I'm really surprised at that and when I first read your post, thought it was to do with working english setters. Wonderful breed, but I can see people choosing a smaller breed. Very much dislike one of the comments below that article though, from someone saying they are ugly dogs! Helen
English Setters are stunning looking dogs very placid the ones ive met very sweet ^^ if I had the space and a bottomless pit of money id have one!
Surprised me when i heard about show KC reg greys being on the vulnerable list but then if you try and find a breeder of them there are very few about. would be such a shame to lose some of our native breeds . .
It's just the way it is that breeds tend to go in and out of fashion. I've always thought English setters were beautiful dogs, have never seen one in the flesh though. Seems strange they aren't more popular as they sound like they make good family dogs.
I saw this on the news today too. Lovely dogs-we had someone with 2 at our training classes. I can see they would not suit everyone though as they are quite large and "muck magnets" I would have thought with all their feathering.
i think its a shame. i think they are gorgeous dogs, and have such friendly personalities. we had one in at the kennels for nearly a month and i fell in love with him its a shame that numbers of breeds are dropping, but they arent a breed for everyone, and i think that could be the problem. from what i have read and been told about setters they can be very willful and can take alot of hard work (i know any dog can) i love setters and would love one, but dont know if i will ever have one.
I read on another forum, that there are 20,000 english setter pups bred in Italy and 5,000 in France and Spain so they are certainly popular over there. However, they are very common working dogs over here but people only tend to have working setters who work on the grouse moors. They certainly aren't going to become extinct in the world. My young pup is from an Italian import, as his breeder wanted to bring some fresh blood into the UK. Helen