Highlight - Four strong colours with a paler throat and reasonably rain resistant.

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Garden Guide

With Dr. Fazal Sultanbawa, PhD, Director Research and Development CIC

A coat of many colours - fun with grafting

GARDEN space is increasingly becoming smaller in homes, especially in the cities. The range of plants that can be grown is therefore limited and consequently, a garden may lose some of its appeal due to the small number of colours that can be displayed.

Most home owners therefore opt for small flowering plants arranged in tiers or hanging pots, to give colour to a garden patch.

For those growers who would like to have some of the easy-to-grow flowering shrubs like Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, Mussaenda and such plants, space will limit the choice to a few plants only.

But, do not despair - there is a way to colour your garden with even a few plants. The simple technique of grafting, which allows the grower to have flowers of many colours on a single plant. The technique works well with most woody flowering shrubs, roses, foliage shrubs like Acalypha and even cacti, and with a little practice, can become a routine procedure.

Select a few sturdy bushes of the plant of your choice (the technique is particularly recommended for Hibiscus or the common shoe flower) and plant them evenly spaced in a part of the garden. When they are growing well, plants are ready for grafting. This plant will serve as the 'mother' plant or technically the 'stock' plant.

Then get Hibiscus plants of other colours, from which you can get cuttings to graft, but even small branches that you can get from a friend will do. These branches are called 'scions'.

First, select branches on the stock plant that are as low (close to the base of the main stem) as possible, because if you need to prune the bush in the future, you will not have to cut off the grafted portions. Then select a branch of a similar size from the scion plant or branch, cut it to a length of 15-20 cm.

Wedge grafting is the easiest to master and is illustrated in the drawings below. Cut off the branch on the stock to be grafted at a convenient point, preferably around the lower half of the branch, then make a short slit in the stem at the point it was cut. The slit can be about 1-3 cm long, depending on the thickness of the branch.

Next, cut the base of the scion to get a V-shape, of similar dimensions to the slit in the stock plant. Insert the scion into the stock and wrap the region of union firmly with a strip of polythene.

Water the stock plant well, but avoid wetting the scion. After 3-4 weeks, the tissues of stock and scion would have united and the scion would produce new leaves in a few more weeks.

The process can be repeated at other points of the stock plant using scions with flower colours of your choice. Success will depend on a number of factors, such as age and size of stock and scion, prevailing weather and compatibility of varieties, but practice and the lessons you learn from failures (I mean failed grafts!) are the best guides.