lurchman

I am purchasing a bird dog in the near future. This will be a house dog and a family pet for my three young children first and foremost but I also want a well trained pheasant dog. I live in northern Indiana. I am considering A english setter but am concerned that this breed might not to work as close as I like for the relatively small fields I hunt. I would like some thoughts from anyone on other breeds to consider and any observations and opinions on english setters. PLease try and not turn this into another my dog is better than yours discussion just some honest observations of breeds in general. Thank you

seattlesetters

Considering your family application, an English Setter would be one of the top recommendations. You should have no problem finding one that will hunt at a comfortable range.

nulle

Woking with one now and is a nice dog = might want to also consided the GSP wHich I also have one

toledo joe

I have a 2-year-old English Setter from field trial breeding who instinctively hunts closer to me in the grouse woods than she does in the more open pheasant fields. She' s a real goer but she doesn' t stay out of my sight very long. I have an ecollar on her which has convinced her that she' s never out of touch. I have used it once in the field. She bumped her first pheasant and chased it.she' s a very affectionate house dog who watches TV sitting on my lap. My two Labs have learned to accept this. Try a Setter but get the best you can afford.
Toledo Joe

toledo joe

Just wanted to add a PS ...I' ve never seen anything more beautiful than an English Setter at work doing what she loves to do.

seattlesetters

What toledo joe says is true...all of my setters instinctively hunt the terrain about as good as anyone could hope. My stud male is so good at this that I rarely say a single word to him during an entire day' s hunt...regardless if it' s in the grouse woods, a small pheasant lot, the chukar hills or the wide-open prairie.

toledo joe

Welllll....mine' s not thaaaat good yet. She' s young. Seattle, are you actually in the city? I spent a lot of time in Port Angeles and Port Townsend as a kid. Understand they' ve changed a lot.

seattlesetters

Joe - I live in Bellevue, just across Lake Washington. I am 10 minutes from downtown Seattle. And yeah, the area has changed...3.5 million people will tend to do that to a town. Other than the traffic, Seattle is still the nicest big city in America, though.

I' m currently running just two setters (although I own four)...my stud male and a 7-month old female. The male is 4 years old. He is experienced beyond his age...he gets out some 40-50 days a year...and he has hunted most of North America' s gamebirds. For me and the style of hunting I do, he is nearly the perfect bird dog.

The pup is looking mighty fine so far, and she is showing the same ability to hunt the terrain. I mostly hunt chukar and huns in wide-open spaces, so I tend to let my dogs roll through the country...you find more birds that way. She throttles back nicely when we are down in the brushy draws looking for California Quail. I haven' t had her on grouse yet, because I don' t like my dogs to get the idea that I want them to hunt close to me until I am certain that they will get out when the country opens up. One thing I know for a fact from my experience is that you can always reign in a big-running dog to a certain extent, but you can not make a boot polisher get out farther.

I breed for easy-handling, family-oriented dogs that hunt at a solid medium range and I sell those that hunt closer as started dogs. This doesn' t mean that they are not good bird dogs...quite the contrary. I have one 2-year-old female for sale right now who is super easy-handling, has the best nose and is the best natural retriever that I have ever had. She just won' t break the 100 yard barrier, even in open country, and I need my dogs to be quite a bit farther out than that.

ESetter1

I have a 2 year old english setter now and he is the second one that I have gotten out of the same kennel and have never been happier with a breed. They are very good in the house and with the kids and mine hunts hard all day long. If you would like some information on the breeder send me a message or an email and I would be more than happy to put you in contact with him. You will not be sorry. I have never com in contact with an english setter that didn' t have a great disposition, either out my dogs lines or another. Some are bigger than others but all are hard workers. My dogs have both been males (about 35-40 pounds) and the females out of the kennel are about 25-30. Just the right size for a house dog/hunting dog in my opinion. Again if you want any additional info on the breeder please let me know.

PAbearman

I have an english setter and it' s the best dog I ever had. She is the family baby, loyal, loves the kids, protects the house and has good natural instincts when in the field. Just naturally she stays within 30-40 yards when hunting. When she was a pup I hunted her with a 30 yard lead on her and I guess it kinda stuck with her. They are a little hyper but not so much that it' s annoying.