Jul4
English Setter: An Elegant and Popular Sporting Breed
The English Setter is a gun dog that is popularly known for being an elegant and excellent game bird setter. It is in the same family with the Irish Red and White Setters, Irish Setters, and Gordon Setters, which are excellent hunting breeds as well. This dog is named as setter because of its almost sitting position when it finds a game bird to be hunted.
The English Setter is distinct for having a flat, silky and lightly wavy coat that gently wraps around its body. This coat is speckled with color combinations called “belton”. These are the blue belton (white with black specks), orange belton (white with orange specks), lemon belton (white with orange flecks and nose is light), liver belton (white with liver flecks) and tricolor (blue or liver belton with tan markings on face, chest and legs).
The pendulous ears of this dog together with its legs and tail are lusciously covered with silky hair like fringes. The coat wraps its body in a way that accentuates its slender form and makes this dog even look more beautiful. The coat is not too dense or too thin but just enough to make it comfortable in both hot and cold climates.
There are two types of the English Setter and these are the hunting or field type and the bench or show type. The hunting type has a shorter coat which requires a little grooming while the show type has longer and more flowing coat that definitely requires more grooming. This dog is an average shedder and needs to be bathed or dry shampooed when necessary.
This dog is well-known to be sweet-natured and gentle and really loves to be surrounded by children. It is also placid, loves affection and is amiable to everyone such that people dub him as a “gentleman by nature”. It is also very intelligent and in fact, it can perform tasks that other breeds specialize in except for herding.
In Stanley Cohen’s The Intelligence of Dogs, this breed ranks 37th and it is proven indeed that the working and obedience ability of this dog is above average. This dog is highly active and should be placed in the care of a family that has active tasks to do as well or better yet, this dog can do very well with a hunter for a master. This dog is suitable to live in a house that has an ample-sized backyard because this dog requires daily jog or brisk walk everyday.
This dog may be highly trainable but it is mischievous and strong-willed at times, too. Never apply harsh criticisms or negative reinforcements in training the English Setter because it is highly sensitive. It is best to reinforce this dog with positive remarks only or else, it will refrain from doing tasks for fear of displeasing the master.
This creature originally came from France in 1500s and ended up becoming popular in England during the 1800s. It supposedly came from crosses of Spanish Pointer, large Water Spaniel and Springer Spaniel. Edward Laverack and Purcell Llewelin are two separate breeders who are responsible for making the breed as beautiful as it is today and actually there are two varieties of this breed namely the Laverack and the Llewellin.
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