During our search for a medium sized, athletic, family dog we pretty quickly arrived at the English Springer Spaniel. Tanja Schewe from Kennel vom Springer Clan was pretty active on dogs shows in Holland at that time. Her Kennel was located in Germany, but close to the border with the Netherlands. When we were looking around, she happened to have a litter from which there were still puppies available. When we visited there for the first time we immediately fell in love with Pepijn. He came to us, cheerfully wagging his tail and charming us completely. Next thing we knew he was stealing the handbag Marloes had taken with her! Three weeks after our first meeting we went back to Germany to pick him up. Although he is friendly and interested in everything and everybody, in his heart his only true master will always be Marloes.

Pepijn has an exceptional character. He is not only cheerful and extremely friendly, but what makes him special is the fact that he is thoughtful and smart in an almost human way. He seems to take the time to study a situation and often decides on a more efficient, if not faster solution than the other dogs. At the request of his breeder we took Pepijn to the international dogshow in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at a relatively young age. This was a first for him as well as for us and suprisingly he became Best in Show-Puppy of all breeds that day! He has never been able to surpass this first success though. He actually did not turn out to be a very successful show dog, although he was often awarded the qualification for excellence. He himself is not bothered at all by his lack of success in the showring. Dog shows have never been his favourite passtime and he is most happy on the training field, participating in flyball or agility.