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!