What was your first Irish Setter encounter?

[Gene]

The first time I met an Irish Setter was March of 1993. I had a first date with a woman who I would eventually date for 3 1/2 years. When she opened the door, Chelsea was barking away. After introducing us, she volunteered that "Irish Setters are the most beautiful dogs in the world". While I thought Chelsea was beautiful, I was not prepared to concede that title to red heads at that moment but did not want to start a fight 5 minutes into a first date. I later found out that Chelsea was her ex-husband's dog. We moved in together for about 18 months and then when she moved out, I got custody of the fur kid. So, my first Setter was my ex-girlfriend's ex-husband's dog!

And over the years, I have learned that she was right. Irish Setters are the most beautiful dogs in the world!!

How about you? How did you get involved with Irish Setters?

[Dee Rance]

A bit late coming into this one....

I got my first Irish in 1971 I went to a puppy farm outlet....(I knew no better) and was looking for an English setter....they didn't have one. And there was one very sad looking Irish Setter girl...she was pitiful...but we bought her all the same, £39, a lot of money in those days....we got her home on the Saturday night, and went straight round to the vet the next morning, she had running diarrhoea, watering eyes, mucky ears etc etc etc. (the vet said the poor wee thing was a health hazard to my then small children and wrote a letter to 'poundhill' telling them that the puppy was not fit and would probably die soon, I often wonder what happened to her) so my husband took her back....

We had a neighbour that breed dogs and he found us a litter of Irish near by, that one encounter made me fall in love with the breed, we were all so very upset about what had happened....and so Ros came into our lives....(twice the size and weight of the poor wee baby) and she lived with us for only 10 years, and we both learn't together.

I personally have loved this breed ever since then....I am now sitting on the corner of my settee with one dog sprawled out next to me and the other wrapped around my neck. And I wouldn't have it any other way...

[Torie Lancaster]

Im afraid the little sickly puppy would probably be sold on again to someone else......how sad :(

 

[Dee Rance]

I know, and I have been working hard to get these places closed down fully....people like myself (at the time) only think that you can get puppies in this way....we also have the problem of bad breeders...(don't get me on that subject either) give the rest of us a really bad name, and churn out puppies like they are very expensive sausages.. 

I wish that I could have kept her and made her last few days/weeks comfortable....but the £39 represented about a week and a half wages for my husband and myself and unfortunately it came down to money....as I said I have always felt guilty about taking her back....so very sad...

[rob winemaker]

I saw the movie Big Red when I was 6 y/o. The instant I graduated from college and was living on my own I got my first pup. I worked him obedience and he could do everything except answer the phone. He was lost under mysterious circumstances when he was 3y/o. I was so angry I punched a wall and broke my hand. 30 yrs later, it still brings tears to my eyes if I dwell on his disappearance. His name was Kashmir and I have only a few great photos of him that I can hopefully post someday. I also have the trophies he won from his fabulous run of obedience trials. The highlight was highest scoring dog in trial in a large regional event. I never worked another of my reds to that degree again, I was so heartbroken. All my other Reds have lived to 14yrs.+ except for one who died of bone cancer at 3y/o. I always have wondered what Kash would have been like in old age. My guess is he would have learned to answer the phone. My 2 current boys are brothers and won't be 2yrs til Fall.

[Chantal McIlveen-Wright]

What an horrible start Rob!!! what do you mean by lost? disappearing?  no matter it is horrible anyway. Glad you have not giving up with Reds. So sorry for this first experience.

[Anna Kazimierowicz]

I'm very sorry for your loss, the uncertainty of Kashmir's fate could be tough.

I have to say that I managed to teach Bajka to answer the phone!

It was many years ago, before mobile phones came in. I used to use an answering machine:-) And who was talking in it? Bajka!

It was something like that: "Woof-woof, this is Bajka, my mistress is absent, please leave the message after a long signal. When she will be back, I bark it to her. Woof!"

It was people's sense of humour test. Some were embarrassed, others offended. But I had many such a messages: " Hi,Bajka, tell Ania that..."

[Jean Lippett]

We spent several years putting all our energy into building our business in London and it took a while for that to be stable enough to share our home with a dog. My husband was desperate to have an Irish Setter as he'd always missed his beloved August. 'How big do they get?' I asked him. 'Oh, well .  .  .  sort of .  .  . up to your knees' he lied. We found our puppy but couldn't see his parents as the breeder was in the middle of moving house and a friend was taking care of the litter for her. A week later we took Hero, the puppy, back to see his family and bombard the breeder with our ignorant pet owner questions and worries.  We had had a lucky break. That breeder was Pat Rutherford and the family were the famous Clonageeras. As we walked in, the dogs all tumbled out of the back door and the most gorgeous animal I'd ever seen ran to me and leapt up and flung his forearms round my shoulders. I was looking up at Sh. Ch. Clonageera Tyrone, and I was in love. Twenty-three years on, our house is presently home to four and a quarter Clonageeras and they still amaze me with their beauty, inside and out.

[Ann Millington]

OK my first encounter with Irish Setters.... We had, unwisely of course, bought a border Collie - for the children -  from a Puppy Farm in Wales (how bad is that?)  Dylan was a poor mixed up nervous wreck, tho' we loved him and got used to his crazy ways.

One day in 1967, we were coming home from school when we saw an Irish Setter snoozing in the sun in the front door porch.  We stopped to look at it (we were always stopping to look at things on the way home from school - 4 kids aged 4, 5, 6, & 8. Anyway this Setter got up,stretched and strolled to the gate, wagging her tail and gently accepting the admiration and caressing in an elegant, graceful way.  "The next dog we have will be an Irish Setter." we said.... and so it was, the Empire was created and we plunged into serious dogdom.... and there really is only one breed, Irish Setters - all the rest are just 'dogs'.

[Dee Rance]

As I said before.....''those places'' at that time were the only place most of us thought of getting a puppy.....puppy farms that is.....I bet there are many more on this site that had this kind of ''start'' in dogs, but boy look at us now.....lol 

[rob winemaker]

"all the rest are just 'dogs'"

I've said that for along time but most people don't believe me.

One of my guys now is sort of mixed up and nervous but he's our special child w/ special needs. A hunting dog trainer I know took a look at him and said " That guy wants to hunt." He's just not directed in that area.

You should see him snatch frisbees though.

[Angela Clarke]

When God had made the earth and sky,
The flowers and the trees,
He then made all the animals,
And all the birds and bees.

And when His work was finished,
Not one was quite the same,
He said: I'll walk this earth of mine,
And give each one a name.

And so He travelled land and sea,
And everywhere He went,
A little creature followed Him,
Until his strenght was spent.

When all were named upon the earth,
And in the sky and sea,
The little creature said: "Dear Lord,
There's not one left for me!" .

The Father smiled and softly said:
"I"ve left you till the end,
I"ve turned my own name back to front,
And called you "DOG", my friend.

Found this on a previous discussion

[rob winemaker]

Amen