A (hopefully) non offending discussion.

[ursula wilby]

Lets do a light-hearted one...a discussion where everyone (?) can join in and that is not discussing the TYPE of setter or WHERE you come from. Henk semi-started this under the health/test discussion.
The question is: What irritates you most about your setter?

I hate it when mine slobber all over me and even come up to me for the main purpose of using me as a table-napkin. Unless I am very careful, I tend to always have that look about me as if I use my clothes to blow my nose. So lets hear YOUR worst side to owning a setter!
I will after this TRY to keep a lower profile before I become a total pain in the butt (thats me being americanised). :-)

[Laura Kolbach]

hehe, i remember one of your writings with the black trousers :-)

[Alenka Pokorn]

I hate the way mine drink water. They take a mouthful and then come running to me and drop it in my lap - sooooo much fun......... Most water ends on the floor anyway.

Alenka

[Alenka Pokorn]

Oh yes, they teach each other all the stuff we don't want, rarely what we want them to!!!

I recall when Pika was a puppy we had a 10 lt bucket in the kennel, tied to the fence with a steel wire and we put a 2 kg rock in the bucket so she would not turned it over. Well she stil could bathe in it....

Alenka

[Henk ten Klooster]

Top three irritations: 1) a fart, 2) rolling in stinking stuff, 3) stealing my food in a sneaky way.

[Alenka Pokorn]

Mine do all of this. Plus Pika when she feels she is not center of attention she grabs the first thing she sees and runs with it.
Alenka

[Carmel Murphy]

Oh where to start!! Megan is my food thief but she really loves plain brown bread with lovely fatty irish butter or cheese!! Rua would never steal food,she is such a lady!! I hate when they come in to the house soaking wet after a heavy rain shower(lots this year!) and rub up against me to get dry(all three dogs together) They can't wait for a towel! The dog I had in America once ate a large tin of Crisco(i think that was the name?)cooking fat and had the greasiest head and ears for days(took a lot of washing to get rid of it all) His digestive system wasnt too good either! And my pet hate is the dogs rolling in fox crap(and we have lots in our area!) They also love to eat horse or cow manure and they come to give you a kiss(YUCH!)

[ursula wilby]

I wonder if foxcrap is worse (from the stinking-aspect) than duckcrap?
And another one, puppies cleaning out the catlitter-box.

[ursula wilby]

Their breath is a dead give-away...then you realise you have forgotten to lift the litterbox up on to the counter.

[ursula wilby]

Ginger, what a great word = countersurfing!
Although mine never go near any food on table or counter.
But digging up the garden for at least the first three years of their life is an all-time favorite. And I love my garden! I hate that telltale-sign when they come in with mud-incrusted feet twice their normal size and I realise its time to check out the damage. I must have planted at least 30 Clematis. Four are still around. They are planted together with small sticks to hold them up...great to grab and chew and dash about with...ooops was there a plant attached??????

[ursula wilby]

I can leave the room with food on the table, half-eaten sandwiches laying on the edge somewhere, no problem.
I never even think about it.
The garden on the other hand, is a daily fight for at least the first three years. I have a very old and traditional garden, lots of old plants and box-hedges that are more than 100 years old. They are (so it appears) great to dig under...either for shade or to perhaps give birth to imaginairy puppies. Im constantly filling the holes...and placing dogturds on top to stop them from digging in that particular spot again. Unfortunatly there are plenty of "new" hedges to dig under.

[Susan Stone]

My husband had planted an apple tree... it was doing reasonably well after two years.... one day as you say, Ursula, the dogs came in with filthy noses and feet the size of snow-shoes. I went out to look - the beautiful apple tree had been dug up, chewed to scraps and only a forlorn stump of 5cm remained in the ground...

As to drinking habits, I think it is genetic! In one litter all drank like horses, although the dam could drink like a well behaved dog:-) I'm sure it came from the father's side!

[ursula wilby]

Yes, the drinking IS genetic!
I have noticed this too. Seems stupid for a lot of genetic space to be taken up for something like that but it most certainly is!
And yes, those mudcaked noses...hate those too!