Irish Red and White Setter

Good-natured at home, keen and determined in the field.
An Irish Red and White Setter
Photo: Ordinary Guy
Adult male
19–27 kg
42–60 lb
Adult female
16–23 kg
35–50 lb
Lifespan
11–15 yrs
Class · Field
also Family, Sport

What it's like

In temperament the breed is affectionate, lively and friendly, a good-natured companion at home and a keen, determined worker with plenty of stamina in the field.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is an Irish Red and White Setter right for you?
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Living with one

It has a coat with feathering. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on brushing a few times a week. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

An Irish Red and White Setter is a medium dog, heavier than a Border Collie and lighter than a Golden Retriever. Males end up clearly heavier than females.

Hunters are often said to have favoured the parti-coloured coat because the dog stays easy to see in the field. It is a strong, athletic dog, more solidly built and less racy than the red setter. The coat is white with clearly defined solid red patches. Light flecking is allowed on the face and lower legs but not on the body. The hair is flat and silky, with feathering on the ears, legs and tail.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Irish Red and White Setter puppy is already as heavy as a grown Cocker Spaniel. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
11 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
01020302m4m6m9m12m18m
01020302m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
4.2–5.9 kg 9.3–13.0 lb
3.8–5.5 kg 8.4–12.1 lb
3 months
6.1–8.7 kg 13.4–19.2 lb
5.4–7.7 kg 11.9–17.0 lb
4 months
8.9–12.6 kg 19.6–27.8 lb
7.7–11.1 kg 17.0–24.5 lb
5 months
11.4–16.3 kg 25.1–35.9 lb
9.8–14.0 kg 21.6–30.9 lb
6 months
13.6–19.4 kg 30.0–42.8 lb
11.5–16.4 kg 25.4–36.2 lb
7 months
15.3–21.8 kg 33.7–48.1 lb
12.7–18.2 kg 28.0–40.1 lb
8 months
16.5–23.5 kg 36.4–51.8 lb
13.6–19.4 kg 30.0–42.8 lb
9 months
17.3–24.6 kg 38.1–54.2 lb
14.2–20.3 kg 31.3–44.8 lb
10 months
17.8–25.4 kg 39.2–56.0 lb
14.7–21.0 kg 32.4–46.3 lb
11 months
18.2–26.0 kg 40.1–57.3 lb
15.0–21.4 kg 33.1–47.2 lb
12 months
18.5–26.4 kg 40.8–58.2 lb
15.2–21.7 kg 33.5–47.8 lb
15 months
19.0–27.0 kg 41.9–59.5 lb
15.7–22.4 kg 34.6–49.4 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Irish Red and White Setters live yet. The 11–15 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The FCI standard holds it "fairly certain" that the Irish Red and White Setter is older than Ireland's all-red setter. Shown alongside the solid red from the mid-19th century, amid confusion over which colour was correct, it lost so much ground that by 1900 it was believed to have died out. Efforts to bring it back began in the 1920s, and by 1944 it had its own club4.

The Irish Red and White Setter's revival rested on a small group of enthusiasts in the north of Ireland, notably the Reverend Noble Huston, who sought out surviving dogs of the old type between the wars. Interest later spread to Britain and beyond. The breed gained recognition from the Kennel Club and, in the early twenty-first century, from the American Kennel Club. Like other setters, it was bred to range ahead of the guns, find game birds by scent and then set, or freeze, to mark where they lay. The habit dates back to the days when birds were taken with nets.

Breed standard

The Irish Red and White Setter is judged against standard no. 330, in group 7, Pointing Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Irish Red and White Setter figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Brittany
Pointing dogs · Medium
Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
Pointing dogs · Medium
Vizsla
Pointing dogs · Medium
Wirehaired Vizsla
Pointing dogs · Medium
Or compare the Irish Red and White Setter with any breed you choose
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Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
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Parts of this page were written by AI ·