The Irish Red and White Setter

Breed Comparison

We judge the Irish Red and White Setter exhibits chiefly from the working standpoint! The Irish Red and White Setter is strong and powerful, never racy or elegant as is its cousin, the Irish Setter. The Irish Red and White Setter is not as tall as an Irish Setter.

They have a level topline, whether standing or moving, with a tail held level with the back. Body length of an Irish Red and White Setter can range from square to a 9/10 proportion, whereas in an Irish Setter the body should be slightly longer than it is tall.

You will also find that the Irish Red and White Setter is exhibited with whiskers intact; a requirement in the standard. The standard also calls for no clipping of any kind. Tidying of the neck and body without ever showing a sculpted look is allowed. Both breeds move at a gait that is long-striding, very lively, graceful, and efficient. The Irish Red and White Setter should always have a moderate setter look in body and in coat length. Both breeds have an outgoing and friendly personality!

Color

The Irish Red and White Setter is a parti-colored breed. The base color is white with patches of red color. The red color has been described to be that of a freshly opened chestnut. There is NO specific patch placement mentioned in any standard, and no Irish Red and White Setter has incorrect red patch placements as long as it shows to be a parti-colored dog! In a description of the ideal Irish Red and White Setter, most would agree that an Irish Red and White Setter should have red patches over the ears and eyes, and clear islands of red spread in an eye-pleasing way over the body.

A hands-on evaluation is essential when judging the Irish Red and White Setter, as the human eye can be misled by patch placements. Also, depending on how the patches are physically placed, angulation can be made to look correct or incorrect. The body can appear too long, too short, tall, or lacking in height. We tend to find fairly consistent patching over eyes and ears, but patching on the body can range from none to small or large red areas—and anything in between.

The white is that of a pearly white! Our standard allows for ticking on the muzzle and legs. Ticking on the body is not considered ideal. We do have to remember that the breed is to be judged chiefly on its ability to work, which requires correct construction. Our color is more cosmetic and clearly does not contribute to or interfere with working! The color is the breed hallmark, but the breed must always be judged chiefly from the working standpoint.

Head

The Irish Red and White Setter skull is broad, but is in proportion to the body, and rounded without showing an occipital protuberance. The stop is distinct, but not exaggerated, and is not to appear to have an upturned or roman nose. The muzzle of an Irish Red and White Setter is clean and square, of equal length to the skull, with parallel planes.

Nose color of the Irish Red and White Setter can range from black (ideal) to dark brown. The occasional pink streaks or spots can be found and are part of the breed. You may also find winter noses.

The post The Irish Red and White Setter appeared first on Showsight Magazine.

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? How many years in dogs? How many years as a breeder? What is your kennel name?
2. What is your “process” for selecting show puppies? Performance puppies?
3. In your opinion, is your breed in good condition overall? Any trends that warrant concern?
4. As a Preservation Breeder, can you share your thoughts on the sport today? How’s the judging these days? What do you think about the number of shows?
5. In your opinion, is social media good for the sport? Is it harmful?
6. What are the biggest challenges facing the dog show community as a whole today and how can these be addressed?
7. What are some of the positive changes you’ve seen in the sport over the past decade?

1. Our kennel name is Truly Red & Whites. We are a family that includes myself, Wendy Bockman, my husband, Ed, and my two adult daughters, Rachel and Lindsay. We make breeding decisions, show entries, and Field Trial entry decisions together as a team. We are located in Eastern Pennsylvania and we have been breeding and competing with our Irish Red and White Setters since 2009.

2. We evaluate our litters for conformation, temperament, and interest in birds as they develop and make our final choices at eight weeks. The pups that are going to other homes start leaving at 10 weeks. The pups we keep for ourselves must have the best conformation AND the drive and bird interest to compete in both shows and Field Trials/Hunt Tests.

3. Irish Red and White Setters are, overall, a healthy breed and we’ve seen great improvements in overall structure and temperaments over the last decade. We are at the stage now where the breed has had its first dual champion (bred by us, but the owner did the field championship, we helped by handling in the show ring) and we are now working to hopefully have more dual champions in the breed, not just us but other breeders over
several states.

4. With our breed being low in numbers we have to travel to find competition, so that is a challenge itself. Judging overall is good, but we have had instances where judges made too much emphasis on color and markings, which isn’t what should be the priority when judging this breed. Having shows every weekend does seem to cause too much repeating of judges on the judging panels. It would be nice to have some different judges.

5. We do see a lot of negativity spread through social media. Fortunately, it’s not an issue we’ve seen in our breed.

6. We need to find a way to bring more people into the show/breeding community. Without new people, we will have problems keeping breeds going. Personally, we work as hard as possible to encourage those new to the sport and do everything we can to support them. My husband is excellent at introducing women to the field side of our dogs and teaching them about hunting and doing Hunt Tests/Field Trials. It would be great to have more clinics for people to learn about all of the different dog sports.

7. One thing that social media has done that is positive is a number of Facebook groups geared towards the education of newbies in all of the different dog sports.

The post Wendy Bockman | Irish Red and White Setters appeared first on Showsight Magazine.

Breed Comparison

We judge the Irish Red and White Setter exhibits chiefly from the working standpoint! The Irish Red and White Setter is strong and powerful, never racy or elegant as is its cousin, the Irish Setter.

The Irish Red and White Setter is not as tall as an Irish Setter. They have a level topline, whether standing or moving, with a tail held level with the back.

Body length of an Irish Red and White Setter can range from square to a 9/10 proportion, whereas in an Irish Setter the body should be slightly longer than it is tall.

You will also find that the Irish Red and White Setter is exhibited with whiskers intact; a requirement in the standard. The standard also calls for no clipping of any kind. Tidying of the neck and body without ever showing a sculped look is allowed.

Both breeds move at a gait that is long-striding, very lively, graceful, and efficient. He should always have a moderate setter look in body and in coat length. Both breeds have an outgoing and friendly personality!

Color

The Irish Red and White Setter is a parti-colored breed. The base color is white with patches of red color. The red color has been described to be that of a freshly opened chestnut.

There is NO specific patch placement mentioned in any standard, and no Irish Red and White Setter has incorrect red patch placements as long as it shows to be a parti-colored dog!

In a description of the ideal breed, most would agree that this breed should have red patches over the ears and eyes, and clear islands of red spread in an eye pleasing way over the body.

A hands-on evaluation is essential when judging this breed, as the human eye can be misled by patch placements. Also, depending on how the patches are physically placed, angulation can be made to look correct or incorrect. The body can appear too long, too short, tall or lacking in height.

The Irish Red and White Setter should always have a moderate setter look in body and in coat length.
Both breeds have an outgoing and friendly personality!

We tend to find fairly consistent patching over eyes and ears, but patching on the body can range from none to small or large red areas—and anything in-between.

The white is that of a pearly white! Our standard allows for ticking on the muzzle and legs. Ticking on the body is not considered ideal. We do have to remember that the Irish Red and White Setter breed is to be judged chiefly on its ability to work, which requires correct construction. Our color is more cosmetic and clearly does not contribute to or interfere with working!

The color is the breed hallmark, but the Irish Red and White Setter must always be judged chiefly from the working standpoint.

Head

The Irish Red and White Setter skull is broad, but is in proportion to the body, and rounded without showing an occipital protuberance. The stop is distinct, but not exaggerated, and is not to appear to have an upturned or roman nose.

The muzzle is clean and square, of equal length to the skull, with parallel planes.

Nose color can range from black (ideal) to dark brown. The occasional pink streaks or spots can be found and are part of the breed. You may also find winter noses.

The muzzle of an Irish Red and White Setter is clean and square, of equal length to the skull, with parallel planes.

The post Judging the Irish Red and White Setter Breed appeared first on Showsight Magazine.