RE: which breed of dog?
 

[quote] If your going to feed it, might as well be pretty ,so buy a English setter. [quote]


If you are buying for looks get the Irish and if you are carefull picking out the Irish you will have a good loyal hunter as well. I have no problem with my Irish. They are very smart and loyal, as well as very pretty and quick.

I also hunt terrain as that is thick to open fields. Here one of the fields is a natural gas pipe line that runs by here and is a straight shot of around 89 miles without any tar roads. But most of my grouse hunting is around ledges and alder stream banks for woodcock as well. I have no problem bringing in my setters in the thicker stuff. I let them hunt 40 - 50 yards out in front in this stuff most of the time. Sometimes I will let one of them run out big so he will work back towards me. Thus by keeping the grouse in between me and the dog. This works real well in the 2-3 year old cuttings. I also do not worry about the setters running to far off as they will come back looking for me and not me looking for them so much. So I think it has a lot to do with the way your dog is trained to hunt for you. They do however have some longer hair on their legs and ears, but, for the most part I have no problems getting the briars or burdocks out.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

[quote]ORIGINAL: Phil from Maine

[quote] If your going to feed it, might as well be pretty ,so buy a English setter. never hunted with IRISH SETTER,but i think they are more impressive on coat color than the ENGLISH SETTER..

dark brown/red is real impressive..

RE: which breed of dog?
 

Irish Setters don't hunt, they just look good and are BIG & dumb, thanks to the AKC. Its the RED Setters that are the hunters now.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

Don't be so foolish my friend there is some that hunt better than you would believe and I currently own 2 of them. They have champion imports in them as well. The champion lines come straight out of Dublin Ireland! And NO!, these are not from the red setters either.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

That first photo is a show dog holding on a bird? Doesn't look like a show dog to me! That was his first good holding and look at that check cord on him.:DThis photo is the same show dog holding and looking pretty good to those show people?! :DAnd yes the check cord is here too, and yes, he does retrieve naturally! Yeah they are monsters in size with a 35 lb female and a 65 lb male, but very quick for the giant size of them. Also what a nose they have in finding birds.

So I guess you would have to look harder to find them but they are here dancing in the woods for those show folks to try and find LOL .




I hope to have better photos this spring when the woodcock migrate north through here. I have a new camera so I can put the 35mm to rest now, and not wonder why my photos didn't get developed right.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

I hunt with my Yellow Lab "Molly" for all my bird hunting. It's tough to find a better all around bird hunter. Some breeds are better at one specific type of hunting. But I want and have a dog that'll do a good job with all types of waterfowl and upland birds.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

I have a white english pointer she is a female , she lives in the house excellent dog very calm and has a good nose holds point forever. Trained her from a pup easy to do use a fishing pole with 40 pound test line connected to a pheasent wing go back and fourth until dog points and holds. Then use live birds connected to 40 lb line to big coke jug with water in it 3 feet lead. Keep telling dog to wow and don't let her break.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

maybe you could train my next one..good info..

RE: which breed of dog?
 

English setters make great hunting companions and family dogs. My setter would take the best torture that my toddler daughter could dish out and still came back for more. In the field there was no quit in that dog. I love the big square jaw, long hair, salt and pepper look, and the rock solid points. The downside can be some like to range a little to far and the training went a little slow, not soft dogs but you have to be patient with the training.

RE: which breed of dog?
 

b tom, did you ever hunt with LLEWELLIN SETTER,i had pleasure at warriorsmark hunting club this year to hunt with one..i was impressed that dog only hunted about 20 30 yards out in front..others, they go way out..i HATE that..