| History |
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| Rebel Du Buisson de Choisel 10 mos old |
| Brief Historical Summary- Brittany is reputed to have originated from the village called Kallag in Brittany, France. Its ancestors were probably the French spaniels les fougueux, which means "the high spirited one" dating back to the middle ages making it one of France's most ancient hunting dogs. This French spaniel was a small black and white dog with a small tail, though I believe it is quite different in look from our present days Brittanys. These spaniels were totally devoted to his master and were used to hunt for the pot. During the early ninteen century, it was popular for landed gentry in England to shoot partridge and snipe in Northern France, and with them they took along their best gundogs. They are mostly setters and pointers in those days. |
| More often than not these gantries left their dogs with French landowners from one season to the next. As things will happen, some manage to escape their confines and there followed illicit affairs with those with " high spirits" . The local gamekeepers were quick to realise the potential from these offsprings, the resultant progency being a small bob-tailed spaniels whose sole purpose in life is hunting. Through careful breeding, Brittany Spaniel was born in 1907 and the first club was formed in France. However, in America, after the introduction of the breed during the early ninties, the Brittanys there undergone a separate evolution in respect to both appearance and manner of working. In America it was decided to breed only specific colors (orange/white and liver/white), that was because when the standard was first introduced to the U.S., a French duty officer at the time had erroneously omitted black in the log book and from then on black in the coat was never recognised. Brittanys always had BLACK in their makeup since the beginning evidenced in the Club Epaqneul Breton-France) studbooks. Also in the U.S. it was to produce dogs that could compete in the U.S. style field trial. Thus, the two types over the past 70+ years have evolved into different dogs in covering ground and appearances. |
| Ch. Alar's Rocketeer, JH "Chase" |
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| Technically, they are known as "Epaqneul Breton" in France and in Europe. However, in America or other parts of the world they are refer to as "French" brittanys and their American cousins as "American" brittanys in an effort to distinguish between the two. In the late 70's some French brittanys were again brought in from Europe for the purpose of returning the dogs' characteristics to that of the original. The question here is whether they were breeded with the American Brittanys is not known but you will find several kennels in the U.S keeping only Epaqneul Bretons. It was acertained that the best path to take will be to maintain separate types and to keep the breedings separate on our own violation. Most American breeders agree with keeping the breedings separate because they do not wish to re-introduce the black gene into their lines. Like the Americans, European had also kept their breed separated. In 1982, the American Brittany Club petitioned, and was successful, in having the word spaniel dropped from the breed name. This is because in the true essence, Brittanys are more of the pointing and retreiving type of dogs than the flashing spaniels. And today they are just commonly known as Brittanys as in the case with the Singapore Kennel Club and many other kennel clubs around the world. |
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