Cavapoo puppy advice needed!

[Suzanne Locke]

Hi, we reserved a puppy when it was 1 week old after putting a 12.5% deposit. We were sent a health check of the toy poodle stud (clear of degenerative myelopathy) and a KC registration for the mother Cavalier King Charles spaniel. The mother is also supposedly health tested although we haven’t seen a certificate.

To begin with the puppy we picked seemed to be one of the chunkier ones of the 9 puppy litter. She seemed to be feeding from her mother. She opened her eyes on the 3rd week (certainly wasn’t one of the first in her litter). Now that she is just over 6 weeks old we have noticed by the videos sent from the breeder and FaceTime calls that she is not interacting and playing with her litter mates. In some of the videos she appears to be shaking and we have not seen her tail wagging like the other puppies.

Please can someone advise if her subdued behaviour is something to be concerned about? We don’t mind a quieter puppy but we are afraid that maybe there may be something wrong with her eyesight or health given she is very withdrawn from the rest of the litter and breeder. Should we still go ahead with picking up and buying this puppy in 2 weeks? If so is there anything we should look out for?

 

[JoanneF]

very withdrawn

That would be a little worrying.

With the health problems cavaliers have, I'd want to be reassured with evidence that the mother had been tested for mitral valve disease (heart, done by ECG) and that there is no history of chiari malformation in her ancestry. The mother should be at least 5 years old.

The degenerative myelopathe test is a cheap one, a lot of breeders do these cheap DNA tests so they can say the dogs are health tested, but miss the far more important tests that cost more money (like hip scoring).

 

[Suzanne Locke]

That would be a little worrying.

With the health problems cavaliers have, I'd want to be reassured with evidence that the mother had been tested for mitral valve disease (heart, done by ECG) and that there is no history of chiari malformation in her ancestry. The mother should be at least 5 years old.

The degenerative myelopathe test is a cheap one, a lot of breeders do these cheap DNA tests so they can say the dogs are health tested, but miss the far more important tests that cost more money (like hip scoring).

Thank you thats very helpful to know