THE IRISH SETTER 163 



number up to a fair English setter working standard. This 

 remark has reference to the natural ability, and not at all to the 

 difficulty of breaking the breed. The latter charge against 

 them is true also, but only because their excitement is greater 

 than their love of questing. Mostly they would rather chase 

 a hare than point a bird. It has been said of them that they 

 want breaking afresh every year, but that has not been the 

 experience of the author, who has invariably found that a 

 thoroughly broken dog is broken for life, of whatever breed it 

 may happen to be. 



Irish breaking, however, has not always been very thorough. 



It has sometimes been said of the old dogs of Ireland that 

 they required half a day's work before they were steady. In 

 that case, they would require similar renewal of breaking every 

 day, and the author has made the observation that such dogs 

 are too wild all the morning and too tired all the afternoon to 

 be a pleasure to shoot over. 



But they are not all hard to break ; some of those which are 

 not too excitable are very collie-like in their intuition of your 

 wishes and their anxiety to obey them. 



It is noteworthy that the Irish have always held their field 

 trials in the autumn. 



An old writer says that the English claim theirs as the true 

 English spaniel, whereas the Irish claim theirs to be the real 

 true English spaniel. This is not very informative. The dogs 

 alluded to were of course both setters, but of what colour we 

 are not told in respect of the Irish dog. 



The author shot over the celebrated field trial winner 

 Plunket for several seasons and ran him at field trials, but 

 after he had turned two years he was little use in the spring, 

 whereas he won well in the autumn, when game was shot to his 

 points. In this he was similar to a much better dog, his own 

 son, already referred to. Plunket was a fast dog, and his bold- 

 ness and beauty in going up to game was quite remarkable, as 

 he would draw up to birds at racing speed, as if he meant 

 catching them, but stopped suddenly and in time. Then, when 

 they ran away from his point, the moment he was ordered to 



