English Setters! What to Do With Them?

This article was originally published in Showsight Magazine, June 2014 issue.

English Setters! What to Do With Them?

The English Setter is one of the oldest of the various breeds of gundogs. History dates them back to the 14th century where they were originally called the “setting spaniel.” These dogs hunted the moorland, quartering the ground in front of the hunter searching for birds. The old 16th century name for the setter was “index” where they were used for partridge and quail. The hunters were anxious to get as many birds as possible so they used a net. The dog was trained to lie down or “set” so as not to scare the birds. By the end of the 19th century the net had been abandoned and the setters were now standing on point. The actual source of modern English Setter is questionable, but by the close of the 19th century several distinct lines originated from the old style setting dog.

Sir Edward Laverack is often referred to as the father of today’s English Setter. He was an ardent hunter and very involved in breeding setters. Around 1825 he obtained a pair of setters from a clergyman in Carlisle, England. Practicing a principle of inbreeding with his setters, his success soon became clear. Laverack exported several English Setters to the US, where dogs of his breeding showed all-around excellence in the field. These setters had unusual stamina and could hunt a field from dawn to dusk.

Purcell Llewellin was a friend of Laverack and began his own breeding program based on Laverack’s setters in 1880. He achieved great things with his breeding program and his setters became very sought after, especially in the USA. Llewellin’s line of English Setters are often referred to as the field type setter, they are smaller and a racier version the Laverack English setters.

An English Setter was the first dog registered with the American Kennel Club in 1876. The dog, called Adonis, was owned by George Delano of Massachusetts. Beginning on the west coast Mallwyd and Crombie lines of English setters were the first English Setter show dogs.

Since 1876, hundreds of dedicated English Setter breeders in the US have created a wonderful and very versatile companion dog. “The Gentleman’s Gentleman.” The English Setter is wonderful addition to a family as a faithful friend. These days more and more folks are doing a lot of different activities with their English Setters.

Bird Hunters are still using the English Setters as an upland game hunter; others are entering AKC’s Field Trials. In this author’s opinion, AKC Field Trial judges are biased against the larger show type setter with its straight off the back tail point and favor the smaller field type setter that points with a 12 o’clock tail straight up in the air. This is likely the reason there are only 12 English Setter Dual Champions. Many folks who are trying to compete with their bench style English Setters shave the hair so as not to look so much like a “foo foo show dog.”

Because of this bias, many who are interested in testing the hunting ability of their English Setters are turning to Hunt Tests. At hunt tests, dogs are not in competition against other dogs, but to a series of skill levels, where they earn the title of Junior Hunter, Senior Hunter and the newest title Advanced Master Hunter.

Although, English Setters are not known as “water retrievers” they can be such ardent hunters that getting wet is not a problem when birds of any sort are involved. Even in the icy waters of Michigan.

Not a hunter? Well owners are finding that the English Setter is a very willing competitor in Agility, Rally, Scent Work, Obedience and Tracking. AKC recently created Lure Coursing titles for all breeds.

The first English Setter to earn a Lure Coursing title was an English Setter bitch, aptly named CH Somerset’s Whirl Wind of Wind Dancer, CA, “Darby”, owned by Julie Brimble and Kathy Rodriguez. Darby literally walked out of the show ring after earning a specialty major the day before and reserve that day, walked across the road and entered her first coursing ability trial. She turned in a very respectable time of 56 seconds to run 600 course yards and earned her first pass. Darby had never seen a lure course before.

Although it is this author’s opinion that English Setters do not “love” Obedience, they do love pleasing their owners. So with creative training, many have excelled in Obedience, as the multi-titled “Ranger,” Dual Champion/Amateur Field Champion Heathrow’s Winchester Ranger, UDX, MH, TD, OA, NAJ, NAP, NJP, VCD1, HDX, CGC so aptly demonstrated. Ranger was the most AKC titled English Setter in the United States. He was expertly trained by Terry Barnes.

Many owners have begun “giving back” to their communities with their English Setters, training them through various organizations to be therapy dogs. As therapy dogs, many visit the elderly in various types of care facilities, they visit schools and participate in reading programs and are also allowed into some hospitals. At Rouge Valley Medical Center in Medford, OR, Edwardian Three Spots Short, aka Spanky Doodles, visited sick children and also visited in the locked mental health ward.

Kathy and Lanny Goodwin and their English Setters “Gromit” Gold Rush True Class, ThD and “Tru” Harmony Hollows Gold Rush Troubadour spend time at Los Angeles International Airport or LAX. Gromit and Tru walk through the airport wearing a red vest with the word “PET ME” printed on each side. The setters have access to the airport (except on the airplanes). The official LAX duties statement for Gromit and Tru are:

“As traveling can create stress and anxieties at airports, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUP) program is an opportunity to provide an overall enhanced customer experience, providing stress relief and comfort to passengers through interaction with pets. The pups are the volunteers’ own dogs and both donate their time to LAX. They are registered with Therapy Dogs, Inc.”

Agility and Rally must have the “most fun ever” stamped in the brains of many English Setters (with the exception of bird hunting). Go to any Rally or Agility trial and just try to find a dog that does not seem to be having a ball. Now that doesn’t mean a perfect run, nope they can be messing up like crazy through the entire course, but they sure have fun doing it.