I’ve only known one in real life. But at the dog shows one can talk to the breeders. I like all the British sporting dogs
and these are no exception. Gorgeous looking. I do know English setters since our best friends have had up to three at a time for years. These were kind, but sorta dumb dogs, very co-operative and harmonious to live with tho.
Like any breed, buy wisely and do some research - there are puppy mills everywhere and a little extra initial expense is nothing compared to a lifetime with an unsteady dog.
S1969, my forte is not dog breeding and my experience around that limited. The couple I spoke of would have been considered backyard breeders but were responsible breeders; breeding their dogs with the intention that they would be family pets, but no way could these folks be considered puppy mill type breeders. Since they had both the dam and the sire it didn’t occur to me that it wouldn’t always be that way.
In the end, I ended up being the “mother” to a pair of Cocker Spaniels and the breeder, again, had both the sire and dam on the premises. She bred for show dogs, but inevitably there were always those puppies that, for one reason or another would not cut it in the show ring, and were sold as pet quality. We got our first puppy because he didn’t have a full enough coat (and a couple crooked teeth) that would have precluded him from going very far in the ring. Later we adopted his cousin (their mothers were sisters, but same sire) when he came back to the breeder–she knew where every puppy was she had ever sold, and demanded he be returned to her. This dog had ended up in an abusive home–the couple ended up divorcing and this poor dog got the brunt of their hatred for one another. 
So, even though people may own both sire and dam doesn’t automatically mean the breeders don’t care about the quality, or quality of life, of their puppies. 
Long story short, even though the sire may not be on the premises, today through the magic of the Internet, the sire may be viewed via You Tube or Skype!!! :yes: If the breeder would comply. If I were selling puppies I would readily make a clip of the sire in action available to prospective buyers–not that hard. 
Our neighbors, when I was growing up, always had an IS and I remember them as nice friendly dogs and beautiful. Their last one was a character. In our neighborhood and way back then, we never had to contain our dogs and they ran with us kids as we played. Well, this last dog, used to go thru the neighborhood and pick stuff up out of people’s yards and take it to his house. His owner would come around periodically bringing his ‘stuff’ with her to try to return it to the proper owners. One time my sister had washed her sleeping bag and had it draped over some lawn furniture to dry in the sun and when it came up missing, we knew where to go to find it!
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Oh sure, there are good breeders that keep males and females, and sometimes breed them to each other if they are not related. It’s just quite common for a breeder to keep only females, and place the males with a co-owner and/or sell the males. If you can only keep a couple of dogs, you need to keep the breeding quality females to maintain the breeding lines because the bitch owners get to choose the sires.
Breeding quality males are a dime a dozen. (I can say this because I have two of them.) They don’t get asked for often, because in today’s day and age, a breeder can get semen from across the country almost as easily as across the state. And if I wanted to become a breeder, I’d have to lease a bitch for someone, or some other more difficult arrangement…it would not be easy.
I was commenting more on the concept that a person should meet sire and dam. That’s just frequently not an option and doesn’t mean they should abandon the breeder because the male is not on site. It might be better that way.
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I would want to meet the mom and at least see pictures or video of the sire.
I think the breeder near me is heavy into showing. She has two litters planned this spring. I want to go meet her and see the pups firsthand. Of curse she could stop breeding by the time I’m ready for a new pup.
I have known 4 Irish Setters, but none of them real well. I don’t know the origins of 3 of them. One was a show dog. All of them were goofy, happy, rollicking dogs! One belonged to the neighbor of the boarding stable. I would hear “Jake, Jake, JAKE!” and the dog would then show up and try to chase me as I rode. Not mean, but persistent to the point of grabbing my horse’s tail! He was totally unsocialized by clueless owners. Two other neighborhood pets were sweet though not really obedient.(One owner would point to the little bump on the back skull and say “That is his brain!”) Owners had difficulty providing the exercise they needed. The show dog had more training but maintained that goofy attitude. He once got away while being groomed at a show and created havoc bounding though the grooming area, jumping on tables! He was happy and unrepentant when caught. 
All of the ones I have known have been VERY sweet but duuuuuuuuuumb :lol:
I’ve really only known the show ones, though. Hunting lines would be less brainless?
Dumb, for sure. Most are good natured and goofy, but they are thick skulled. And as with other dogs that have been inbred, there are some bad temperments. But they are pretty!
I have known of two, separately. Both were friendly, but constantly moving. I hate saying a dog is dumb, but with a husky, it always felt like he knew what he was supposed to do, but challenging you. The Irish Setters just looked at you and kept moving. Friendly, but I don’t recall them ever coming up to people to be scratched. Just constant motion.
My Boxer is certainly not dumb - when she chooses - but otherwise, at 18 months, she’s not shown a lot of desire to do my bidding and attend to my every whim…we love her, tho., and a friendlier dog you could not find…she’s sort of the therapy dog in our dog group, helping out all the street dogs who are damaged and nobody knows their stories. She presents in an open and unthreatening manner, and they all respond to that.
I am a back yard breeder and proud of it - got our first Jack Russell from the Portman Hunt in 1977 and had a succession of lovely, good JR babies since. Not one was hyper, or a dud.
We had an Irish Setter growing up…sweet but dumb and hard to contain is an understatement. He was a wizard at escaping and immediately managed to find water…came home a bedraggled mess. At one point we found him over 10 miles away.
Really sweet dog though.
If I was going to get a setter, I’d be looking at the Gorgons. They seem to be a bit more laid back and perhaps a bit more intelligence than the Irish. Because the Gordons are less popular, I consider that a good thing that some of the “popularity” health risks might be minimized (you still need to, IMO, check out the respective national breed registries for each and see what their health risks are and what proactive health tests can be done; then make sure you are getting from a breeder that supports and does that testing).
Going purebred doesn’t guarantee a good, health quality dog. The breeder needs to support those goals as well
FWIW, I don’t think the size of the dog has any direction relation to their cost
