Every picture is AI-generated
The Cavaliers on autumn trails, the Sheltie on a porch and the puppy in someone's arms were all made with image-generation software. None of them is a photograph of an actual dog. That choice keeps real families, real breeders and real litters off the page, and it lets the guide show a ruby Cavalier in maple leaves or a Sheltie by a stone wall without borrowing anyone's photo.
The pictures are illustrations, chosen to sit next to the text they belong with. The writing does the informing; the images set the scene.
How each image is labelled
Each picture carries two visible labels, one for screen readers and one hidden marker in the file, so the label survives however the image is seen or shared:
- an "AI" badge on the picture itself;
- the words "AI-generated image" in the caption underneath;
- "(AI-generated image)" at the end of the alt text, which screen readers announce;
- an IPTC digital source type of "trainedAlgorithmicMedia" written into the image file's metadata.
The last one matters if an image is downloaded or copied. Software that reads IPTC metadata can tell that the file was produced by a trained algorithm, even when the caption and badge are gone.
What the pictures can and cannot tell you
Before an image is published, its breed details are compared with the breed standard. A Blenheim should be chestnut on pearly white, a tricolour black and white with tan markings, a Cavalier's ears long and well feathered, a Sheltie's coat double with a full ruff. Pictures that get those things wrong are regenerated or dropped. The Cavalier colour guide and the breed standard page describe what the editors check against.
Even so, a generated picture is not evidence of anything about a real dog. It cannot show whether a dog has a heart murmur, a sound spine or good eyes, and it says nothing about conformation in the show-ring sense. For that, the health testing guide explains which certificates to ask a breeder for. Treat every image here the way you would treat a drawing in a field guide.
No image shows a real person's face, a real kennel or a dog offered for sale.
Who writes the text
The words on every page are written by the editors and checked against the sources listed on that page: kennel club standards, breed clubs such as the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of Canada and the Canadian Shetland Sheepdog Association, veterinary schools and provincial law. The about page explains that process step by step.
If you think a picture shows a breed detail incorrectly, or that a label is missing, the contact page has the email address. Name the page and the picture, and the image will be checked and replaced if needed. This notice was last revised in October 2026.