English Toy Spaniel

Gentle and calm indoors, quieter than many toy breeds.
An English Toy Spaniel
Photo: Eric Sonstroem from California, USA
Adult weight
3.6–6.4 kg
8–14 lb
Lifespan
10–12 yrs
Handler demand
Suits a first-time owner
Class · Lap dog
also Companion

What it's like

In temperament it is gentle, affectionate and playful, quieter than many toy breeds, and can be reserved with strangers. It is usually calm indoors and attaches closely to those it lives with.

Day to day
Activity
Happy with modest walks
Intelligence
Easy-going, simple routines
Handler demand
Suits a first-time owner
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Quiet
Prey drive
Usually fine with small pets
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is an English Toy Spaniel right for you?
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Living with one

It has a long coat. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on daily brushing. It needs a modest amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

An English Toy Spaniel is a small dog, about the weight of a grown Yorkshire Terrier. It is one of the lightest small breeds.

It is compact and cobby, with a domed head, a short upturned nose, large dark eyes set wide apart and long, low-set ears covered in heavy feathering. The coat is long, silky and straight or slightly wavy, with fringes on the ears, chest, legs and feet. Many Blenheims carry a red spot on the crown, known as the lozenge.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 3 months, a male English Toy Spaniel puppy is already as heavy as a grown Chihuahua. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
1.2–2.1 kg 2.6–4.6 lb
1.3–2.3 kg 2.9–5.1 lb
3 months
1.5–2.6 kg 3.3–5.7 lb
1.6–2.8 kg 3.5–6.2 lb
4 months
1.9–3.4 kg 4.2–7.5 lb
2.0–3.5 kg 4.4–7.7 lb
5 months
2.3–4.0 kg 5.1–8.8 lb
2.3–4.1 kg 5.1–9.0 lb
6 months
2.5–4.5 kg 5.5–9.9 lb
2.5–4.5 kg 5.5–9.9 lb
7 months
2.8–4.9 kg 6.2–10.8 lb
2.7–4.8 kg 6.0–10.6 lb
8 months
2.9–5.2 kg 6.4–11.5 lb
2.9–5.1 kg 6.4–11.2 lb
9 months
3.0–5.4 kg 6.6–11.9 lb
3.0–5.3 kg 6.6–11.7 lb
10 months
3.1–5.6 kg 6.8–12.3 lb
3.1–5.4 kg 6.8–11.9 lb
11 months
3.2–5.7 kg 7.1–12.6 lb
3.1–5.6 kg 6.8–12.3 lb
12 months
3.3–5.8 kg 7.3–12.8 lb
3.2–5.7 kg 7.1–12.6 lb
15 months
3.4–6.1 kg 7.5–13.4 lb
3.4–6.0 kg 7.5–13.2 lb
18 months
3.6–6.3 kg 7.9–13.9 lb
3.5–6.3 kg 7.7–13.9 lb

Health and lifespan

In UK vet records, the conditions below turn up more often in English Toy Spaniels than in crossbreeds. Dry eye stands out as far more likely. None of them is rated serious. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name.
  • Dry eye
    Far more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Balance disorder
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Corneal ulcers
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Gum disease
    More likely
    Impact: moderate

Flat face and breathing

The English Toy Spaniel is one of the flat-faced breeds. In UK vet records, flat-faced dogs were more likely to have breathing and airway problems than dogs with a medium-length muzzle, and lived shorter lives on average. Noisy breathing at rest is worth raising with a vet.

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long English Toy Spaniels live yet. The 10–12 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The English Toy Spaniel, Britain's King Charles Spaniel, takes its name from the toy spaniels Charles II favoured. In Victorian times crosses with toy dogs from the East, probably Pugs and Japanese Chin, gave it a domed skull and short face, and the Kennel Club has treated it and the longer-muzzled Cavalier as separate breeds since 19454,14,15.

The English Toy Spaniel's present form was fixed by Victorian breeders, who prized an ever shorter face and rounder head over the flatter-skulled toy spaniels of earlier portraits. Its colours were given names of their own: black and tan dogs were called King Charles, tricolours Prince Charles, solid red dogs Ruby, and red and white dogs Blenheim, after the Dukes of Marlborough's seat at Blenheim Palace. In the United States the breed is shown in two colour-based varieties. The breed has chiefly been a companion rather than a worker, kept as a lapdog in households and courts.

Breed standard

The English Toy Spaniel is judged against standard no. 128, in group 9, Companion and Toy Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured English Toy Spaniel figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a small breed is most likely at the early end.

Compare with related

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Companion & toy · Small
Brussels Griffon
Companion & toy · Toy
Coton de Tulear
Companion & toy · Toy
Havanese
Companion & toy · Toy
Or compare the English Toy Spaniel with any breed you choose
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Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
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Parts of this page were written by AI ·