Irish Setter
Mahogany outside, confetti inside.
The premise of “Big Red,” Walt Disney’s 1962 boy-and-dog picture, is a quiet heresy: a champion Irish Setter — beautiful enough to win everything, owned by a man who fully intends him to — keeps choosing the woods, the boy, and the running instead. Walter Pidgeon plays the owner; the Quebec wilderness plays itself; the dog is never once in doubt. Audiences understood immediately, because Jim Kjelgaard’s 1945 novel had already taught a generation the same lesson: you can shampoo an Irish Setter into a show dog, but what you have is a bird dog with a great haircut.
Irish Setters we love
Exuberance, in mahogany
The breed has held distinguished office. In January 1969, White House staff gave President Nixon an Irish Setter puppy for his birthday: King Timahoe, named for the Irish hamlet of the president’s ancestors. Tim was raised by Manolo Sanchez, Nixon’s valet, who trained him in Spanish — Nixon enjoyed explaining that his Irish dog took commands in a third country’s language — and he grew into the house greeter for visiting heads of state, with one recorded raid on a presidential birthday cake before the singing finished. Even the most controlled building in America could not make this breed solemn.
Living with one is living with weather — fast-moving and mostly sunny. Irish Setters stay puppyish for years, love everyone without discrimination, and need genuine daily running rather than a stroll: under the glamour is a working gundog bred to sweep whole fields at speed. Under-exercised, they hold tryouts for indoor sports. They are soft-hearted and take correction personally, so train with warmth; they are also long on enthusiasm and short on guile, which makes them hopeless guard dogs and wholehearted family ones. The coat drops red feathers year-round. Nobody who chose this dog seems to mind.
Keeping one happy
Grooming
The mahogany coat wants brushing two or three times a week to keep the feathering on legs, ears, and tail free of mats and burrs, plus a bath when fieldwork demands one. Shedding is moderate and steady. Check the long, hanging ears weekly — they hold warmth and moisture, and trouble likes both.
Training
Clever, willing, and easily bruised: harsh corrections buy nothing but a worried dog. Keep sessions short, upbeat, and generously paid, and start recall young — a running breed with a bird habit needs it early. Channel the energy into fieldwork, agility, or fetch with rules; a job settles the fizz.
Exercise
An hour or more of genuine running every day — sprints in fenced space, hiking, swimming — with play besides. A walked-only Irish Setter is an under-served one, and the household furnishings will hear about it. They make superb jogging partners once the joints finish growing, around a year and a half.
Diet
Feed a quality food in two measured, unhurried meals — this is a deep-chested breed with real bloat risk, so keep mealtimes calm and rest them around hard exercise. Through the athletic years, feed the waistline rather than the pleading eyes; a working frame runs best lean.
Red coat, working papers
Irish gentry bred setters to find gamebirds and freeze — “setting” them for the net, and later the gun — in red-and-white coats, until nineteenth-century fashion favored the solid red that made the breed famous. America fell first and hardest: Elcho, imported in 1870, became the first Irish Setter champion in the United States six years later and sired 197 puppies, founding the American line nearly single-handedly.
Questions, answered
Are Irish Setters good family dogs?
Wonderful ones for active households — affectionate, playful, and patient with kids. The main supervision issue is joyful momentum, not temperament.
How much exercise does an Irish Setter need?
A lot: an hour-plus of real running daily, not just leash walks. This is a field-bred athlete under the showy coat.
Do Irish Setters shed?
Moderately and year-round — expect red feathering on floors and furniture, managed with brushing a few times a week.
Are Irish Setters hard to train?
Not hard, just enthusiastic. They learn quickly with positive methods but mature slowly, so patience with the long adolescence pays off.
