Activities For English Setters

Agility training is a popular dog sport in which an obstacle course, made up of several obstacles, like jumps, tunnels, and weave poles, is created for dogs to move through as quickly and accurately as possible. This sport is not only physically challenging it also engages the English Setter on a mental level and gives them an opportunity to work closely with people and improve the communication and bond between canine and human. It is important to wait until this dog is fully matured at around a year to fourteen months of age before beginning training on obstacles that require jumping as it can cause permanent damage to the bones and joints. 

While giving your dog food in a regular bowl in a consistent spot is a perfectly acceptable way to feed them, the activity of searching for their supper is an entertaining and alternative way to feed your pooch and to satisfy their innate foraging instinct. The English Setter, in particular, has a tendency to counter surf and is more prone to obesity than many other breeds. One way to help counter this is to make their supper time into a mentally engaging activity which can also help to prevent over-eating in many cases as well as encouraging or dog to get up to look for their supper.

There are many English Setters who are more comfortable in the show ring or on the family couch than in the field, but those who are bred from hunting lines are known for their ability to switch gears when hunting different kinds of birds and for their cooperative natures. They can track and retrieve anything from quail to geese, although they are more commonly used for grassland birds like quail and pheasant than for waterfowl like ducks and geese. There are several fun and educational games and activities that you can share with your English Setter to prepare young pups or novice hunters for the field.