The English Setter
Possessed a mild and affectionate disposition, beauty and intelligence, the English Setter is one of the best liked and servicable gun dogs on earth. He is a dog that fits most varied hunting through grouse woods or bouncing through the goldenrod haunts of pheasants or plunging into honeysuckle thickest and swamp bottoms for quail. Equally proficient on woodcock, prairie chicken and Hungarian Partridge, he will dig up birds and handle them with a aristocratic elegance that is his heritage. For these reasons he has been a favorite gunning dog, companion and pal of American sportsmen & women, particularly in the northern United States and Canada, as his heavy coat provides protection against the cold.
It is difficult to unravel the origin of the English Setter accurately. Many claim the breed to be 400 years old because of an ancient engraving,"Partridge Shooting and Partridge Hawking", by Hans Bols, dated 1562, in which two partridges are being pointed by a long tailed dog lying flat on the ground. Behind the dog, men are about to shoot the birds on the ground with crossbows and lead slugs. Nearby, falconers are using spaniels to flush birds for their hawks to attack. The trouble with the scene is that it is Flemish, not English, and the dog if it is a setter is a disgraceful one or the Artist was. I would place the English Setter around 200 years old around the early eighteenth century because that is when they started using a pointing breed and started to use firearms for wing shooting.
The English took an immediate fancy to the dog, by 1775 setters of all three breeds English, Irish , and Gordon were well established by 1800 were more popular than the pointer, and os it remains there today. Edward Laverack of whitchurch, Shropshire, England, was the great pioneer of the modern English Setter. In 1825 he obtained two good specimens from a friend, bred them together, bred their offspring together, then bred thes back to the original two. By such line breeding he developed strain of Setters which led the country through the nineteenth century. These were long feathered, large, blocky, rich coated dogs, one of the most beautiful animal we have toay through used for show and house pets now, but in their day they were also great field dogs.
Llewellin type Setter Belton Type Setter
About 1875 Mr R. L Purcell Llewellin from Pembrokeshire, South Wales, went to Laverrack and bought some of his best show dogs of the original Dash-Moll and Dash-Hill lines. These he outcrossed with some setter blood from North England known as the Duke-Rhoebes strain and the offspring swept every field trial in sight. These are the smaller, highly animated Setters seen in the field today. They hae fewer feathers, less of the pendulous lips and sleepy eyes and heavy block heads, are inclined to be tricolored that is white, black and brown, the brown being restricted mostly to the face and front legs. Other colors are white and black, white and orange, white and lemon, white and chestnut, and once in a while a belton. Occasionally they throw back to the laverack Setter in type and this is when the beautiful, long feathered field dog of considerable size and with the floating stride appears.
Both strains of Setters were imported into the United States, but it was the Llewellins that took the seat of glory. Gladstone and Count Noble were the two great Setters, imported from Llewellin, which formed the pillars of the breed here in America.
The Setter by nature is a natural and lively retriever, and once again this probably comes from from his spaniel origin. He can take briars and tough country well too, although a lot of that has to do with where a dog finds birds as a puppy. If he discovers a covey of quail in honeysuckle or a grouse under a hemlock, you'll notice that he soon hunts those spots persistently. One tough thing on a Setter is burrs. They clog up his coat quicker that anything else and can be painful when they lodge under his forelegs and scrape at every forward step. I would suggest if you hunt with a Setter and not showing I would cut the hair underneath , chest, belly, elbows so the burrs have less to attach too.
As I said before, the Setter doesn't have the seriousness of the Pointer, nor is he the hunting machine. The Pointer will hunt for anybody but the Setter is more of a one person dog who will hunt his heart out for his master.
The Irish Setter
The Irish Setter is a great breed pulled back from the brink of tragedy. The big red dog, long recognized as one of the most beautiful animals man has produced, has also long been known for his lack of field ability---the purpose for which he was created.
It’s hard to believe that originally the Irish Setter was red and white. The all-red dog we know today was a rarity existing only in a few scattered countries of southern Ireland, and he was considered far more difficult to break. Until the 1850’s the red and white Irish Setter was acclaimed by many to be the finest of all shooting setters. He was a smart, active animal full of courage, a bit headstrong but untiring working with olfactory senses equal to those of any gun dog that existed.
The Irish preferred the red and white as a hunter because he could be observed with half the difficulty of the all red dog against the brown heather.
The exact origin of the Irish Setter is obscure but he probably came from spaniel blood crossed with local Irish stock which was red in color. In the days before bench shows, dogs of all breeds were kept for their working qualities alone and the good ones were mated regardless of color or conformation. Thus the Gordon Setter was crossed into the Irish, which left a tinge of black occosionally in the feathering, the kiss of death in today’s show ring. About the most outstanding Irish Setter ever bred was Plunket in the 1870’s. He won almost all the field trials there were in those days, but it was admitted he couldn’t have won more than a good case of fleas at a bench show for lack of conformation.
This is a picture of a red and white setter today.
The first show for Pointers and Setters was held at Newcastle on Tyne, England, on June 28, 1859, and thus began the demise of the Irish Setter. The red and whites were soon banished in favor of the all red dog, and the breed was swalowed up in the tragedy of being bred for beauty without regard for utility. By the turn of the century the Irish Setter had become the darling of the show world. But the more his fame and fortune spread, the more they bred him for beauty and the less keen became his hunting instincts, consequently his ability in the field. His magnificent head with its oval dome was certainly large enough to contain brains but it didn’t, at least not when the dog was hunted. The main problem was that he had little or no desire to hunt, and this is something impossible to teach a dog. You can teach him many things about hunting but you can’t teach him to hunt.
Also, he was misgaited. Stop a moment and think of the last time you saw a show Irish Setter run. They have been bred for nearly a century not to run but to trot. In the show ring they move at a trot. I have seen them in the field they dont possess the flowing grace and movement that other field dogs possess. They dont know what to do. He doesn’t know where to hunt, he has lost his hunting soul.
SHOW TYPE Irish Setters are Beautiful can you picture him in the field.
There have been a few breeders, trainer, sportsmens that have been trying to restore the Irish Setter back to field prowess, but they have a long way to go to make up to the other pointing breeds. They turned back to the English Setter and began outcrossing one that they used was to Mississippi Zep lines. This superb dog gave his great hunting spirit, his high tailed style and his ability to find birds to many of the modern Irish Setters. With the cross of the English Setter It shows here and there in a cowlick of white hair on the chest, a smaller body and more animation and desire to hunt than the show Irish Setters but it has instilled a more hunting desire in the breed. As a result Irish Setters have improved to the point where they now compete most successfully in open stakes against all breeds.
picture is of a Hunting type Irish Setter
All of this proves that the Irish Setters are on the up swing and that the cause is finally paying off. If you wish to buy an Irish Setter for a gun dog or field trial competition, I must strongly suggest that you obtain field blood lines not bench show blood lines. Unfortunately there is a profound difference and whether the two shall ever meet is a good question.
The Red setter people are among the fainthearted in the world, a truly enthusiastic group who know and love hunting dogs. Were it not for them the Red One would be next to nothing today. He’s had a long tough climb to recover his field prestige, but he now wins his share of field trials placements he is on his way to becoming the class hunting dog he was long ago.
Cathy Fleming
