about us and our dog max
cavalier king charles spaniel dogs
Our dog Max came into our lives 10 years ago, at the perfect time for our family in many ways. Max is a purebred Cavalier King Charles and is mostly white and black with distinct brown highlight areas. Our daughters sometimes jokingly and affectionately call him the “cow dog”.
We had not heard of the Cavalier King Charles breed when we started looking for a puppy. We went to a breeder looking for small breed dogs, a Havanese, Bichon Frise, Shih Tzu or similar small family dog. The breeder brought out a small ball of white and black fur with curly floppy ears…a button nose…and the most adorable brown eyebrows. We were hooked and started “googling” to learn about Cavaliers.
Luckily, King Charles Cavalier dogs fit with all the characteristics we were looking for. They’re great family dogs. They have a very kind disposition. They generally stay less than 25 pounds (more on the size of our Max later). They are energetic and upbeat but not too hyperactive.
We took Max home that day and he’s been the perfect fit in our family as our daughters have grown from elementary school girls to high school and college women. He’s a tremendous companion, like most dogs always showing unconditional love.
adventures with max
Max has been part of many of our family adventures. When our girls were younger and loved playing in the snow, Max was right there with them. He was the biggest fan at soccer games. He truly enjoyed hiking, shaking with excitement as we entered the woods and having boundless energy leading the way eagerly up the trail. Max also had some highly memorable times with us at the beach.
One characteristic we had read about but did not fully understand until we saw it ourselves is that Cavalier King Charles are bird dogs. Their hunting instinct, particularly around birds, goes back centuries and is like a switch that gets turned ON when they see birds. We were afraid we might lose Max when he was only about 1 year old when he was at a remote beach with us and he started chasing sandpiper birds. He became so intent on trying to catch them he stopped listening to our calls and instead ran for what seemed like a mile down the beach thinking he was going to catch a sandpiper.
Fortunately, we did not lose Max that day at the beach and we have had many other great experiences with him.
Cavs are fantastic with kids and are known as “velcro” dogs… loving to be with people all the time. We would highly recommend the Cavalier breed to others looking for a new dog.
so many great new products
Because of our love for Max and a desire to keep him healthy, we started looking online to learn more about natural dog food and options for pet insurance and vet care as he gets older. We discovered there is an explosion of “new” products for dogs. Many new food choices, new insurance options, new ways to manage vet care, new “thunder jackets” and “coyote vests”, GPS tracking collars and more.
Most of these items are now available to pet parents directly from the manufacturer or “direct to consumer”. Direct to consumer is a relatively new way for businesses to sell product, sending items directly to the consumer rather than involving a middle layer retail shop. Often, the business is able to reduce prices because there is not a retail shop in the process.
We believe these new products and companies offer great benefits to pet owners and want to share what we have learned. We hope you find value in information we share !