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). :-)

[Kristina Brannlund Westin]

Defenitively the drinkingproblem for me. My now four month old puppies is the worst I have ever seen. They dip ther nose deep down in the water and than they breed out so it´s like boiling water. It is water all over the kitchen floor. Than I have a big problem with their jumping on me and everybody who is visiting. I feel it´s very hard to make them not to jump because they are so very happy to see me and all kind of people.

[Gene]

This is a great thread. I have had all these issues before. Separation anxiety (being destructive when dad is at work) is the biggest. Minor irritants are mud on the counter edges from counter surfing and spilling more water on the floor than drinking.

[ursula wilby]

So Ok lets sum this up a little bit.

Irish setters = Spill water intead of drinking it, splatter it all over us, they steal all the food they can get hold of. They dig up the garden, destroy anything we try to plant, they eat cat- horse- cowshit, they roll in anything that smells bad. They wipe their drool all over us, they jump up and leave muddy paw-prints. On top of it all, some of them FART! (But that seems to apply only to the field-trial variety.)

Makes you wonder why not EVERONE wants at least one Irish setter!

[ursula wilby]

I forgot to stick tons of :-) on after the FART-comment above. Of course ALL dogs fart! That was meant to be a joke!
I have a spacious house, but my first pug could fill the whole place with his stink. The setters on the other hand...I have never noticed at all.

Another favorite one for setters is the dashing up to you after a swim in the ocean/lake/mudpuddle and actually trying to get as close to you as possible before shaking themselves dry...

[Laura Kolbach]

- fart... yes... noticed that it also depends on the food... not figured out yet which ones :-) odin never did it but does is since danka arrived :-) is it possible to learn this?????
- using me and strangers as a towel after taking a bath in a lake/flood, etc.
- odin's favorite: eating dead fish and mussels by the danube. she would never eat on the street or somewhere else but these fish and other stuff must be delicious... danka loves cat and horse shit, but still better than eating human one... as many other dogs do... which makes me throw up even now in front of the laptop just by thinking of it...
- countersurfing: no. this is a taboo. i can leave all food around, even on the smoking (little) table. odin pretends sleeping but keeps a watching eye. danka sits on the couch and gets her nose as close as she can but would never touch the food. i remember when she arrived and my friend and i ordered a pizza. i opened it and she jumped on it = her two front paws were on/in the pizza :-) this was the first and the last time. poor baby, might still remember herself flying :-( (am i a bad mum now???)