Havanese vs Cavalier King Charles Spaniel NZ

The quick answer: choose the Havanese if you want a lively, social small companion with a playful streak. Choose the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel if you want a softer, gentle lap dog style and can be careful about breeder quality and routine health checks. Both suit indoor NZ homes better than outdoor living.

Quick comparison

Havanese: cheerful and interactive

The Havanese profile suits owners who want a small dog that joins in. It can be a good apartment or townhouse companion when it gets walks, play and time with people.

Cavalier: soft and affectionate

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel profile suits people who want a gentle, affectionate companion. It is often a strong fit for calmer homes, but it should not be treated as a toy for children.

NZ home fit

Both breeds need indoor warmth, daily contact and grooming. In South Island winter nights or damp Auckland flats, small companion dogs appreciate dry bedding and sensible coats for cold walks. Neither should be left alone for long days without planning.

Health: the part that should change your shortlist

*General information only — consult a registered NZ vet about any individual dog.*

Temperament is where most people stop comparing these two. It shouldn't be. The Cavalier carries two well-documented inherited conditions, and how a breeder handles them is a bigger differentiator than anything in the sections above.

Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). The mitral valve degenerates, leaks, and the heart progressively enlarges until congestive heart failure develops. In most breeds this is an old-dog disease. In Cavaliers it is not: Merck records myxomatous degeneration as an inherited trait in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (and the Dachshund), and a 2025 review in *Veterinary Sciences* puts the incidence in the breed at up to 100% above ten years of age, with onset much earlier in many lines. It is manageable and there is effective medication for it, but it is not a rare-worst-case scenario; it is the expected course of the breed.

Chiari-like malformation and syringomyelia (CM/SM). The back of the skull is too small for the cerebellum, which is pushed toward the foramen magnum; the disrupted cerebrospinal fluid flow can produce fluid-filled cavities in the spinal cord. Merck describes this as commonly reported in Cavaliers, with signs including face rubbing, "phantom scratching" at the back of the head or neck, wobbliness and weakness. A large share of dogs with the malformation on MRI never show clinical signs — but where the syrinx does form, it can be painful and lifelong.

What this means for an NZ buyer:

• Ask for the parents' heart status: annual auscultation by a vet, ideally with a cardiologist echocardiogram, and specifically at what age each parent (and grandparent, if known) first had a murmur recorded. Breeding schemes worldwide focus on delaying murmur onset in the parent generation, so "no murmur at five" is the number that matters.
• Ask whether the line has been MRI-scanned for CM/SM, and what the results were. "We've never had a problem" is not a scan result.
• Budget realistically for lifelong cardiac care and know what your pet insurance excludes — pre-existing and breed-specific conditions are the usual exclusions, and a Cavalier is exactly the case where that clause bites.
• The Havanese has no equivalent breed-defining cardiac or neurological burden. If the risk profile above is more than your household can carry — financially or emotionally — that is a legitimate reason to choose the Havanese, and a better one than coat preference.

None of this means "don't get a Cavalier". Well-bred Cavaliers from health-screened lines are wonderful dogs. It means the breeder question list is different for the two breeds, and the Cavalier's is longer.

Which should you choose?

Choose the Havanese if you want a brighter, more playful small companion, or if you want to avoid the Cavalier's known cardiac and neurological risk profile. Choose the Cavalier if gentleness and lap-dog softness matter most — and buy only from a breeder who can produce heart and MRI screening documentation for the parents.

Related reading

• Havanese profile
• Cavalier King Charles Spaniel profile
• Dog Breed Comparisons NZ
• Getting a Dog or Cat in NZ

References

• American Kennel Club, Havanese, checked 2026-06-13: https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/havanese/
• American Kennel Club, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, checked 2026-06-13: https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/cavalier-king-charles-spaniel/
• Merck Veterinary Manual — Myxomatous Atrioventricular Valve Degeneration in Dogs and Cats (inherited in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel; earliest onset and highest incidence), checked 2026-08-26: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/circulatory-system/various-heart-diseases-in-dogs-and-cats/myxomatous-atrioventricular-valve-degeneration-in-dogs-and-cats
• Merck Veterinary Manual — Congenital and Inherited Cerebellar Disorders in Dogs and Cats (caudal occipital malformation syndrome / Chiari-like malformation and syringomyelia in Cavaliers), checked 2026-08-26: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/nervous-system/congenital-and-inherited-anomalies-of-the-nervous-system-in-small-animals/congenital-and-inherited-cerebellar-disorders-in-dogs-and-cats
• Genetic Basis of Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease in Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Dogs — A Review, *Veterinary Sciences* 2025 (incidence up to 100% above age ten), checked 2026-08-26: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12737390/