Having Fun With Pointing

[Jetshroom]

I'm a big believer in training and playing with your dog to perform their breed function. In my experience a Kelpie's never happier than when it's running after a herd, Huskies love to run and run.

To that end, I'd like to know what sort of activites I could do with an English Setter. (I'm not a hunter.)

[Aidan3]

Check out the Retrieving and Field Training thread, most of the activities you can participate in do not involve hunting, although you may be required to fire a shotgun in some. Tracking is also particularly good for most breeds, especially gundogs. You can also do nosework, obedience, agility etc

[RallyValley]

Have you already got your setter? Is it from show or field lines?

[SparkyTansy]

Unfortunately, the most commonly bred ES in Australia are from showlines, and some of them do not have quite the instinct that their field bred cousins do. ES do show interest in birds at a young age but if not worked or encouraged they can lose that fairly quickly. Most of the competitive field work done has setters from field lines and while you can train and work a show line setter they have neither the speed or the drive to work the birds as successfully as the field lines. There is also very little opportunity to do any field work unless you are willing to head out to the middle of no where to find birds, and in victoria to do it competitively you must be willing to shoot.

Some ES will retrieve but it's not their original function and many do not.

I would suggest as a starting point look a bit more into field work and if when you get your pup it doesn't show much instinct, look into tracking, where the dog uses its nose to track human scent along the ground - a little different to field work but still working that brain and their instinct to follow scent.

As an aside my youngest boy loved to "set" flies when he was younger. He could spend up to 10 minutes stalking a fly and times when his nose would be a CM away from the fly without attempting to catch it. was always a laugh.

[FHRP]

Jetshroom, there's nothing better than seeing your dog do what it was bred for IMO. It's already been pointed out that Setters have two distinct lines - show & field. Pointer & Setter field trials are predominantly made up of the field lines, however I see no reason why someone couldn't put their 'show bred' Setter in a paddock on birds, I bet they will have a great time too. I am not a hunter, however over the past 10 years I have become increasinlgy interested and involved in gundog work starting with Gundog Working Tests (now called Retriever Ability Tests) then Retrieving trials and then this past season Field Trials. All of these sports are worth checking out for gundog owners.

The Australian Working Retriever Central bullettin board is a good place to find out what trials are going on in Australia http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/bb/ and as Aidan2 said, head over the Retrieving and Field thread.

And just to show how lovely a working Setter looks when doing it's stuff, this is a local dog training in the field

[Jetshroom]

Thanks guys, I'll check out those threads.

@FHRP That's exactly it isn't it. That dog looks so happy.

@Rallyvalley I don't have the dog yet, won't for some time. (9-12 months probably) If the most commonly bred are show lines then that's probably what it'll be.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Jetshroom