Skip to main content

Hunting with Field Bred Irish Setters and Gordon Setters

Streamlining the quest to find a great Irish setter or Gordon setter gun dog.

Hunting with Field Bred Irish Setters and Gordon Setters
Irish and Gordon setters from field bred lines can both make great gun dogs. (Photo courtesy of Mark Chesnut)

I frequently see people on Facebook and other social media sites asking complete strangers where they can find a Gordon setter or Irish setter that can hunt. While that might seem like a good starting point, many times these prospective dog owners get led astray by people who are either ignorant or simply trying to sell puppies regardless of their quality and background. Along with varied suggestions, they’ll also get many answers from naysayers advising them to completely steer clear of both breeds since they are just “show” dogs and no longer have the nose, drive, or conformation to be decent bird dogs.

Of course, that last point is just flat wrong. Fine Gordon and Irish gun dogs are out there, and many can hold their own very well against white dogs both in the hunting fields and woods—as well as in pointing breed field trials. The key to finding one that makes you happy is making sure a puppy comes out of hunting, or “field,” bloodlines before dedicating the next 15 years of your life to it.

That’s not exactly easy, though. Unlike pointers, English setters, shorthairs, and Brittanys, the pool of good field Irish and Gordon setters is much more limited. In fact, after talking to a number of Gordon and Irish setter breeders and owners, it seems that the number of good hunting and trialing Gordon and Irish setters combined is probably somewhere less than 300 dogs. Consequently, unless you know someone personally who raises field bred setters, finding one that you’ll be happy with is probably going to take more work than if you are looking to purchase a dog from those more common pointing breeds.




An Irish setter pointing in the snow and cattails.
It's important to meet breeders and dogs in person to make sure it’s the right fit. (Photo courtesy of Mark Chesnut)

Field Bred Irish Setters

Kelli Aitken, who owns Quantonas Irish Setters, breeds, raises, and campaigns some of the best field-bred Irish setters in the country, and has several AKC Field Champions and National Field Champions to her credit. In an exclusive interview with Gun Dog magazine, Aitken said that choosing a breed is a personal thing and she settled on raising, hunting, and trialing Irish setters for a number of reasons.

“They're my breed of choice because most of them are the perfect mix of intelligence, personality, good temperament, and bird dog,” she said. “I feel like every person has a different sense of balance between the certain aspects, and for me, the Irish setter encompasses what I need out of a dog that I dedicate my life to. I couldn't be as passionate if I was dealing with a breed of dog that wasn't like this.”

Aitken has had the pleasure of breeding, training, and hunting/trialing both field-bred and bench-bred Irish setters. This has given her a unique perspective on the two “types.” The old thought that show dogs can’t hunt isn’t true, but they might not hunt like some hardcore bird chasers would want them to.

“I have had show-bred Irish setters that I have trained, worked, and hunted with, and there are a couple of huge differences between the show-bred and the field-bred Irish setters,” she said. “The first and foremost is going to be longevity—not just longevity in life, but longevity in the field, and longevity in your hunts. My show setters could do a half-day hunt every other day and be OK. But you could not actively hunt them in a working environment, meaning not just in a flat field where you're working birds, every day, day in and day out. It's harder on their bodies, and they struggle to have that endurance to go every day.”


Aitken, too, has seen the queries on Facebook and other social media by people looking for a hunting Irish setter. And she’s seen many of the poor answers that those prospective setter owners have been given. Rather than letting your fingers do the walking, Aitken says you’re going to need to wear out some boot leather and spend some time on the road.

“The internet solves all the problems, right?” Aitken quipped. “Instead of asking around on Facebook, you should be attending where these dogs are present; so, you can meet dogs from multiple breeders. I think that you start by asking around in the active hunting community, you attend a field trial or hunt test, you go to a NAVHDA work day, you look online where you'll find event results, or find websites for breeders who are producing working dogs.”

Once a breeder is located, it’s time to start determining if what they have meets your needs in a lifelong hunting partner. Aitken believes both the prospective buyer and the breeder should be asking questions of each other to determine if a dog under consideration would be a perfect match.

“My people don’t ask me many questions,” she said. “I tell them to tell me about what they want to do, and then I have the discussion about why that may or may not work with a dog from me. It should be an active conversation. Yes, they’re going to ask questions, but an active conversation is far superior to a checklist of questions.”

That said, Aitken mentioned some important things that prospective buyers need to find out during that active conversation. First, they should look for health testing, because hip dysplasia is prevalent in the breed, and eye and thyroid disease are often present.

“Also, they need to meet the dogs, because temperament matters,” she said. “And they need to learn about how this breeder is operating. If they're just breeding dogs that they say are good hunting dogs, but you don't ever see pictures or video of them working in the field, then how do you know they're good hunting dogs?”

Of course, finding various titles—ranging from AKC field champions, to AF champions, to AKC Master Hunters, to NAVHDA Prize 1, to shoot-to-retrieve champions—in a pedigree can also be helpful in ensuring an Irish setter you are considering is from field lines. However, Aitken warns prospective buyers to not rank those titles in any order of importance.

“Those organizations all ask different things of these dogs, so you can't compare them,” she said. “Instead, we can value all of them—they can all matter. So even if a dog doesn't have a field champion in its first two generations, it doesn't mean it's a bad dog. You hope that there’s some kind of proven working ability behind that dog.”



A Gordon setter points in grouse woods with dead leaves on the ground.
Field bred Gordon setters are known to make great grouse dogs. (Photo courtesy of Brenton Roberts)

Finding Field bred Gordon Setters

As with Irish setters, there are some fine—and, indeed, fine-looking—Gordon setter gun dogs out there, and finding a good puppy to be your next hunting companion isn’t impossible. But it’s also not an easy task.

Dean Fries owns and operates Clearcut Kennels in Minnesota. He got his first Gordon setter gun dog back in 1983 and began raising hunting Gordons in 1987.

“One thing I love about them is they’re extremely good family dogs,” he said. “They don't bounce off the walls when you have them inside. They’re stop-and-go dogs—when they’re around the house, they stop. But if you get the gun out and drop the tailgate of that truck, they’re go.”

“They make awesome bird dogs. I would say they mature a little bit slower than some of your continental breeds, and they’re a little bit of a softer dog to train up. But if you take your time and know what you’re doing—you don't have to do a lot, just show them what you want—they’ll learn.”

Back when Fries got his first Gordon, finding dogs was more complicated. Instead of websites and social media, he had books, magazines, and a land-line telephone.

“I’ve been grouse hunting since I was following my dad through the woods—before I could even carry a gun—because my dad did it, so I have a passion for grouse,” Fries said. “We had American water spaniels, a flushing breed, and when I was in college, I wanted to try a pointing breed. I wanted something a little different, so I just started researching.

“I did a lot of research, reading books and magazine articles, and the Gordon setter was a grouse dog back in Scotland. I liked the color of them, and it was something different. My first dog was a fantastic grouse dog.”

Fries’ second Gordon, however, wasn’t a good bird dog, and nearly soured him on the breed. Fortunately, instead of switching to another breed, he decided to breed his own dogs to try to make the Gordon setter the best it could be.

“If you’re a person out there wanting to buy a hunting dog, everyone thinks they have the best dog,” he said. “But if you get the wrong Gordon setter, that's going to be your first impression. That first dog you have is going to set the tone whether you get another one, or you just think they’re bad dogs. So, people get a show dog because somebody told them they’re good hunting dogs, and they’re disappointed and will never own another Gordon setter if they're a serious bird hunter.”

According to Fries, those looking for a Gordon setter gun dog should shy away from show lines because of conformation differences that affect hunting ability.

“When you watch the show dogs run through the field, they have what I call a ‘rocking horse’ gait—that head’s going up and down,” he said. “That tells me the conformation is wrong on the dog. You watch a field-bred dog run, and he can put his head where he wants to put his head, and he can keep it there because his gait is good. The nose on that dog can only smell scent when he's inhaling. And, if he can't keep his head in a scent cone because he's going up and down, he might be 30 yards closer to the bird before he even smells scent, where a dog that can put his head where he wants is going to smell it immediately.”

“To me, that’s one difference between a show dog and a field dog. A show dog, because of that rocking horse gait, might be the best hunting dog in the world, but you’re going to only get two or three hours out of him, and then he’s done, he’s spent.”

Since Fries breeds grouse hunting dogs instead of field trial dogs, he doesn’t put a lot of faith in looking for field champions in a pedigree. But he says there are other ways a pedigree can get you off to a good start in finding a Gordon breeder with dogs that will make a hunter happy.

“If a breeder likes their dogs, and likes what they’re producing, they’re line breeding, and you’re going to see the same kennel name all over in that pedigree,” he said. “If you see a pedigree out there that’s Clearcut this, to Billy Bob Smith, to Mary Jane, and all these different kennels, that tells me that somebody’s just getting started, or they don’t like what they’re producing. So, they always have to go to somebody else’s dog or they’re chasing the champion.”

“There are a lot of champion chasers out there, too, wanting to breed to whoever is winning the field trials. Well, that’s not how you build a hunting dog. To me, the best bet is to find somebody who's dedicated their life to the breed and to producing a good bird dog. Every breed has them, you just have to search for them.”

Fries also offered another nugget of advice for those beginning the search for a Gordon setter gun dog.

“I’m looking from a hunter’s standpoint,” he said. “In the Gordon setter world, there are show dogs, dual dogs, field trial dogs, and hunting dogs. To me, the hunting dog is the hardest one to find. I don’t field trial; I wild bird hunt my dogs. So, try to find somebody who has a hunting dog you really like, and then get recommendations. That’s how you’re going to find a great gun dog.”



Two Gordon setters point together on a rocky sage brush hilltop.
Good confirmation is important, it plays a major role in a dog's ability to hold up in rough country. (Photo courtesy of Mark Chesnut)

The Future of Field Bred Irish and Gordon Setters

In the end, if you put in the work to find a nice, field-bred Gordon or Irish with a hunting or trialing lineage, you’ll likely have a bird dog that will turn heads and that you can be proud of for years to come. Jumping in too quickly and buying the first pup that someone claims is “field bred,” however, can lead to disappointment and heartache.

Still, there are some great gun dogs of both breeds out there—and some great people breeding for the future, trying to improve both breeds. Get out there, do your research, and look before you leap!

To Continue Reading

Go Premium Today.

Get everything Gun Dog has to offer. What's Included

  • Receive (6) 120-page magazines filled with the best dog training advice from expert trainers

  • Exclusive bird dog training videos presented by Gun Dog experts.

  • Complete access to a library of digital back issues spanning years of Gun Dog magazine.

  • Unique editorial written exclusively for premium members.

  • Ad-free experience at GunDogMag.com.

Subscribe Now

Already a subscriber? Sign In or start your online account

Phone Icon

Get Digital Access.

All Gun Dog subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets.

To get started, click the link below to visit mymagnow.com and learn how to access your digital magazine.

Get Digital Access

Not a Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Dog jumping out of phone with Gun Dog website in the background
Make the Jump to Gun Dog Premium

Gun Dog Premium is the go-to choice for sporting dog owners and upland hunting enthusiasts. Go Premium to recieve the follwing benefits:

The Magazine

Recieve (6) 120-page magazines filled with the best dog training advice from expert trainers.

Training Videos

Exclusive bird dog training videos presented by Gun Dog experts.

Digital Back Issues

Complete access to a library of digital back issues spanning years of Gun Dog magazine.

Exclusive Online Editorial

Unique editorial written exclusively for premium members.

Subscribe Now

Already a subscriber? Sign In or Start your online account

Go Premium

and get everything Gun Dog has to offer.

The Magazine

Recieve (6) 120-page magazines filled with the best dog training advice from expert trainers.

Training Videos

Exclusive bird dog training videos presented by Gun Dog experts.

Digital Back Issues

Complete access to a library of digital back issues spanning years of Gun Dog magazine.

Exclusive Online Editorial

Unique editorial written exclusively for premium members.

Subscribe Now

Already a subscriber? Sign In or Start your online account