ORIGINAL: spuddog
An article in Time Magazine a few years back on pure breed dogs and the AKC listed the Irish Setter as the greatest tragedy of the "breeding to standards" mentality.
This is based on very limited experience, but just my 2 cents.
Spud
I think that could be a silly claim when you look at labradors and other popular breeds. I would venture to guess that if labradors were bred as good as they are often, you would not have to look so hard or pay so much for the good ones. Hip displasia, no hunt and other problems show up in them as well as any breed that is bred often. You have to get good breeders with a good history of health and hunt, and then fork over a grand to get a good one, sounds like. Now, I am not just picking on labs, but I am just saying this in defense of the Irish Setter, which probably isn't bred on near as wide a scale as the labrador and other popular breeds. Any breed that has a common fault in the breed as a whole has been "tragically" bred. That is why a good lab costs money and a good hound costs money and so on.