THE WORLD OF

WORKING GUNDOGS

"One of the pleasures of shooting is the company of a well trained gundog.  The choice of the breed of gundog is a matter of both personal taste and the type of shooting one is engaged in.  Different terrain and differing quarry dictate the choice of gundog.  Some will prefer the busy spaniel quartering the scrubland for pheasants or rabbits, others the questing of setters or pointers on the moorland, whilst others enjoy the retrieving breeds when wildfowling or at the driven game shoot." Bill Beckett Irish writer and broadcaster
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Irish Red Setter

Of all the setting and pointing breeds the Irish setter is renown for keeping going when the rest have stopped.  It is also the oldest of the setter breeds and is well catalogued in Irish history

Referred to as the red setter, the Irish setter did not start off life as this rich chestnut coloured dog.  Whilst red may have been the prominent colour, the original Irish setters were red and white dogs.

The dog’s decline in popularity in England in the 1850 has been reversed over the last decade and the breed is enjoying something of a revival on the British mainland.  It has always been a popular dog in with the Americans who appreciate its graceful lines and turn of speed that suits the lowland hunters of that continent.

Closer to home and the quarry is snipe and woodcock, birds plentiful in parts of Ireland to this day.  Forty miles of more across moorland is nothing to an Irish setter.  Bolder than the English variety, the Irish red setter and the Irish red and white setter will both enter water readily.

Unquestionable the working breed has suffered because of its majestic looks and at the hands of the show fraternity.  Fortunately a new generation of Irish sportsmen is appreciating the enjoyment of a day on the moor with both varieties of Irish setters and the breed is making a comeback in its native land.