American Canine Association

Breeds

Irish Setter


History

An excellent hunting and retrieving dog of all sorts, the Irish Setter is made up of many bloodlines. These include, Irish Terrier, Irish Water Spaniel, English Setter, Pointer and the Gordon Setter. This breed is a favorite among hunters for many reasons including this breeds companionship, tracking, hunting, retrieving, pointing and watchdog abilities. Today, this breed still has all of these traits, including being great with competitive obedience and agility competitions. This breed is extremely popular within the United States today.

Appearance

The Irish Setter is a large breed dog with males and females measuring 24-28 inches in height and weighing 55-75 pounds in weight. This breed has a large, broad, rounded wedge shaped head with two extra large sized pendant shaped ears that hang alongside of their face. Their two oval shaped eyes are medium in size and a light hazel to dark brown in color. Their tail is medium in length, has extra hair feathering off of it and it should be positioned out and upwards. Their single layer coat is wavy in texture, medium in length and available in shades of red, with the possibility of white markings.

Temperament

The Irish Setter is an extremely friendly, outgoing, active dog who is a fantastic breed for the right family. Great for families with older children and other pets, this breed is very loving and accepting. Potential owners must make note that the Irish Setter has a ton of energy and without proper mental and physical exercise, they will be extremely energetic indoors and possibly destructive. We recommend early socialization and obedience classes to ensure a proper foundation for both new dog and owner from the beginning. This breed requires a firm and friendly owner who sets rules and boundaries within the home and provides enough mental and physical exercise daily. This breed excels with hunting, tracking, pointing and retrieving and would be a great hunting and family companion. This breed enjoys learning and working alongside of their family.

Grooming

This breed requires daily brushing and bathing when needed. We recommend professional grooming at least every 4-5 months.

Special Notes

Please note that this breed requires a properly fenced in yard or a harness and leash outside at all times. Please fully educate yourself about the Irish Setter prior to adding one to your home to ensure you are able to provide life long physical and financial care. This breed is prone to bloat, epilepsy, skin and food allergies, hip and joint issues, autoimmune disease and ear issues and infections. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders. Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2017. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.

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