Cavaliers In The United States
The first Cavaliers came to the United States in the late 1940's
from England. In the early 1950's, Mrs. W. L. Lyons Brown and her sister-in-law,
Mrs. George Garvin (Trudy) Brown of Louisville, Kentucky contacted the American
Kennel Club (AKC) and asked to register their Cavaliers. The AKC explained that
a new breed must first become established in a country, show evidence of
sufficient numbers of both dogs and owners, and begin keeping records of
activity. In other words, there must be a strong and sustained interest in a new
breed.
On the advice of AKC, they began to contact other Cavalier
owners and in 1956 formed the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, USA (CKCSC,
USA) as a registry organization. Trudy became the matriarch of the breed in this
country. Working from English Kennel Club export pedigrees, she began keeping a
studbook, issuing registration papers and keeping all records for the breed.
Once this record keeping process became established, they again asked the AKC to
recognize the breed, and on April 1, 1962 the AKC admitted Cavaliers to the
Miscellaneous Class. This was the first step that all breeds were required to
take in order for the AKC to grant full recognition.
The CKCSC, USA also began to hold shows and in 1977 began to
award club championships. The CKCSC, USA is a private registry body, and
has never been the Parent Club for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels
in the United States. There can be no Parent Club for any breed of dogs until
that breed has been recognized by the official kennel club of that country. In
the United States it is the AKC, in the United Kingdom the Kennel Club, and so
on.
Over the years, several votes had been taken about whether to
seek full AKC recognition for the breed, and this proposal was always defeated.
Cavaliers remained in the AKC Miscellaneous Class for almost three decades, even
though it was a recognized breed in nearly every other country around the world.
Trudy Brown Albrecht passed away in 1983, and at the same time, the club began
to lose direction. By 1990, it bore little resemblance to the club she had
founded. |
