 From the 16th century , it was the fashion for ladies to carry small toy @-@ sized spaniels as they travelled around town . These dogs were called " Comforters " and given the species biological classification of Canis consolator by 19th @-@ century dog writers . By the 1830s , this practice was no longer in vogue , and these types of spaniels were becoming rarer . " Comforter " was given as a generic term to lapdogs , including the Maltese , the English Toy and Continental Toy Spaniels , the latter of which was similar to the modern Phalène . It was once believed that the dogs possessed some power of healing : in 1607 Edward Topsell repeated Caius ' observation that " these little dogs are good to asswage the sickness of stomach , being oftentimes thereunto applied as a plaister preservative , or bourne in the bosum of the diseased and weak person , which effect is performed by their moderate heat . " By the 1840s , " Comforter " had dropped out of use , and the breed had returned to being called Toy Spaniels . The first written occurrence of a ruby coloured toy spaniel was a dog named Dandy , owned by a Mr Garwood in 1875 . 
