English setter

The English Setter is an eye-catching, large dog from the group of British pointers with a long coat, white coat and spots in various colors and a noble head with dangling ears. He willingly works with people, is sensitive and requires gentle treatment. Mild to people and dogs.

Nature

The English Setter has a great temperament and cheerful disposition. It does not show a tendency to dominate, willingly submits. Gentle and affectionate towards people, he will not work as a guardian. He will greet the guest as well as the burglar. He makes good contacts with children of all ages and is a great companion to play with. He does not behave aggressively towards foreign dogs and does not provoke fights.

Because of his strong hunting instincts, he sometimes runs after a cat or birds, so in places, with heavy traffic, he should walk on a leash.

This is a sensitive dog, not suitable for keeping in the pen, deprived of the closeness of the guardian will be unhappy. The setter is active and requires a lot of movement. Short walks on a leash are not enough for him. Every day he should be able to run freely (at least for an hour), preferably in a meadow outside the city. It is enough for him to behave calmly at home and not show destructive inclinations; a bored Englishman can take its toll.

Let’s also remember that owning a house with a garden does not release us from the obligation to leave the dog outside its area. Setter easily adapts to all conditions and arouses widespread sympathy, so it can accompany the owner almost anywhere.

Skills

The English Setter was bred for hunting land and water birds. His task is to search the field in front of the hunter and display the weathered game until the guide gives the command to scare it.

The setter works well as a retriever, he is also a good swimmer. It can work in dense thickets, in meadows, fields and in marshes. Currently, however, most often plays the role of a companion dog.

English setter. Training and education

He is intelligent, happy to work with a guide. However, learning to obey must be started very early, even with a two-month-old puppy. Physical punishments should be avoided, training should be based on praise and rewards, preferably in the form of treats, which gives very good results with the covetous setter. This dog can take part in field trials and all-round or multifaceted pointer competitions (so-called field trials).

Who is this race for?

The right dog for people who prefer a sporty lifestyle is also great for families with children. It requires a consistent upbringing, understanding and a lot of attention, especially at a young age.

Advantages and disadvantages

Disadvantages

• sensitive, requires a gentle approach and a lot of patience
• needs a lot of free movement
• bored can be a destroyer
• untrained chases game and goes far away
• from walks brings a lot of mud
• he likes to eat everything he finds

Advantages

• delectable family companion
• gentle to humans, dogs and other pets
• good hunter’s helper
• unrefined in food

English setter. Health

Setter is quite hardy and long-lived, retains a young appearance and joy of life until old age. Long, hanging ears can be exposed to infections, so you need to regularly monitor their condition. There are also tendencies to inflammation of the third eyelid. Sometimes in old age, nodules appear just below the skin and the hind limbs weaken, making the dog’s gait become unsteady.

Feeding

The Englishman has a good appetite and is not picky. Foods should be well-balanced and medium-protein. We can give ready-made high-class food or natural products by adding appropriate calcium and vitamin preparations. Some breeders combine both feeding methods. The daily dose should be divided into at least two meals.

Care

Care for a home pet comes down to frequent brushing, but show dogs require more complex treatments: bathing and trimming.

Care for the setter, which we do not exhibit, is quite easy – after a walk, the dog should be allowed to dry and then brush the mud from it, which brings a lot to the house (especially on so-called feathers).

After returning from hunting, check that the dog has not caught ticks, remove leaves and twigs from the coat, and make sure that it has not injured its paws. The setter’s bath is not complicated and its hair dries easily and quickly.

History

The English Setter belongs to the group of British Pointers. It probably comes from medieval display dogs with a fringed coat that accompanied falconers in hunting. These quadrupeds appeared in areas inhabited by the Celtic population, i.e. in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

The immediate ancestor of the setters was a popular dog in the British Isles (called legawas), called a sitting or setting spaniel. Hunters used it to hunt birds with the net. The dog approached the game hidden in the bushes (without screaming it out) and signaled the presence of birds, freezing – hence the name setter (from English “to set”, or “indicate”). This behavior of the dog allowed a man to approach the prey and cover it with a net.

When the firearm was invented, the role of the hunting dog changed. The ability to display birds at a distance and to proclaim at the behest of the hunter has become desirable. At the beginning of the 19th century, white and black, white and chocolate and white and lemon dogs were very popular in Wales. One of the breeders of this variety was Edward Laverack, considered the father of the breed. In the 1880s, thanks to the skilfully conducted selection, he created a type of English setter similar to the modern one.

After World War II, interest in the breed decreased; hunters began to use a continental pointer for hunting, considered easier to a position. For several years, the popularity of English in our country has been slowly increasing.

Template

English setter – group VII FCI, section 2.2, reference number 2

• Country of origin:  England
• Size:  height at the withers of dogs 65-68 cm, bitches 61-65 cm
• Coat:  short coat on the head, front of the limbs and at the base of the ears; on the rest of the body it should be medium length, smoothly adherent, it happens slightly curly; at the ends of the ears, long tassels, straight tassels are found on the back of the limbs, abdomen, neck and forechest; generous tail feathers
• Color: black and white (blue belton), orange and white (orange belton), lemon and white (lemon belton), liver white (liver belton) or tricolor, i.e. blue belton with tan or liver belton with tan. Individuals without large colored patches on the body, but finely spotted are preferred.
• Maturity:  2 years
• Lifespan:  12-14 years
• Weather resistance:  medium

Interesting facts

“Belton” is a common term describing the characteristic speckling of an English setter robe. Belton is a village in Northumberland, and the term was spread thanks to the book about English setters by Edward Laverack, who used it there for the first time.

This breeder had an overwhelming influence on the current appearance of the breed. English setters are sometimes called laveraki after his name.