"At their best, the lines of the Irish Setter so satisfy in overall balance that artists have termed it the most beautiful of all dogs. The correct specimen always exhibits balance, whether standing or in motion. Each part of the dog flows and fits smoothly into its neighboring parts without calling attention to itself."

From the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail the dog should show balance. Balance is more than skin deep. The angles of the dog should be balanced both in length and symmetry. The more angles an animal has, the harder it is to maintain balance. You can't have balance without proper angles. For example, a dog can have great layback but no upper arm return and a great thigh with a long stifle; even though it may  look "pretty" it can't move balanced and smoothly.

"The make and fit of all parts and their overall balance in the animal are rated more important."  This is because without balance you just have a jumble of parts stuck together on a frame with hair.  The standard calls for balance, beginning with the dog's head. The  head planes should be of equal length and the head should fit into the neck, which in turn should flow into the body smoothly. The only way the neck can flow into the body smoothly is for all of the parts, head, neck and shoulders, to be balanced. The shoulder should be well laid back giving the neck a proper place to set upon. The upper arm should be of the same length as the shoulder blades in order for the dog to reach from the shoulder instead of the elbow. When viewed from the front, the dog should be balanced and smooth with nothing sticking in or out that calls attention from neighboring parts.

"Angulation of the forequarters and hindquarters should be balanced."  Properly laid back shoulders do not stick out from the body but rather fit smoothly from the neck  into the back without a break. The length of the back should be slightly longer than tall to permit a straight and free stride. The rear should consist of angles whose length  is equal and these angles, in turn, should be equal with the front angles. You can have a dog with a terrific front, balanced angles, but if the rear does not have the same angles the dog will move in two pieces. The same lack of balance is exhibited when a dog has excessive rear angulation which does not match the front. The result of this lack of balance is a dog that must scramble when it moves and lift its front and to make way for its rear

When a dog starts to move, you can see whether it is balanced or not from its first step into a trot. A balanced dog will trot easily and effortlessly with nothing drawing your eye away from the overall picture.  A balanced dog is often overlooked because it is not extreme and therefore the picture it presents when moving is clean and smooth rather than kicking and bouncy. When the dog moves correctly, it reaches forward with its forearm extending from the shoulder down to the foot with no break. Correct reach  means that the dog will pull the ground in underneath itself  with no appearance of a hackney gait. The rear legs will extend far from the body. The hind legs should extend fully from the hip to the foot with no curves or breaks. To see a balanced dog in full stride, both legs are extended from the body in a straight line, smoothly, with little motion or lifting. As breeders it is our responsibility  to better the breed by breeding balanced dogs that will work well in all areas rather than breeding  for extremely angled dogs whose appearance on the stack may look pretty but fail to function properly when on the move.

When you view a dog  moving from the front or rear there should be nothing moving out of a perpendicular line, nothing falling or tuning in or out. The front legs should reach well forward and fall naturally  into line. The rear legs should drive smoothly with the hocks showing no movement out of the straight line that verges towards a single track as speed increases. You should be able to watch the movement from the first step into a trot and see no movement out of that straight and perpendicular line to the ground, no movement of elbows, hocks or pasterns.

A dog with a correct gait is free form distracting movements yet powerful and effortless at the same time. The power comes from a balanced length of back with depth of body reaching down to or below the elbows with little to no space between the body and its limbs. At times, a dog may have a powerful side gait without depth of body. Such a combination creates what I like to call " a banded together" appearance. The limbs act as though they are tied on with rubber bands and as the legs extend into this ample side gait the bands stretch because there is not great muscle that holds them close and makes them efficient. When this happens, we see an elevated gait with limbs extended away from the body with no rear purpose other than to look fancy. This is why Afghan Hounds have so much side gait, they lack the depth of body to ground them.

To keep the gait low to the ground and still effortless we go back to balance and look at the overall make and fit of the dog. Breeders should not breed for more upper arm return or more layback but breed for a dog that has balance without extremes. I am not saying that we should not  breed for good fronts, but we should keep them in balance with the rear. Don't sacrifice any one part of the dog in order to gain another. Look at your dog and be open minded and then look for a dog with qualities in the area your dog is lacking and breed for a balanced dog. Quality judge the dog you look at instead of fault judging them and see who has the best parts overall.

I see time and time again where people pick a dog apart saying he doesn't have this or that. Well, what he does have is what should concern you as a breeder. The faults stick out in your mind because that is what is throwing the dog out of balance. A dog will have many faults no matter how you want to look at it but the standard calls for overall balance. Look at the whole picture of a dog, take your wandering eye away from those parts that may fascinate you and look at the whole picture. The first thing that draws your eye away from that picture is not always a quality. You should have to work to fault a dog instead of work to find good in the dog. First impressions are priceless and we all know that it is very hard to change our minds once we have set them but step back a minute and look at the dog as if it was a painting that you have but a minute to view and appreciate the qualities. Look at a magazine picture from a distance and blur your eyes a bit to where you can just see an overall outline, does the dog look like an Irish Setter? Now, as you start to focus what calls out to you and why, is it extreme? The longer your eye stays focused on the whole picture the more balanced the dog is, nothing is drawing your eye away.

The same goes for a dog on the move. Step back and look at the whole picture instead of how long it takes a dog to move around the ring. Watch the whole body and how all the parts flow together to make up the picture. Your eye may be drawn to a dog with extreme angles because you are taught extension, extension, extension but they forget to mention what the dog does to get to that extension. Smooth effortless movement should please your eye from the start with each step backing up the first in symmetry as the ground just falls away. Nice, easy, effortless with nothing drawing your eye away. When your eye is drawn away something is out of balance. If you are drawn to an extended rear kicking off the body it is because it is over powering the front and therefore your eye is taken away from the front and drawn to the rear. If a lifting front draws your eye away from the rear it is because it broke the picture frame. Since no dog is perfect, your eye is going to get drawn away sometime; however, you will find yourself fast knowing what dog you like best, because you keep trying to find something out of balance and you can't.

Christy Marley

Wildrose Irish Setters, Wildroseis@aol.com

http://www.oocities.org/wildroseirishsetters