Welcome
“Ruffed grouse dogs are bred, not born, and once born they are developed."
-George Bird Evans, An Affair with Grouse
About Us
Thoughtful Breeders
We are a thoughtful, family breeder of “Ryman type” hunting English Setters, primarily suiting our own needs in the field. Note we choose to say Ryman type, as George Ryman, a market hunter at the turn of the century, who later bred dogs for the foot hunter that in his own words were “….fit to shoot over in the field on game, and the kind that are fit to look at or have about the home the balance of the year…” has long since passed. It is also worth noting that in our opinion a focus on function, ability, temperament and health , is more important to the survival of this wonderful subset of English Setters than the name of kennel and or bloodline.
To that thesis, our intention is to be more aggressive with outcrosses every few generations to All Age / National Champions…such as Shadow Oak Bo, or repeat Champions of wild bird cover dog trials. Most performance traits regress toward the mean rather rapidly, and as they say greatness tends to disappear by the 3rd generation.
So what will be familiar, what will be different with our dogs?
The familiar is what probably drew us all to Ryman type Setters to begin with, their intelligence, beauty, calm affectionate demeanor, biddability, and caution with wild birds.
What is different, and accomplished by outcrosses exclusively to repeat wild bird trial champions? We are looking for a dog that is close working in the grouse woods, but when hunting quail stretches range out 200yards, and when out on the prairie in search of Chikins & Sharptails extends its range out to the 400+ yard mark. Along those same lines we are looking to improve on the heat tolerance and athleticism of more traditional Ryman lines, hoping for males that are 50-60lbs max and females in the 40-50lb range.
All of our dogs are tested on wild birds, Grouse in the Northeast & Ontario, Quail home in NJ, Pheasants and Sharptails on the Prairie…and in my opinion perhaps the toughest test of all, Prairie Chikins in the Nebraska Sandhills.
A great deal of effort and expense is required to offer our pups this type of exposure form our home base in NJ…not very far out of NYC. There are however, some advantages to having grown up in the area, a primary one learning and benefiting from the great work done with trial setters from Grouse Ridge, to Ryman bulwarks such as Pine Coble kennels as well as others in Pennsylvania, all within a 2 hour ride of our home.
We are also very fortunate to live so close to NYC, yet have access to just under 2000 private, actively managed acres of quail habit in NJ 2 hours to our South…and approximately 2 hours to our North in the NW Catskills, hundreds of acres of land that we own and manage exclusively for timber harvest and Ruffed Grouse & Woodcock habitat. Between exposure to varied habitat and wild birds, and the loving hustle bustle of a home with many dogs and 4 young children…our pups have seen it all.
Happy, Healthy Bloodline
All of our setters evaluated for breeding have OFA certified hips, elbows, BAER hearing test at a minimum, and are both Field Dog Stud Book & AKC registered.
Next Litter
Our next litter will be Spring 2023, with one of our females bred to a National Grouse Champion.
Photo Gallery
01/18
Puppies!!
Switchgrass Bailey whelped 7 healthy pups sired by Grand National Grouse Champion Full Blast
Contact Us
Switchgrass English Setters
switchgrassenglishsetters@gmail.com 100 Summit St Norwood, NJ 07648
Switchgrass English Setters
Copyright © 2021 Switchgrass English Setters - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder