Featured Breed of the Week : English Setter

Jeff Davis | Go back to current news
Posted 09/30/2019




The English Setter is a bred of Gun Dog breed to hunt upland game birds such as Quail, Pheasant, Grouse and Woodcock. This bred was dubbed Setter for its ability to set and mark the location of game, todays Setters have been bred to point game.

Beautiful and Elegant are often used to describe the English Setter. They have a long and silky white coat that feathers at the tail, chest and legs, with black, orange, lemon or liver speckles. Their long coat requires regular maintenance.
Males: Height 24-27 inches / Weight 55-80 pounds.
Females: Height 23-26 inches / Weight 45-70 pounds.

Records dating back to the 14th century make the English Setter one of the oldest breeds of Gun Dog. Most references have the English Setter originating from spaniel stock, most notably the Springer Spaniel and the Water Spaniel, with some mentions of Spanish Pointer and French Pointer. Originally called the Setting Spaniel, for its ability to set and wait when it had found game, before it was eventually just called the Setter. The setting stance was later bred out of the Setters, for a more upright pointing stance.

In the early 1800s, a breeder named Sir Edward Laverack, developed his own strain of Setters. Most of todays English Setters are based on his strain, in fact in the English Setter is sometimes referred to as the Laverack Setter.

In the Mid 1800s another breeder by the name of R. Purcell Llewellin started to develop his own strain of English Setters based on Laveracks strain. This would later be the foundation for todays Llewellin Setters. The Llewellin Setter, while still an English Setter, is a completely separate and pure bloodline.

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