When these puppies grow up, they’ll have 500 years of carefully bred strength, stamina, and grace coursing through their veins, attributes that will help them do their job. The eagerest among them will be able to cover land so fast and with such single minded eagerness, that a sudden stop will surely leave smoking scorch marks in the grass, but stop they will in the execution of their job.

As adults, their long muzzles will direct scent from their nostrils to their brain, and their long necks will enable them to look over brushes and weeds for signs of movement. Tight paws are important for them because some of them will be working on their feet a lot, and the soundness for which their breeder strove will manifest itself in balanced angulation that will allow these puppies to stop-and-start all day long. They will love every minute of it.

As grown-ups, their feathered coat – straight, silky, and fine – will resist weeds and briars. Sound minds, cultivated by early socialization, as well as exposure to a variety of environmental sounds, smells, and surfaces, will serve these puppies when they are called upon to make independent decisions in the field far from their owner. They will, however, also need to rely on their intuition which generations of good breeding gives them. Without it, they would lack good sense, and might not be able to read different situations, qualities that will make them wonderful companions.

These one-week old babies are English Setters, and those tiny little bodies will grow up to be classic gun dogs. If trained to cast at specific distances, they can run in a systematic, rhythmic and methodical pattern. They’re also capable of racing down a field edge or a wood line like a wide receiver running for a touchdown.  The physician and cynologist, Dr. John Caius, regarded the emerging English Setter so highly that he chronicled them in his famous book, Englishe Dogges: The Diuersities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties“  back in 1576.

Our thanks to Sharon Skelly for her “baby picture.” Photo of adult English Setter from depositphotos.