Irish Red and White Setter

Setters of red and white were the standard Irish bird dog from at least the seventeenth century, developed by landed families to work the open bog, stubble and heather of Ireland. Several estates kept their own strains, and the type was well established long before anyone drew a distinction between red and white and solid red dogs.

That distinction proved nearly fatal. When dog shows took hold in the second half of the nineteenth century, fashion swung decisively towards the glamorous solid red Irish Setter, and the parti-coloured dogs fell out of favour so completely that by around 1900 they were widely believed to be extinct outside a handful of working kennels in the west of Ireland.

The revival is usually credited to the Reverend Noble Huston and to Dr Elliott and Maureen Cuffe, who from the 1920s onward gathered the surviving working dogs and bred them back into a recognisable, consistent breed. Their work was slow and deliberately field-focused, and the modern breed still descends from that small nucleus.

Formal recognition followed slowly. A dedicated Irish Red and White Setter Society was formed in Ireland in the 1940s, and the Irish Kennel Club granted the breed separate status from the Irish Setter in 1974. The Kennel Club in Britain followed, and the American Kennel Club admitted the breed to the Sporting Group in 2009. It remains uncommon, and the UK Kennel Club lists it as a Vulnerable Native Breed, with fewer than three hundred puppies registered in a typical year.

This is a strong, well-balanced gundog, noticeably more athletic and less racy in outline than the Irish Setter. Dogs stand roughly 24 to 26 inches at the withers and bitches about 22 and a half to 24 inches, with most adults weighing between 50 and 70 pounds. The head is broad, the expression kindly, and the whole dog gives an impression of substance without heaviness.

The coat is the breed's signature. The base is a clear pearly white carried over the body, broken by solid, clearly defined islands of red in a rich chestnut shade; mottling or flecking, known as roan, is permitted around the face and feet and up the legs, but heavy roaning across the body is undesirable. The body coat is fine, flat and short, with long silky feathering on the ears, throat, chest, backs of the legs and along the tail.

Movement matters as much as markings. A correct Red and White covers ground with a long, low, effortless stride and carries its head high to catch scent on the wind. The white base was practical rather than decorative: it makes the dog easy to see at distance in the field, which is precisely why Irish shooting men kept the colour when show fashion abandoned it.

The prevailing character is friendly, high-spirited and affectionate. These are dogs that greet the world as a good idea, attach hard to their people, and would rather be underfoot than left in a kennel. They are usually reliable with children, tolerant of other dogs and unsuspicious of strangers, which makes them poor guard dogs and pleasant company.

They are also, by common agreement among breeders, a shade steadier and easier to settle than the Irish Setter, which is part of the breed's appeal for a first-time setter owner. That said, they mature slowly, and a two-year-old Red and White still behaves in many ways like an adolescent. Expect a long, cheerful puppyhood.

The hunting brain is always running. Nose-led wandering, an interest in birds and small furry movement, and an aptitude for finding gaps in fencing all come with the package. Off-lead freedom should be earned in safe spaces with a well-proofed recall, and a securely fenced garden is close to essential.

Boredom is the breed's main behavioural risk. A Red and White with too little exercise, too little training and too much time alone will chew, dig, bark and generally redecorate. Company and occupation prevent almost all of it.

The breed's job is pointing and setting for upland game birds: grouse, snipe, woodcock and partridge on open ground. The dog quarters ahead of the gun at a gallop, locates game by air scent, and then holds a rigid point until the handler comes up, remaining steady while the birds are flushed and shot. Field trial lines in Ireland and Britain still work exactly to that pattern.

As a modern companion the breed does well at anything requiring stamina and brainwork. Field trials and gundog working tests are the natural home, but agility, rally, obedience, tracking, scent work and canicross all suit it, and several have been trained for detection and therapy work. For a family who runs, hikes or cycles, it makes an outstanding partner.