prob is with your boy that has been done as in your picture posted he already has quite a heavy coat ..this is very hard to control when your showing ..agree with the others talk to people ....as Archer says cavalier shows do have high entries and places are very hard to get even with a good dog.

True the Cavaliers do have high entries as do the Cocker, although perhaps not so many, the point I was making is that the owner of a decent bitch may well use a good male and produce nice puppies one or more of which may be of show quality even if the breeder would not recognise it if it bit then on the nose. Strange as it may seem the dog I have done best with was a from a pet litter and I would not place him but he has at least 10 groups to his name, so it does happen. Agree with a coated breed being able to show a neutered dog or bitch with success is unlikely and of course with a dog the bits are there, or rather not there, for everyone to see, you can get away with it in veteran but it will not do a young dog and favours.

Blood lines are also very important. You may get a dog that is 'chance' bred, coming from a litter that not a lot of thought has gone into but has produced a one off good looking and show winning dog, this dog may even become a champion but will not necessarily produce winning puppies himself. You need to look at a breeders dogs and his history as a whole and see what his kennel is producing, if your dog is,nt by a champion or even a top show winner that doesn,t necessarily mean that he/she isn,t going to do well in the show ring or not produce quality pups. I have used the same dog three times because of his bloodlines, temperament and health i have had lovely results each time he isn,t a champion and wasn,t shown extensively (did o.k when he was) but the dogs behind him have proved themselves as good producers of typy sound and healthy dogs. I,m not saying champions don,t produce champions, because they can and do, just that bloodlines are very important too, so before you run out and use a champion dog because he is doing well in the show ring you should first look at his background and bloodlines and find out if these lines are compatible with yours and if they have proved themselves as good producers.

Hi louie...have spoken to steph and almost told her to the word what you have just written ...great minds eh ? LOL
and certainly has a good foundation to start from

Think we are perhaps going too deep for advice to someone who just fancies having a go at showing with the dogs they own now, Who knows if they get hooked on showing they may well then go buy a well bred dog that will reproduce a high % of quality dogs, that is a long way down the line from thinking you may like to show, and I am not going to discourage by saying they need to buy a dog from show lines after all we do not know that their pets are not from show lines not all of the show bred litter go to show homes.

Thanks Inca........... new you could give some good advice