PRAIRIE PRIME PHILOSOPHY

At Prairie Prime LLC we believe there are three equally important factors in the fruition of a finished gun dog. #1 is quality of the training and #2 quality of the breeding, and #3 excellent health and nutrition. The factor that is most overlooked by prospective puppy buyers is training. New gun dog owners can set their expectations too high believing a well-bred dog will go into the field and perform at a finished gun dog level without training. Quality training for a gun dog is imperative for the dog to reach its potential in the field. Training a finished gun dog is an ongoing process taking 2-3 years requiring commitment on the owner's part in both time and treasure. Some dogs require less training, some require more. We have developed an appreciation for quality training over the years but we encourage gun dog owners to be actively engaged in the training of their own dog. By doing so owners will realize the best possible bond with their dog combined with the satisfaction of knowing they trained their field companion. In our experience there is nothing like hunting behind a family companion we have personally trained. However, if new owners do not desire to train their new companion or don't have the time to do so Prairie Prime LLC provides quality training services specifically tailored for the Epagneul Breton gun dog. 
 
While training is vital for a gun dog to reach its full potential, a high quality breeding ensures the puppy has the necessary breed characteristics carefully developed over many years giving the dog the inherent ability to utilize quality training. Under best practices the last two decades by many ethical and reputable breeders in the United States a number of high quality breeding lines for the Epagneul Breton now exist in our country. At Prairie Prime LLC we are committed to using our own produced breeding stock and lines acquired from a limited number of ethical and trusted breeders in the United States and Europe that comply to the highest levels of the original French standard to create our Prairie Prime and Saint Hubert lines. At Prairie Prime LLC we do not constantly experiment with breeding dogs. We produce what we understand, we produce what we know works, and we produce with consistency. It is our firm belief too much experimentation with breeding dogs is what leads to a degradation of the important qualities the Epagneul Breton must possess.
 
We are fully committed to abiding by the CEB-US registered breeder policies on sable coat color and canine hip dysplasia. We abide by a code of ethics with the only recognized Epagneul Breton breed authority in the United States by breeding the best quality dogs meeting the CEB-US's established guidelines.
                
At Prairie Prime LLC our breeding dogs meet 3 conditions that fully comply with and exceed the Club de l'Epagneul Breton of the United States (CEB-US) Registered Breeder Guidelines as well as the Breeding Policy and Recommendations set forth in the CEB-US Official Procedures for Confirming and Assigning Overall Conformation Ratings for the Epagneul Breton document published July 17, 2016 and updated in 2018. As breeding regulations evolve over time through the CEB-US, Prairie Prime will always voluntarily comply with the guidelines for betterment of the breed in the United States.
 
1. Breeding dogs that will not produce puppies exhibiting the sable coat color.

2. Dogs certified after 24 months of age by OFA with hips evaluated as GOOD or EXCELLENT, or dogs evaluated by PennHIP after 6 months of age with a distraction index of .49 or lower, or evaluated by an equivalent European certifying authority after 12 months of age with an "A" or "B" rating. 
 
It is important to note that we DO NOT use OFA preliminary hip evaluations in our decision 
making process to breed a dog. Our breeding dogs will always have OFA, PennHIP, or European 
equivalent certified hips. This decision is based on these organizations scientific research findings. It is also important to note hip dysplasia is the most significant health issue in the Epagneul Breton breed precluding the dog from performing the tasks for which it was bred. We take this health consideration very serious and refuse to take shortcuts in the introduction of dogs to our breeding program in regards to hip health. This is why we will never use preliminary hip evaluations in making breeding decisions. It is also why we choose not to use dogs with hips evaluated by OFA and certified as "Fair" even though it is considered to be within breeding standards. We have also made the decision to not add dogs to our breeding program with anything less than "B" rated hips from European testing authorities. At Prairie Prime LLC we have also decided to not add dogs to our breeding program with hips evaluated by PennHIP with a distraction index greater than .49 which is a more stringent evaluation than what is viewed as an acceptable breeding evaluation of .54 by the CEB-US and which is lower than the Epagneul Breton breed average score of .52. PennHIP encourages breeding only dogs in the lower 50% of distraction index to make purposeful gains in breed hip health. Our goal is simply to do all we can as a breeder to produce puppies that are free from genetically inherited hip dysplasia.

3. Dams having reached their 3rd heat cycle ensuring appropriate level of maternal maturity (around two years of age)

Our breeding dogs will always have official conformation ratings, hip certifications, and UKC titles published with the CEB-US on their website www.ceb-us.org and on the Prairie Prime website (we also will post all Ay gene certifications and pedigrees on the Prairie Prime website) providing complete transparency for public consumption. By complying with our own strict breeding guidelines and providing transparent documentation we ensure our efforts in producing the Prairie Prime and Saint Hubertus lines of Epagneul Bretons contributes to the betterment of the breed in the United States of America. 
 
The #3 factor vital to developing a great gun dog is excellent health and nutrition. We provide excellent, high quality and proven products that we use consistently with our own dogs. And we do so at a great price for our clients. At Prairie Prime LLC we feed and are an authorized reseller of Inukshuk Professional Dog Food. We have tried many premium foods over the years and have settled on what we believe is the best quality and most flexible kibble in the marketplace. 

Prairie Prime LLC is committed to providing premier puppies at a great value. "Value" defined: quality and service as a function of price. Our puppies are priced at $1,500 for 2024. We are neither the least expensive nor the most expensive breeder of Epagneul Bretons. However, we are confident Prairie Prime LLC provides the best value for an Epagneul Breton puppy in the United States. When looking at prices it is important to understand pedigrees along with services included for that price. At Prairie Prime we are transparent in our operation making sure our customers don't encounter surprises throughout the puppy buying process. Our puppy price is truly an all inclusive price. Prairie Prime includes permanent registrations with both AKC and UKC, and microchip database activation fees through Home Again. Furthermore, we do all the work for you in completing the paperwork necessary for permanent registration and microchip activation. You just pick your puppy up and all the work is done! Our puppies are well socialized through 8-9 weeks of age in a household of 5 people of different ages (both male and female), as well as with both their parents, litter mates, and our official puppy socializing specialists: a 6 pound Shih Tzu "Grumpy" and a 6 pound Papillon "Gizmo."

It is important to understand we do not personally perform any veterinary services on our dogs or puppies. All services on our dogs and puppies are performed by our Oklahoma State University educated veterinarian having 25 years experience with performance canines including the Epagneul Breton breed and who is a canine reproductive specialist. If tails need to be docked it is our vet that completes this procedure and has extensive experience in doing so to the Epagneul Breton breed standard. We occasionally use natural cover breeding practices if both dogs are receptive. We also employ fresh vaginal artificial insemination or transcervical insemination breeding practices (we never perform intra-uterine surgical implantation) using our veterinarian in order to strictly control the environment for the safety of our breeding dogs, the overall health of our dogs and puppies and to carefully manage the timing to ensure the best results. Our puppies will be vet checked multiple  times in 8 weeks, receive their 1st series of shots and worming, have their tails docked to breed standard and have a Home Again brand extra small microchip implanted. Our puppies come with a 26 month guarantee  for canine hip dysplasia and are guaranteed not to carry the Ay gene. Customers will receive a full health record from our veterinarian so their puppy's healthcare can easily be transferred to their own vet. After research including extensive consultation with our veterinarian we do not remove our puppies declaws. Why? Read this.....Do the Dew (Claws) . 

Prairie Prime LLC feeds Inukshuk Professional Dog Food. We are one of the largest authorized resellers of Inukshuk Professional Dog Food in North America. Inukshuk is the best canine nutrition we have encountered (and we have tested many brands) yielding noticeable performance gains and superior coat conditions for our dogs. Inukshuk is formulated for high performance working dogs. Fats are to canines what carbohydrates are to human beings. In the past when hunting we would provide high fat supplements to help our dogs perform at their best until we encountered Inukshuk Professional Dog Food. Inukshuk delivers the highest quality fat and protein sources of any food we have tried and our dogs love the taste. Inukshuk is delivered in three different potencies using the same formulation. This fact allows our dogs needs to be met appropriately at different times of the year. We feed our puppies until one year of age the 26/16 formula, during offseason and training season we feed our adult dogs the 30/25 formula, and during the heart of the hunting season for two - three months when our adult dogs need the most energy and nutrition to quickly rebound from our versatile hunting endeavors we feed our adult dogs the 32/32 formulation. The quality ingredients of Inukshuk means less feeding, less cleanup, better performance, superior coat condition, and overall cost savings.
 
We encourage puppy buyers to pick their puppy up from our home or ranch where they can see the environment the puppy was whelped and socialized. If new owners cannot pick their puppy up at Prairie Prime we will deliver to new owners at a rate of $2.00 per loaded mile up to 300 miles from our kennel in the Oklahoma City metro area. If you live in excess of 300 miles from our home we are happy to meet you at an agreed upon location within the 300 mile radius of Oklahoma City at the $2.00 per loaded mile. We also ship puppies by air cargo. We use American Airlines exclusively for this service and charge $600 which includes a new kennel. All air shipments originate from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

At Prairie Prime Epagneul Bretons we train our own dogs for the field and blind and are committed to demonstrating our breeding dogs total performance including: obedience by verbal command, hand signal, whistle, and ecollar, their retrieving ability on land/water, and most important their field work on birds to interested puppy buyers at our farm training location just north of Oklahoma City. We are confident the combination of our puppy price, the documented overall quality of our breeding dogs, and the level of service we provide creates one of the best values in the United States for anyone considering the purchase of a premier quality Epagneul Breton. If you are interested in a future puppy go to the reservations page for more information on the process for reserving a Prairie Prime EB puppy. If you have any questions please make contact with us and we will be in touch with you soon. We are happy to provide past buyer references from our Prairie Prime family to interested buyers upon request.