![]() "If I think we need more speed and range, I'll bring in some field trial stock. "Along with my friends and family, I have raised my line of setters for 50 years using whatever dogs we thought would make good bird hunters. "Yeah, I guess I could be called a 'backyard breeder' because I have no big-time famous kennel or big winners in field trials," says Vern Austin, an English setter owner, breeder and hunter from Decatur, Arkansas. "All our brood stock dogs are instinctively good retrievers, but we force-fetch them just like they were field trial Labradors to ensure that they will pick up and bring to hand any gamebird we shoot." Proper Lines "The females tend to range further and, in the woods, always wear bells, beepers, and GPS collars so we can find them when on point. "Though all our dogs are versatile hunters, the males are easier to handle and better team players," he notes. In addition, we select for standard size and conformation so we have dogs that look like typical English setters. We also test all our breeding stock for hip dysplasia and other genetic issues. "Most all our dogs have the typical genial English setter temperament so we can have three or four living with us in the house at the same time. "In breeding our line of setters, we select for good nose, great desire and strong cooperation. "My setters will retrieve ducks and geese on land and out of water, though we use our dogs to mainly hunt ruffed grouse and woodcock because these birds are in our backyard where we live in northern Minnesota," Frank says. As a long-time member of and judge in the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA), Spaeth trains and hunts his English setters as versatile gun dogs with a couple of them earning the title of Versatile Champion. "And in some places we hunt, there are sharp rocks and cactus that bother our dogs' feet, but nylon and leather boots take care of this problem in most cases." Versatile Breedįor 40-plus years, Frank Spaeth and his wife, Nancy, have raised, trained and hunted their own line of English setters. "There is a problem for our setters in desert heat, but that issue is resolved by clipping their coats," Smith adds. People without their own dogs who hunt with us say that our dogs produce more birds than these other breeds on the average. "Our setters hunt at distances pretty much between these other breeds and cover as much ground as the others do. The English pointers tend to range out far and wide, sometimes on the edge of getting out of sight while the German shorthairs usually stay in real close, almost underfoot at times," Smith says. "And we often go with friends who use English pointers and German shorthairs. "We use our English setters to hunt desert quail," says Carol Ann Smith from Tucson, Arizona. ![]() Likewise, when searching for grouse out in a five-mile wide hayfield, the etters will run wide, fast, and far, then, when they find grouse, they'll stay back and wait for my hunters to get there," Crist says.Įnglish setters, in Crist's experience, are a breed of gun dog good at learning these different requirements for hunting different gamebirds. "When working pheasants in corn or sorghum or tracking them up and down mile-long gullies, my dogs shorten up their range and wait for the guys with guns to catch up with them. "My setters automatically adjust to the different birds even when they're in the same pasture, hay lands, crop fields, and ravines," Crist says. Wicker Bill Crist, a professional gamebird hunting guide from Pierre, South Dakota, uses his English setters with clients for combination hunts for pheasants and sharptails. "And they do so with less effort and more comfort for shotgunners." So, in the end the setters seem to produce as many quail as the pointers do," Allen adds. "The setters cover the ground up close for birds that the pointers might over-run and miss. The English pointers run further and find lots of birds way off in the distance so we have to spend lots of time looking for them. ![]() Though I like both breeds of dogs, the English setters tend to be easier to handle because they're team players that stay closer to me when we hunt. On the subject of keeping track of dogs in the field, Don Allen from Gainesville, Florida, says, "I've used English setters and English pointers to hunt bobwhites in nine states from Florida and Alabama to Texas and Oklahoma over 50 years. "Yes, we use e-collars with beeper locations and electric collars with GPS locators as insurance policies to keep track of some dogs when on point or when they might get out too far and get lost in thick cover," Henderson adds as a suggestion to anyone hunting anywhere far from home. "Even our oldest setters get disoriented sometimes and any electronics that help find them can keep a good hunt from turning into a disaster." ![]()
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