In the west of France, facing the island of Great Britain (Grande Bretagne in the French language)

stands the French Britain, “la Breetagne”, Brittany!  The region is also sometimes mentioned as “Armorique”,

from the original Brittany Language!

Not so long ago, over a century or so, before the time of the railroad, this region was very poor, and rather

isolated from the rest of the country.  The only inhabitants to have a rather decent life were the fishermen,

living near to the sea, in the area known, in the genuine Brittany language ( very similar to Celtic) as ARMOR,

the land of the sea, while the intern part was know ARGOAT, the land of the woods, and was even poorer. 

Its inhabitants had often to move to Armor to work as fishermen and bring some money home, after months

and months fishing cods around New Foundland!  Also, the young women were very often “migrating” to urban

areas as house-maids or nurse-maids.  People of this inside part of the Bretagne were sometimes professional

hunters, mostly interested in woodcocks, a game very much appreciated by French gourmets! 

Apart from foreign influences, as Brittany is a peninsula, a kind of “native spaniel” was used by those hunters…

poochers might be more exact!  Most of these dogs had a liver or a black coat, and very often carried a short tail,

if not no tail at all.  And they were a very efficient help for the poocher hunting woodcocks and rabbits and any

other game.  But they behaved like…. Spaniels, chasing and flushing the birds they could find.  Yet some local

professional hunters also did use them with success because of their tremendous passion for their job, HUNTING!!!

On the other side of the Channel, English sportsmen often came hunting in this wild part of France,

where game was very numerous, and everything so cheap.  As one can expect they brought their dogs

with them, mostly pointing dogs, and sometimes had them boarded in Brittany kennels to avoid bringing

them back home. The decision made in 1901 by the British government to create quarantine for imported

or reimported dogs was another reason to leave the British dogs in France.

What might be a legend says that by hazard an English setter bitch owned by the Viscount Du Pontavice

was mated by one of these Brittany Spaniels, owned by his game-keeper, a man named Lulzac.  Among

the puppies there was a short tailed one, a bitch with an orange and white coat, that M. Lulzac decided to

keep for himself.  This dog developed unexpected qualities as it was still the very clever and active poocher’s

dog mentioned above, but furthermore it showed some pointing instinct.  The Viscount Du Pontavice himself

soon played less attention to his own setters to concentrate on these “new Brittany’s”

It is almost certain that other unexpected matings did happen, not only between genuine Brittany’s and

English setters, but also between Brittany’s and Springer’s coming from Great Britain, the Welsh Springer

being certainly on of them.

As the word “SPANIEL” in the French language is used only concerning the various

hunting cockers and Springer’s to speak about pointing breeds showing a wavy coat will

use the French word “EPAGNEUL”  

The modern history of the breed begins in 1896 as earlier books when mentioned “Epagneul” seem to refer

mainly to the Epagneul Francais, a liver and white pointing dog, rather tall and a bit similar to the Dutch “ Patrijshond”

or to a heavy setter.  Yet some of the earliest authors do mention “Epagneul Bretons” well before 1900 and

with liver-white, orange white or black-white coats these two latest mostly met in the northern part of Bretagne. 

So in 1896 for the very first time a dog was entered in a show as an Epagneul Breton, a “Brittany” .  This dog was

4 years old, owned by the Viscount de Comboug (in Brittany) and his name was Pincon Royal.  It was entered as

“any variety “Epagneul”  Pincon-Royal had a tricolor coat.  It is not known whether this coat included liver or

black besides its orange and white. 

Then in 1901 a dog named Dax de Magenta and orange white male of 3 years old was entered.  And in 1904

Max de Callac, a liver white male owned by M. Patin. 

The first “Epagneul Bretons” to be officially registered by the French kennel club, the Societe Centrale Canine

(S.C.C.) are listed here:

1.     Boy n LOF 11 609 ne le 8/21/1905 a Mr Gastel. Orange et blanc (ORANCE AND WHITE) Par

     COMPRERE II a Mr. du Pontavice, hors de MACOTTE par TOTO  hors de FINETTE  a Mr de Pintavice.   

2.     MARPHA 1 n LOF 11 610 mee le 24/3/1903 a Mr Gastel .  Blanc et foie (LIVER AND WHITE ) 

     Eleveur Mr du Pontavice.  Par COMPERE, hors de FINETTE,  tous 2 a Mr du Pontavice

3.     MYRRHA D’ARMORIQUE  n LOF 11 640 nee le 30/5/1904 a Mr. G. Treuttel  Blanche et marron

     (LIVER AND WHITE ) Eleveur, Mr. Treuttel Par Medor, hors de Miss  

4.     SOUPIR D’ ARMORIQUE  n LOF 11 629 ne le 28/12/1906 a Mr de Rougemont Blanc et marron

     (LIVER AND WHITE) Eleveur Mr Truttel.  Par TOM d’Armorique, hors de BRENNIC d’Armorique,

     par STOP, hors de MIRZA d’Armorique TOM d’Armorique, par MAX d’ Armorique, hors de PHANE 

     Armoriue

5.     YAN D’ ARMORIQUE  n LOF 11 642 ne le 1/5/1906 a M Treutell  Blanc et maron (LIVER AND WHITE)   

     Par TOM D’armorique,hors de MYRHA d’ Armoriue, par MEDOR, hors de MISS   TOM d’Armorique par  

     MAX de Callac, a Mr Treuttel, hors de PHANE d’Armorique

6.     NIQUE GUIRE DU COS KER  n LOF 12092 ne le 20/5/1904 a Mr de Cambourg Marron et blanc

    (LIVER AND WHITE)  Par DICKUL  hors de PEN RUE, tous deux a Mr de Camborg.

7.     BERNICK DU COS-KER n LOF 12093 ne le20/5/1904 Marron et blanc (LIVER AND WHITE) Par FAL,

     hors de MADE

8.     ARVOR DU COS-KER  n LOF 12094 ne le 12/5/1904 a Mr de Camborg  Pas de mention de couleur

     (No color mentioned) Par DICKUL, hors de Pen Rue

9.     GLAZIC DE CARHAIX  n LOF 12757 ne le 15/2/1907 a Mr Le Goff  Blanc et orange

     (ORANGE AND WHITE)  

10.   PYRAME N lof 12758 ne le 19/4/1907 a Mr Cavan  Blanc et Marron (LIVER AND WHITE)

And so it goes on with ten more liver whites and then alternatively orange white or liver white coats until over 300

 registrations.  And indeed those early times the liver coat was far more popular than the orange one which became

really popular only in the 30’s.

So one could imagine that people were right when they banished the black in the coat. (read below: The standard.)

But with some basic knowledge of the genetic of colors things appear very different.  N 344 the first black and white

registered was NELL LOF 13092 a bitch issued from MARPHA 1 by Boy.  Marpha 1 is the N 2 in the list above

and Boy is the N 1. She was liver when Boy was orange.  As a dog showing the liver gene must have twice the “b” gene

on the locus.  It was impossible for MARPHA  to “transmit” the (dominant) gene for black (“B”) and so this gene

HAD TO BE in BOY the very first Epagneul Breton ever registered himself orange. (orange and white Brittany’s

ALWAYS carry either liver or black, or both colors, but the gene for orange forbids the genes for liver or for

black to be expressed) And so it is possible to assert the BLACK HAS ALWAYS EXISTED IN THE BREED!

But In the beginning of the XXth century, very few was know about genetic and even less about color heredity before

Little’s publications in 1957.  Lets to back to history!  

The Standard

In 1907, in the city of LOUDEAC, in Brittany, M. Arthur ENAUD and some friends created the Club de l’Epagneul

Breton. The very first standard for the breed was elaborated on September 3, 1907.  Among the other characteristics

wherefrom many  are still valuable nowadays, the standard mentioned three colors:  White and Orange, White and liver,

White and black.  The size on this pre-standard was of 50-56 cm at the withers. 

At the time the Club de l’Epagneul Breton was affiliated to the Club Francais de l’Epagneul, and when the standard of

1907 was presented for approval, by fear of crossings with the British breeds the black was banned.  The size was also

restricted to “around 50 cm”   In both standards , a natural short tail was requested of 10 cms maximum (1907), then

“around 10 cms” (1908) 

Some changes, often of minor importance, to this 1908 standard took place in 1912, 1923.  In 1938, an important

change: The tail docking is implicitly accepted.  The size is indicated as 46 to 51 cms. In 1956, under the Presidence of

Gaston Pouchain the color black is accepted. 

In 2001 appeared a new standard, wherein the major changes concern the size, as females are considered separately

from males Females 47-1 to 50 + 1 Males: 48 -1 to 51+1.

Of course the ban on black as well as the ban on docked dogs was not really respected by breeders.  And they were

certainly right as both figures could and still can be observed in the same litter.  Yet these dogs could not be registered.

At the France championship show of 1961, the three first black-whites Epagneul Bretons (born in 1958 and 1959) were

entered. 

A short consideration about the tail

The oldest standards mentioned a “natural short tail”  It is now know that this is impossible to realize and that the change

introduced in the standard in 1938 was realistic.  The length of the tail at birth is under the influence of a dominant gene

knows as “T” or “t”.   Yet observations have proved that “T” when homozygous (existing twice on the same locus) is

lethal, and the embryo does not live. This means that it is impossible to fix this gene and have a population entirely

constituted of the short tail dogs.

So a dog with a natural short tail is always of the genetic type “Tt”.  Depending on the combination transmitted to the

offspring, it will show a short tail in a variable proportion. On the opposite, a dog with a long tail is always of the

“tt” type and the offspring of two long tailed dogs can only be “long tailed”  

To go back to the natural short one must use at least one parent with a natural short tail.  And of course the chance to

get many short tailed puppies raises if both parents carry natural short tails, but will NEVER reach 100% Statistically

considering a very numerous amount it will be of 66% considering 25% of the embryos the “TT” embryos “vanished”

U.S.A

With some 15,000. births by year, USA is nowadays the country with the most important population of Brittany’s,

numerically speaking. 

The first import in USA goes back to 1933.  Obviously those imports came from French kennels.  But as at that time

there were no easy relations by airplane between both continents as overseas telephone and e-mail did not exist. 

And also the language barrier made that there were not as many contacts as wish able between breeders on both sides

of the ocean. 

Add the fact that rules for competitions were not the same in USA and in Europe, makes it easy to understand that US

breeders devolved the breed toward a direction enabling their dogs to compete successfully in their home land, in

competitions very different from the European ones.  Also soon came World War II that brought a complete rupture

between both communities!

Once the war was over, it was thought in USA that the breed was close to extinction in its native country, so that they

tried to bring help by sending to France a few American bred dogs shortly after the end of the war. 

But the breed did still exist, ant though obviously with a somewhat reduced population its quality even improved as only

the  best dogs were really cared for.  And the help so kindly brought to France by US amateurs was already of a type

very different of the original, “thanks” to 10 or 15 years of breeding in a biasing direction!  So that these dogs were

never used for breeding, but given to hunters not much concerned by type and or breed specificities.  The situation

remains unchanged nowadays and most of the American dogs are still of a type very different of the one observed in

France, but also in Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Argentina, ect…

Actually, this type is so different that some do think that it is now another breed! 

It seems that the USA typed Brittany spread only to countries under a some rather strong American influence such as

the British part of Canada, and Japan.

Pierre Willems

August 24^th, 2006

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