Duties of our setters

[Anna Kazimierowicz]

Probably we all know that immortal view of german sheepdog with newspaper in his mouth.
Our setters must work for us in field (sometimes) but in houses they lies down on our armchairs or settees, sleeps in our beds, eats from our plates our dinners, eats our best shoes, distroys plants, books, documents, hunts birds from birdcages...
Maybe somebody has setter which makes anything useful, f.e. these immortal shoppings like in attached file or rocks a baby to sleep (with lullaby also accepted), turns the light off or in in proper moments, lies the table with plates and forks... Or anything else but useful
I allready answer - mine are listed in first paragraph.

[Laura Kolbach]

i never asked for it, but Odin always took the newspaper or envelop out of my hand to carry it up to the appartment. in wintertime it is her "duty" to take care of my hat or gloves. Danka adopted this, good that i have two gloves :-)
Danka can turn on the light - as a puppy she was jumping up when i arrived home and several times accidently put on the light :-) so it was quite easy to teach her to do it on command.
both of them would go to the person i tell them to go to, from a group of people, known and unknown mixed. hm, is that useful? :-)
when Odin was young, she took my mobile when ringing and brought it to me when i was in the bathroom for example. like Komissar Rex :-)) (she is completely deaf now but she can read from my mouth!!!)
her most heroic thing though was to open the front door, go to the neighbours door, scratch it until my mum would come out who was having coffee there, make her follow back to our place and save my dad's life by this. he was having a heart attack when Odin went and called for help and my mum could call the ambulance... she never opened any doors before and after that.
i understand that many of you would not believe this - but then again, you don't know Odin personally. she IS a real wonder.

[Carmel Murphy]

Wow Odin is an amazing girl!! I bet your Dad loves her for that amazing deed!!
In 1982 a friend stayed with us and while I was in Hospital having my first baby she told me that my setter started howling exactly at midnight and guess what- my son was born exactly at midnight!!!! Did the setter know?? Was he making an announcement? This setter never howled before or after that night!!

[Sharyn Latchford]

Odin is one special girl......

Well mine can tell time.....time for their breakfast, time for their lunch and time fo their tea..................Pixie used to adore Daylight saving...........she got her tea early.....although was not impressed when it finished...:-)))


Sharyn
NZ

[Anna Kazimierowicz]

Oh, Laura, your Odin is superb and wise. She rescued your father.
I see that setter can being working as assistent. My Bajka used to work as a dog therapist. She worked like a normal dog to caress without any special skill, simply to make easier contact between dog and child or handicapped person...
In that dogotherapy foundation they have plans to teach dogs-assistants for handicapped. Some dogs are trained to switch the light or help to put socks on, bring a telephone end s.o.
Your Danka has natural instinct to be a helper.

[Laura Kolbach]

Danka will take a test soon if she would be suitable as a therapy dog. here in hungary you must pass a character test first, then the owner (me, hehe) as well. then they start the trainings. there is a school for special people where they have different groups and needs for differently tempered dogs. autists need calm dogs, other menthal disorders a tuff dog. so, we'll see. i really want to start something else with her as i am tired of dog shows :-))))

[ursula wilby]

What is this Laura? Tired of dog-shows? You?

As for special help I get from my present dogs, I can only think of the energy-saving prewash for the dishwasher. As soon as I open it...they are there. Ready to do their duty...lick the plates!

Previous setters used to carry the mail from the letterbox down the road. But then I have a big waterbowl outside the house and one of them went to have a quick drink and dropped all my letters in the water. I then took over that particular job.

Oh yes, I have had quite a few trying to landscape my garden wanting to replant stuff and create different levels and interesting dips. But even there I feel I could do without their help.

They are exellent at telling me if anyone is walking past my garden (in case I need to know) but totally useless if anyone actually comes to the house...not a bark to be heard! I would call it very selective guarding.

I have had ones that would assist me in my cleaning by emptying the cat-litterbox. Could have been pretty useful, had they not spread the litter all over the place and ended up with VERY foul breath. So the cat-box is now beyond reach from my eager helpers.

All in all I am (so it seems) a very ungrateful owner, not appreciating all this work they try to do for me.

[Laura Kolbach]

shows: been feeling that for several months now - but it was great to win best veteran at the eurodog :-) and of course, i will enter the 3-day-show in april ;-) but more because my friends are all there and we can spend a nice weekend together.

it just came to my mind that my girls can do more useful stuff: wag the tails on command and bark on command. latter quite useful late night in the park when some strange people seem to follow you...

[Henk ten Klooster]

Its a pleasure reading this all.

Makes me think first of all of old Yoube caring for all my children as if they were her own.

Second thought that old picture from a kid in St Louis, being saved out of a burning car by her Irish setter. It was frontpage dailies worldwide those days (1976) and I got it on my first working day from an editor knowing about my setterfever.

We resettled five times and lots of pics were lost, but this one always survived.

[Carmel Murphy]

Thats a wonderful story! Love the picture! I dont remember it even though I moved to the US in '76, I had other things on my mind(moving to a new country all on my own at the age of 19) But bought my lovely setter in '77 so happier then!;o))

[Nicole Wilson]

Those are all amazing stories, I have to say. Just shows you what wonderful creatures dogs are!

[Lynn Spencer]

I have just had lots of fun reading all these wonderful stories. I can associate with at least one of them. My English Setter Megg can definately tell the time, but neither of my girls have saved anyone like Odin has. What an amazing girl. My Irish girl Tess can do 'hi 5's' very well indeed, as I'm sure all your Irish can, and Megg is very good at the command 'kiss your Mama'. I just have to say it and she comes from nowhere to give me a big 'kiss' on the cheek. Now that's a clever Setter.!!!!!!!

[Lynn Spencer]

Yes, I agree Susan. That's why I love this group so much. Lots and lots of lovely stories about very much loved Setters, whether they be Irish, English, Gordons or Red & Whites. We all have a story to tell about these delightful dogs. The two girls I have now, are both calm and very quiet girls. An absolute delight. My previous and first Irish Setter Skye, was none of the above, but we loved her more than words can say. A typical Irish who believed our world should revolve around her (which it did). Full of fun, and mischief and I still miss her terribly to this day. I could tell stories about her and her antics that would take up many pages and many hours. Just a beautiful Irish girl who will be in our hearts forever.