Beyond the ordinary

Springset bred it's first Gordon Setter litter in 1955, and now has finished what it set out to do in 2025. Springset's passion was to save the breed as a field dog, to flood the gene pool with the necessary genes to do so. We have accomplished that task. Now it is time to let the future field Gordon Setter breeders pick up that task and to continue to see it through.

The creators of the Springset Gordon Setter not only thought of the dog as a field performer (and kept strongly in mind the 1935 GSCA Standard for the breed), but also as a very well rounded, trustworthy family member who was considered an asset to their family and not an ass. Our dogs, male and female, were trustworthy around infants, non-aggressive (males sharing food bowls and even being next to bitches in heat without so much as a growl), and just plain non-annoying to be around.  Temperament was our first concern and field ability our second concern. We thought about every aspect of the dog as we bred them, looking to build a dog from every point imaginable, knowing that a breeder can, with some work, oust non-desirable genes (such as consistent barking). 

Our field ability is sublime; our dogs hunting anything and anywhere in the world, proven many times over and able to reproduce it. Our dogs start very early with hardly any training (mostly bonding with its owner), going on first successful hunts as early as 4-6 months of age. While we honed our dogs field ability with field trials of the past (which are quite different from today's field trials), our main concern was that of the hunter, who the dogs were built for by the Duke of Gordon so many years ago. A meat dog, a companion, an intelligent friend and hunting partner, is what we strove for. After breeding over 5,000 Gordon Setters, and having them in 29 countries, it is safe to say that we have done our job.