Breed Standard - Wavy coats

[Lindsey Jones]

Reading the Irish Setter breed standard which states:

 

"Coat
On head, front of legs and tips of ears, short and fine; on all other parts of body and legs of moderate length, flat and as free as possible from curl or wave. Feathers on upper portion of ears long and silky; on back of fore- and hindlegs long and fine. Fair amount of hair on belly, forming a nice fringe which may extend on to chest and throat. Feet well feathered between toes. Tail to have fringe of moderately long hair decreasing in length as it approaches point. All feathering to be as straight and flat as possible".

 

it seems that a large proportion of the IS's have very wavy if not curly coats; not that I have anything against that but we seem to be getting away from the breed standard?  I understand that coat is only a small part of the important make up of these beautiful dogs and conformation is more important.

[Carmel Murphy]

OK That explains it;o))) Thanks Mel;o)

[Val Martin]

I have just taken a look on the website Carmel. 

There are some very interesting articles and wonderful photo's on there and funnily enough, not a curly coated setter in sight!

[Carmel Murphy]

There are very few wavy coats over here, but the ones that are here are not too severe, just a few waves on the back!! And have never seen a curly coat on a setter in Ireland, so far! Even My waviest setter Megan is not too bad!!

[Val Martin]

Actually Sue,  I have no need to look at photo's as I am quite knowledgable when it comes to dogs and the various breeds.

I am well aware that there are many different breeds of retriever, I was merely using the difference in TYPES of coats that the curly coated retriever and let's say the flat coated retriever has as an example nothing more!

[Fran Griffin]

My sentiments exactly Val.  I must say I have seen pictures of some recently who look more like Irish Water Spaniels !!!!

[Val Martin]

Me too Fran. 

Funny, it must only be us two who have noticed it.

Maybe, instead of working on the training & behavioural side of dogs, we should take up judging...lol

 

[Carmel Murphy]

Not just you and Fran;o)))))

[Dee Rance]

Please do!!!!

[Catherine Carter]

I think if we are to post photos of curly coated Irish Setters we will need owners permission.

[Susan Stone]

I do find it a shame that when one person makes a valid point he or she ends up being treated like a complete fool on this site.

Judges and breeders alike sometimes need people with a fresh look on the breed to point out aspects that we may have neglected just due to our sometimes restricted views.

The point made was: does the breed standard ask for a coat 'free as possible from curl or wave'? Yes ist does. There is no need to be rude to anyone who points that out to us. Show judge, breeder, pet owner or any other person.

 

I fear the value of this otherwise excellent site suffers badly due to people not being polite to one another when posting a reply.

[Carmel Murphy]

I agree Susan! We are all entitled to our views! But this topic kept going away from the original question, which was only about wavy coats in the breed standard!! We should never belittle anyones view here, as"fresh eyes" are a good thing for the breed;o))

[Catherine Carter]

Susan, I totally agree with you........ this conversation started about the coat and some chose to diverge  and change the subject.... I agree with you that the site suffers badly by some less than polite comments!