Customer Reviews

Irish Setters (Complete Pet Owners Manual)

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This book is MUCH FOR THE "BEGINNER-FIRST OWNER VS an experienced dog lover.
It seems to be fairly outdated AND elementary.
Hopefully, Someone will publish an update, especially since it has been years and the Breed, training and techniques have "progressed

Inexpensive and OK for just laying the "groundwork"

This author obviously loves Irish Setters, not just dogs in general. It's well written and arranged for quick reference

This soft cover book is attractive in appearance but it lacks many things. It has no information on major genetic diseases and research being done in universities to catalog and eventually be able to control or do away with these serious diseases. Fortunately you can go on the American Kennel Website for this kind of information.

This book tells you about purchasing, caring for, nutrition, breeding, behavior and training, just like it says on the very first page.
I ordered this book hastily and mostly because there were only about one or two books on Irish Setters, I really had no choice and got this one out of desperation.

It has very few photographs.

It is the standard and boring book on dogs.

BUT ... in the chapter on "Raising Quality Irish Setters" it does have a very short information and warning. The author writes, "Study canine genetics and learn about dog breeding in depth." And the author continues, "You should have your dog's hips, eyes, and possibly other areas checked for any conditions that may be genetic in origin and thus could be passed along." Here the author could have gone into more details about these possible genetic diseases. But since this book is "A Complete Pet Owner's Manual", I suppose detailed information on genetic diseases is not supposed to be included in the book.

So be it, it is 2007 and thankfully we do have the internet where all this information is very available to us. I have never owned an Irish Setter and before I ever go out and get one, I want to know what I am getting into. I want to know if they get epilepsy for example, ... especially if I get the dog from a shelter! I won't know it's lineage or who bred it, I won't know what disease it could get.

With my husband Bruno's Doberman Pinschers, at least we know who bred them and what diseases their parent's died from, and we are "prepared" for these possibilities, having them routinely medically examined and participating in genetic testing.

The other thing that is lacking in this book is cute anecdotes of the daily pranks and ways of Irish Setters, probably because the author did not have his own dog while writing the book. Instead he consulted with three breeders for information on the dogs. Because of this, the book is in such need of personal accounts, heart warming accounts, making the book rather sterile.

In preparation for adding an Irish Setter to our family - I found this book to be extremely helpful. Very up front on who and why you should get one of these beautiful dogs.