The trip to France was memorable in every way and the CEB -France went out of its way to make fellow Bretonniers from around the world to feel welcome. The hospitality commenced with the festive Foreigner's Dinner, complete with orchestra, dancing, wine and much laughter as new friendships were made and old friends renewed until the wee hours of the morning.

In terms of the activities surrounding the CEB meeting, each day was an adventure. The tours to Keronlouan (proprietor- Patrick Morin) and Kervelliant (proprietor-Marc Joncour) kennels were wonderful. I highlight of the visit to Kervellient, was that we saw the great Champion Luron de Kervelliant, now fourteen years old and grey in the face, who has sired many trailers and champions, as well as another great Champion Rapide de Kervellient in his prime of life, who made the barrage of three in the field of over ninety dogs in the Centennial Field Trial the next day. Patrick Morin took the group on a tour of his gorunds, and entertained everyone by having a thirteen week old Keronlouan pup enthusiastically retrieve a pigeon from deep water multiple successive times. The tour of the Museum of the Epagneul Breton in Callac was most impressive and informative. The museum's interpretation of the history of the Epagneul Breton is first class, with many artifacts, paintings, historic photographs and even three dimensional video footage illustrating conformation aspects of the dog, as well as some great Bretons working afield. The only pity was that one did not have a full day to spend there in the Museum, which was the last stop of the day before the festive Dinner Gala. The meals at the field trial were tradition French country meals with pork, potatoes and such served with cheese wine, and dessert. The evening meals were festive, beginning with an apertiff, then multiple courses of food and wine, and ending with dessert and champagne.

The day of the Centennial field trial was overcast and rainy, with over dogs participating. The conditions were not optimum, as the corn was still high and thick and birds were hard to find and point. But the dogs rose to the occsasion, and the winning handlers of the First Place and Reserved won their body weight in fine French champagne! A number of the American contingent were honored to be invited to accompany former CEB President and FBGDA member Henri Gue'lou as he judged a concourse of nine dogs in search of Hungarian partridge in the field trial. Others stayed nearby the meeting place to watch the TAN and the deep water retrieve events.

Walking the fields outside St. Cardeac and watching the dogs work the fields and rolling hills around Callac, as they have done for a century gave one a sense of participating in a special breed and a longstanding tradition with a colorful and proud history.

The Centennial Exhibition National de Elevage Conformation show was quite a spectacle with hundreds of dogs entered in the show, being judged by nine judges, who helped to narrow the field. It took place at the Hippodrome, an equestrian facility in Loudeac,--- which just like the French club was founded by Arthur Enaud, who is honored with a granite statue on the grounds. Outside the show rings dogs were confirmed, photographs taken, venders sold their wares, as locals dressed in native Breton costumes played native music on bagpipes. The air was brisk, the background music festive and the attitude light with excitement in the air. Inside, the participants lunched on everything from French wine, café (coffee), goat cheese, to native crepes stuffed with sausage and jelly (which were all outstanding). The show culminated with a long time Epagneul Breton breeder and fancier's dog being declared this year's winner. As the medal signifying selection of this years Best of Breed was placed around the proud owner's neck, who has devoted a lifetime to producing fine dogs and working with the Epagneul Breton breed, he showed great emotion and was hugged by the dignitaries presenting him with the honor.. The day and the event ended with a number of persons in leadership with the CEB France, posing for a photo with the American contingent which exceeded the number of twenty persons. Smiles were on everyone's faces as they knew they had taken part in something very special, which no one would ever forget.

To sum it all up, attending the CEB Centennial Celebration, was simply the trip of a lifetime. We saw many beautiful dogs, met friends from around the world who share the same passion for the breed, consumed wonderful food and wine. We also gained an enhanced sense of the history of our breed, and were recipients of the gift of watching our magnificient breed perform in the setting where it was officially organized in France a century ago. The Epagneul Breton dogs, the native Breton people and the Frenchmen who have stewarded the breed so well-- and the Breton landscape were simply magnificient in every way! Congratulations and thanks to our friends in France for a spectacular Centennial Celebration for the Epagneul Breton!

The turnout of Epagneul Breton at the 2007 UKC Premier event held at Kalamazoo, MI was the best it's EVER been. First of all - thanks to ALL the participants and spectators for supporting this inaugural event. This was the first time the FBGDA has held a breed specialty show at this event and the attendance was TREMENDOUS. We had 25 dogs entered in our specialty show, all the way from show champions to 3-6 month old Novice Puppies. We had excellent representation of both varieties for Judge Kay Creamer from Ireland to review.

The week started off on Thursday with the Top Ten competition. Nine dogs qualified for the Top Ten; (also the greatest number ever.) Unfortunately only four of the nine dogs were able to compete (getting to Kalamazoo that early in the week is tricky for some). Nonetheless, we were happy to have such good representation of the breed to present to judge Tom Creamer from Ireland. The honors went to NBOB CH TAN Cliathan Mighty McSmith and proud owner/handler W. Edward Smith.

The next day was the first of 3 All-breed shows held by UKC. Again, we had the greatest number of dogs participating in the history of EB attendance at Premier (since they recognized our breed in 2002 and we had ONE DOG entered). We had 12 dogs entered both Friday and Saturday. Our Friday judge was Dr. Vitor Viega from Portugal. He made several comments, to both handlers and spectators, what fine dogs we had. He said they were "very typical Breton" and very good quality. The Best of Breed winner on Friday was Vinson de Winterhaven, owned and handled by Don Rick of Litchfield, MN. The Gundog Group competition was judged by Kay Creamer and we counted 27 breeds of Gundogs represented

Our Saturday breed judge [as well as the Gundog Group judge] was Austina Heinz. Competition was tough again with so many fine representatives of our breed present. Best of Breed went to TR TopperLyn D'Artagnan, owned by Lynda & Christopher Kieres, handled by Lynda. Joyce Smith had commented at the cookout on Thursday "Our next goal is for our breed to be recognized in the Group!" Well - sometime dreams DO come true and lo and behold - "D'Art" was not only pulled out in the preliminary cut, but was placed 4th in the Group - out of 24 breeds. You could have knocked the whole bunch of us over with a feather. (That's one thing that is SO nice about going to Premier. Everyone supports each other, and we had a more than respectable "cheering section" rooting for our competitors each time they moved up in the competition.)

That evening was our breed specialty show and in spite of a minor snafu with scheduling, (Purina's 'Pizza Party' got set up at OUR RING), everything went off without a hitch. (We even scored a free pizza from Purina for our inconvenience.) Ultimately we felt like we made out (although we would have liked for all the attendees of the Pizza Party to have had an opportunity to witness our dogs) because the ring we were reassigned to actually had SHADE! Trust me - that was at a premium as the temperatures soared to 95+ degrees all week with about a MILLION degrees humidity. (Even the coveted shower in the fairgrounds facilities did little to provide relief.) Wayne Cavanaugh, owner and CEO of UKC, took time to stop by to watch our show; a very busy guy that whole week believe me! We were honored to have him take the time to come see our dogs.

The competition was REALLY tough that night. After all was said and done, Judge Kay Creamer presented the Best of Breed honors to Arius de Saint Lubin, owned and handled by Sherry Hughes. And congratulations to all our winners who made this event so successful!

The second highlight of the evening was what we affectionately referred to as "The Free-for-All" - the Novice Puppy Class. (We REALLY need to do more of these non-licensed classes - they are SO much fun!) The puppies bounced, frolicked, and did "fishy-flops" around the ring (except for one, very mannerly little lady) and the honors of Best Novice Puppy went to Smith's Cookie de l'Escarbot, owned and handled by Ed Smith. (I'm sure those who were at the Nationals in Arizona remember "Cookie" as the precious little puppy who stole everyone's heart.) The other two little heathens were too busy "being puppies" to care about all the fuss. They just wanted to play.

Last, but not least, we had ONE PeeWee handler Asher Fiala (age 4) who, with the able assistance of his mom Dana, showed his brand new puppy "Haleigha" and proudly accepted his FIRST PLACE ribbon (which I suspect he STILL hasn't let go of).

Sunday, some folks had to get headed out on the long drive home, so we dropped to nine dogs competing. (That was still a high number over previous years.) Our judge on Sunday was Teresa L. Kocher and she awarded Best of Breed to TR (New CH) TopperLyn D'Artagnan. The Group competition was just as tough as the previous two days with STILL 24 breeds represented. That day we didn't "get a look" though. Oh well!

In addition to all the official events - the "unofficial" after hour festivities were absolutely GREAT! Thursday, following the Top Ten competition, Ed and Joyce Smith hosted a barbeque at their "Silver Bullet" classic Airstream. The evening was topped off by our surprise entertainment - none other than UKC's head of the Hunting Dog Program, Todd Kellam. Todd brought his guitar and serenaded the group with classical 60's Oldies, even enlisting a little bit of [albeit tenuous] "sing-along" participation. Well, there might have been a little "lip-synching" going on too. He said we have a long way to go to rival the Coonhound folks for participation though. That sounds like a challenge . . . !

Friday evening a group of us went to Bennigan's for a "sit-down" dinner (mostly to take advantage of the air-conditioning I think). Saturday night was topped off with another potluck and barbeque at the Silver Bullet (sponsored by FBGDA). The highlight of the evening THAT night was the, now famous, "Apple Pie" provided by Steve and Sherry Hughes. If you want to find out what THAT is all about - you'll just have to come next year!!!!

Over all EVERYONE who came, participated, or were spectators had a fantastic time. This is a challenge to each and every member, owner and admirer of our wonderful little EB's to come to Premier NEXT YEAR! Wayne Cavanaugh commented that our club/breed "Has come a very long way in a very short time." This was clearly evident by the high degree of participation. Our breed had one of the highest numbers of entries within the Gundog breeds. That says a LOT!