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The Irish Setter – The Setter of the Emerald Isle. What a joy to behold this flash, red fellow with his big gait, driving smoothly from the rear with that vision of length and strength from hip to hock. His is a glamorous silhouette, and a good one presented beautifully, is darned hard to go past in the show ring. The Irish Setter takes a bit of understanding for his best grooming and a decided effort to put in the hard yard between shows.
Your Irish is a bit of a busy dog and because of his exuberance tends to end up messier than most, gathering up bits of the yard like a moving compost heap. The secret is to keep the coat oiled to prevent damage.
Between the shows I strongly recommend oiling and rehydrating their coat. The best results we have found is by using Plush Puppy Seabreeze Oil. Dilute 1 tablespoon into 2 Litres of water and add 1 tablespoon of Plush Puppy Coat Rescue. Work this well into the coat with a sponge or carefully pour over and squish well through. LEAVE IN – DO NOT RINSE.
This allows the benefits of the Plush Puppy Seabreeze Oil to hydrate and protect the coat combined with the coat strengthening and protection of the Coat Rescue.
For males daily rinse the pee feathers and reapply. For the girls use every week and if needed reapply to featherings. This is a bad area for breakage. Keeping it oiled will help to prevent the coat getting brittle or tangled and will dissuade the accumulation of debris from the yard.
Seabreeze Oil is a super oil as it is water soluble and won’t build up or be nasty to live with. It is also all naturally derived and there is nothing quite like it. Love the depth of colour it tends to add to the coat and the wonderful healthy vigour that goes with continued use.
Now for the show grooming and your standard calls for the coat and feathering to be as straight and free as possible from curl or wave. It also states that the texture be fine and silky.
Wash the coat with Plush Puppy All Purpose Shampooo with Henna diluted 1:3 (1 part shampoo to 3 parts water). This is the shampoo for high shine due the infusion of high quality natural henna extracts and works particularly wonderful on reds.
Then condition with the Plush Puppy Silk Protein Conditioner also diluted at 1:3 (1 part Conditioner to 3 parts water).
You can dilute both further but I like the intensity of the shine from the shampoo at this dilution and the silkiness of the conditioner for the show occasion.
Rinse the conditioner 90% out just leaving in a small amount for the softness and to allow for the heat of the dryer. Okay here’s where the harder stuff begins.
The head and expression is an important part of the breed. Use Plush Puppy Let’s Face It. This is a hypoallergenic sulfate free low foaming shampoo designed for faces. It’s a nil fragrance, no tear formula that cleans, sooths, adds moisture, aids healing and has anti-inflammatory benefits. A small golf ball sized amounts directly to the face and eye area allows you to thoroughly clean without causing irritation. Can be used in and around ears also with the same benefits. Its low foaming design allows easy rinsing yet complete cleaning. Best used first and left on whilst using all other shampoos and rinsing off with the final shampoo rinse.
In order to get that soft draping fall to the lengths without wave, use Plush Puppy Swishy Coat at the recommend dilution below, as you have a large dog and it is easier to get even dispersion throughout the coat this way.
Dilute 1 tablespoon into 750ml of water. You can dilute more or less as required for the texture of your coat at the time of use. Sponge or pour thoroughly through the coat ensuring even distribution. Squeeze out excess and blow dry. Use the Plush Puppy Ultimate Pin Brush for this as you don’t want to rip the coat or overstretch at this point. When ¾ dry, switch to an oval ½ bristle ½ dialon brush such as the Plush Puppy Ultimate Anti-Static Porcupine Brush.
This will give you that smoother, straighter and glossier finish to your drying that the pin brush won’t do. You need also to get in under the lengths with the brush and gently bend the ends around the curve of the brush. I never entirely dry with a top brushing action only. This just flicks the short pieces in the coat outwards and gives that fly away look to the coat. You are after a polished professional look that once you have mastered, is just breathtaking.
Finish with a Plush Puppy Professional Grooming Comb, built for absolute ergonomic comfort in various sizes. The lightweight oval shaped spine combining fine and coarse pins made of hardened stainless steel with anodic oxide finish that reduces drag and static to the coat. Perfect for use for this breed of dog.
When drying I lightly mist the coat with Plush Puppy OMG. I like to use a mixture of 1 part OMG Concentrate to 30 parts water. And for show day itself, use your mix of Plush Puppy OMG again as a fabulous grooming spray. As a concentrate it can be diluted to suit every coat type or individual situation. OMG reduces static and allows for easy show day prep and won’t build up on the coat. This stuff just sells itself! It allows grooming without causing any drag and damage to the coat.
At times due to various reasons including the weather static electricity can create flyaways. If this occurs use Plush Puppy Anti-Static Coat Control. This is a lightweight spray is infused with organic extracts that offers a UV filter to stop sun damage and protect against heat strength for the perfect finished look of the coat.
The trimming is relatively easy but does need attention and time. There are those who are the purists and don’t like a trimmed neater look and those that do. Whatever is your preference and whether as in the AKC standard which does stipulate trimming is required or the ANKC standard where it doesn’t mention it at all and does not therefore penalise you for doing it. It is entirely up to you whether you do it, and how much you do it. This is up to the individual.
The nape of the neck ought to be hand stripped in concert with a stripping knife and the use of extremely fine thinning scissors to blend. All whiskers should come right off to emphasise that long and lean head. Some like to get in with the blade of the clipper and emphasise this further along the whisker area, with long strokes stroking back and upwards.
The topline ought to sit flat and should need relatively little stripping. The ears some like to take almost right off and others just the top 1/3 off depending on which standard is applicable.
For the featherings use the thinning shears and following the desired arc, gently shape that edge for a softer effect giving a fairly natural look to the curve. All excess feathering is to be removed from the feet but I am advised by an expert that the rear hock looks just wonderful when trimmed. You angle the line slightly outwards as you go upwards and then angle downwards from the top of the hock to meet the upward line already created. This gives the illusion of a really long line from the hip to the hock thus enforcing the requirements of the standard.
Show day spray with your grooming spray mix of Plush Puppy OMG for brushing and refreshing the feathers.
For a final boost of shine and lustre, spray a light mist of Plush Puppy Shine and Comb 30cm above the coat and let the mist fall onto the coat. By keeping shine to the coat, you instantly give the appearance of deeper and richer colour as the light reflects off a smoother surface better than a rough surface.
I do like a dusting of Plush Puppy Pixie Dust just lightly applied on strategic areas with your Plush Puppy Ultimate Powder Application Brush. The secret is just a dusting and not to turn it into the glitter fairy.
Lastly a quick spray with Plush Puppy Odour Muncher. It literally munches the odour and works well for smelly problems such as emergencies in transit. Leaves a light fragrance – certainly not too much and definitely not too little.
He may not be in Ireland and you may not be Irish, but the dog now will at least look the absolute essence of an Irish Setter. I do like this breed and I hope you all present them as they ought to be, glamorous and magnificent.
Plush Puppy Australia
