Irish Setter

Sweet and energetic, playful long after puppyhood.
An Irish Setter
Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga Commons)(Lmbuga Galipedia)
Adult male
29–35 kg
63–77 lb
Adult female
25–30 kg
54–66 lb
Lifespan
12.9 yrs
Class · Family
also Sport, Field

What it's like

The Irish Setter's temperament is outgoing, sweet and affectionate. It has plenty of energy and is known for staying playful and slow to settle long after puppyhood. It is friendly with strangers and of little use as a guard. A setter named King Timahoe lived at the White House with President Richard Nixon.

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 Setter right for you?
Take the breed matcher

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 Setter is a large dog, about the weight of a grown Golden Retriever. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the lightest large breeds. Its weight is an estimate, not a published figure.

It is tall, lean and racy, with a long, narrow head and low-set ears. The flat, silky coat is a deep chestnut red, with feathering on the ears, chest, legs and tail. A little white on the chest or toes is permitted.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Irish Setter puppy is already as heavy as a grown Border Collie. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old. The biggest males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
12 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
6.0–7.3 kg 13.2–16.1 lb
5.9–7.2 kg 13.0–15.9 lb
3 months
9.0–11.0 kg 19.8–24.3 lb
8.4–10.2 kg 18.5–22.5 lb
4 months
13.4–16.3 kg 29.5–35.9 lb
11.9–14.6 kg 26.2–32.2 lb
5 months
17.1–20.9 kg 37.7–46.1 lb
15.1–18.4 kg 33.3–40.6 lb
6 months
20.4–25.0 kg 45.0–55.1 lb
17.7–21.6 kg 39.0–47.6 lb
7 months
23.1–28.2 kg 50.9–62.2 lb
19.6–23.9 kg 43.2–52.7 lb
8 months
25.0–30.5 kg 55.1–67.2 lb
20.9–25.6 kg 46.1–56.4 lb
9 months
26.3–32.1 kg 58.0–70.8 lb
21.9–26.8 kg 48.3–59.1 lb
10 months
27.1–33.1 kg 59.7–73.0 lb
22.6–27.6 kg 49.8–60.8 lb
11 months
27.5–33.6 kg 60.6–74.1 lb
23.1–28.2 kg 50.9–62.2 lb
12 months
27.9–34.0 kg 61.5–75.0 lb
23.4–28.6 kg 51.6–63.1 lb
15 months
28.3–34.5 kg 62.4–76.1 lb
24.2–29.5 kg 53.4–65.0 lb

Health and lifespan

In UK vet and lab records, the conditions below turn up more often in Irish Setters than in crossbreeds. Mouth melanoma, inward-rolling eyelid, skin melanoma and underactive thyroid stand out as much more likely. Mouth melanoma is also the most serious on the list, and can shorten a life. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name.
  • Mouth melanoma
    Lab-confirmed cases
    Much more likely
    Impact: life-limiting
  • Inward-rolling eyelid
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Skin melanoma
    Lab-confirmed cases
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Underactive thyroid
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Toe melanoma
    Lab-confirmed cases
    More likely
    Impact: serious
Lab-confirmed: compares dogs whose tumour samples went to a lab with dogs seen in general practice, so the figures run higher than vet-record ones.

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Irish Setter lived to about 13 years, longer than the typical large breed.

Where it comes from

The Irish Setter, a red gundog from Ireland, came from the older Irish Red and White Setter crossed with a solid red dog of unknown breeding, and was a distinct type in the 18th century. Its club, founded in 1882, describes it in two texts: a breed standard of 1886 and, since 1998, a 'working style' for how it should hunt4.

The Irish Setter took its modern form in the nineteenth century, when breeders came to favour solid red dogs over red and white ones, and the older parti-coloured type grew scarce for a time. Dog shows sped up the change, and a Victorian show dog named Palmerston appears in many later show pedigrees. In the twentieth century show and field lines drew apart, and the working dogs tend to be lighter in build and coat. It was bred to quarter open moor and bog at speed, searching into the wind for grouse, snipe and partridge and then holding still on point while the guns closed in.

Breed standard

The Irish Setter is judged against standard no. 120, in group 7, Pointing Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Irish 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 large breed is most likely at the later end.

Compare with related

English Setter
Pointing dogs · Large
English Cocker Spaniel
Retrievers & water dogs · Medium
Gordon Setter
Pointing dogs · Large
Spinone Italiano
Pointing dogs · Large
Or compare the Irish Setter with any breed you choose
Track your own Irish Setter
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·