Dash (1830–1840) was a King Charles Spaniel owned by Queen Victoria. Victoria's biographer Elizabeth Longford, called him "the Queen's closest childhood companion", and in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he "was the first in a long line of beloved little dogs".
Dash with Princess Victoria, by Sir George Hayter, 1833
Dash (left) with Lory (parrot), Nero (greyhound) and Hector (Scottish deerhound) by Edwin Henry Landseer, 1838
The King Charles Spaniel is a small dog breed of the spaniel type. In 1903, the Kennel Club combined four separate toy spaniel breeds under this single title. The other varieties merged into this breed were the Blenheim, Ruby and Prince Charles Spaniels, each of which contributed one of the four colours available in the breed.
'King Charles' Colour
Portrait of Queen Mary I and King Philip by Hans Eworth (1558)
Five children of King Charles I of England (1637) by Anthony van Dyck, featuring a spaniel of the era at the bottom right
Portrait of a King Charles Spaniel, by Jean-Baptiste Huet 1778