English Setters

6pt-sika

Well-Known Member
Do you guys have a pretty decent selection of breeders for English Setters that actually cater to the gunner ?

Also what about Irish Setters ?


I suppose what i mean also is "are there many folks that bid hunt the way we do here in the US with pointing dogs instead of shooting driven birds " ?
 
There are people that do it but they are few and far between.

Access to areas that are suitable for the job is pretty limited.

However i did hear that pointer / setter handlers are getting upwards of £300 per day to run dogs for clients (and i thought £70 for picking up was alright!)

We dont have a particularly wide selection of decent english setters, in fact i would say we have fairly few!
 
I think the contentials tend to have better lines of setters and pointers, there pointers/setters also pick game while uk bred/trained are not trained to pick game only to hunt and point (Field trail rules) and also only point feather and ignore fur.

If you check uk breed societies and clubs u might get a better idea, but in uk a lot off dogs have 2 strains working and show which can look and behave totally different to each other despite being the same breed.
A lot off uk orign gundogs are very popular on the continent and far more common than they are here. As Dan above says fairly rare for decent working ones more people geting into the HPR scene which can do a similar job
 
A mate of mine decided to change from pointers to English setters just over a year ago, to get any decent working bloodlines he had to go over to ireland to get a well bred bitch pup. He is now looking for a different bloodline to get a dog pup from, to break then breed from. I remember him saying that the two places where the setters are still worked are Ireland and some scandinavian countries.
Sinbad
 
A guy i know trials english setters and take clients out to shoot over them, also the setter trials are based on a moor where a friend is the keeper
There is not a great number of dogs comming to the trials
The guy that trails has brought a dog in from portugal, (it may have been spain)
Looks wise your dogs in US are similar, but i think you let them hunt much further away and you have them retriving where in the UK they do not retrive
Regards TH
 
The best Setters I have seen was Peter O'Driscoll, and my very first GSP was from Moniack Ted, very good Scottish grouse dog, the bitch was Imported from the States, Fairwaether Caghile.
 
I've heard off some off those Italian kennels have 60 odd dogs in them, seemingly the way the do it over there, althou that wil be similar to some parts of usa too? (seen advert in shooting times a month or so ago shoot manager/dog trainer in florida, kennels had a massive ammount off dogs)

Is it not quite ironic that we are going mad for all these continental hpr type breeds but yet on a lot of the continent the old fashioned pointer/setter type dogs of uk orign are generally pretty popular and very common in the shooting field while here they are pretty rare esp genuine working ones. Infact i would guess the vast majority off registered pup's will be show bred

Sinbad/truflehunter would ur mates pointers/setters actually retrieve (i know there not trained for it) do/did they have any natural affinity to hold anything in there mouths when young pups and is it trained out or not trained at all or have the uk lines totally breed out any natural retrieving instinct Or do u think u could train them to retrieve as well with the right handling. Strange to think that both european and american lines will have originated here yet both retrieve while ours won't.

I'm not overly familar with pointer/setter breed differences, do pointers generally hunt harder and range further than the setter breeds? Or very breed/individual/trainer dependent? I know the hpr breeds struggle to keep up with english pointers on the open moor, do setters work as hard
 
I use my large munsteranders as a HPR should, hunting, pointing and retrieving as the OP asked, although not a setter, I prefer this raw form of shooting using a dog as it should be, much more than a driven day.
 
Aye but ur dog is an hpr, althou i would guess the breed was breed from setters by the look off them? A lot/some off the continental breeds aren't that old really
But in uk pointers/setters only bred and trained to hunt and point/sett no retrieving and ignoreing fur.
 
Countryboy.
Yes my friends english setter has been trained to retrieve to hand,
she is still a work in progress at the moment but has been shot over this season and seems to work well.
My gwp although mainly a deer dog, loves to work pheasant and is an excellent retriever, it mainly the english pointers that are not trained to retrieve.
sinbad

Mine will point rabbits/hares usually with his rear leg up instead of his front one, and he will retrieve rabbits if shot.
he has a passion for foxes though.
 
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Countryboy.Mine will point rabbits/hares usually with his rear leg up instead of his front one, and he will retrieve rabbits if shot.
he has a passion for foxes though.

Mine too, although not 100% that she will lift the rear leg, it is pretty consistent way to know a rabbit is in there as she never raises a back leg for feather!
 
Pointers for hard running will aways be English Pointers first, able to hold coveys and point game at distance, as they were bred for that and that only.

GSP/contenental breeds and the like are for more rough shooting and grouse and partridge, still hard running but not as able as English, they will hunt/point/retrieve, if from good stock.

Setters always run in pairs, and will cover ground well but again not as hard as English, but very capable dogs, and are less seen on shoots, simply due to there popularity.

These are only my own observations, having run GSP,s in trails and worked them for over 25 years.270 293.jpg
 
Pointers for hard running will aways be English Pointers first, able to hold coveys and point game at distance, as they were bred for that and that only.

GSP/contenental breeds and the like are for more rough shooting and grouse and partridge, still hard running but not as able as English, they will hunt/point/retrieve, if from good stock.

Setters always run in pairs, and will cover ground well but again not as hard as English, but very capable dogs, and are less seen on shoots, simply due to there popularity.

These are only my own observations, having run GSP,s in trails and worked them for over 25 years.View attachment 23209

American Gund Dog field trials tend to shadow your observations . Generally all age shooting dog stakes where you go on horse back are won by pointers and walking field trials are more mixed in breed as to the winner .

In my own observations over the years I found pointers to be more hard headed and stubborn where as setters were more user friendly shall we say .

I've always liked setters be it English , Irish or Gordon . English Pointers have always reminded me of Foxhounds (in their looks) . I have a bit of a soft spot for Brittanys also . Another very personable breed you guys may or may not have heard of is the little chocolate brown Boykin Spaniels that originated in South Carolina , a distant relative used to breed these and they were some very nice retrievers and flushers .
 
Plenty of setters of all kinds in Norway and Sweden. Standing bird dogs are really big over here.
 
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