To protect under belly from any rough bracken, is my guess .

Can't see why it would look strange though.

The main thing is that he is OK and you did, of course, take the best dog home

Errm i said it looks strange TO ME

Just the length of it distorts the outline of the dogs and makes them look a different shape to what they actually are
and when I saw the dogs moveing it looks like a heavy curtain that slightly impeeds the dogs movement

If you are used to seeing dogs looking like that then of course it would not look odd - I am not used to seeing dogs with such long hair on their chests so of course it looks odd to me

eta - its not an insult or a complaint just a comment - the very first time I saw a poodle it looked odd to me, I liked it - but it looked odd
Strange/odd whatever are not 'bad' automatically, just different to what I am used to seeing

I can imagine that was disappointing but at least you and he got there and he is fine.

He looks gorgeous xxxxxx

I am glad Henry is better now. Such a shame he went lame for a short while.

Such a shame the handsome Henry went lame but good that he recovered quickly and is OK. xx

Thank you for all your lovely replies, he is fine in himself, totally oblivious as to how upset I was at the time

Jackie, it would have been Amanda Goldby you were talking to, I have known her and her hubby for years, they have the Shadymoor affix


I'm not sure if you know but setters are deep chested breeds, like the greyhounds, so we don't necessarily leave the hair to grow that long, it just follows the body line and, the deeper the chest the more a dog looks like it has longer hair than a different breed. If you look at Hen, the only things I trim on him are his ears, neck, feet and hocks plus a bit of the length of the tail to balance him out. Everything else on him is completely natural, just as nature intended

He has a spring of ribs that gives that rounded appearance, and the breast bone is quite well pronounced, which is why the hair seems to stick out at the front.

So, although he is trimmed for the show ring, basically, the shape you see is what is underneath him and what he is made like. I hope that explains it

Thank you for taking the time to explain, yes I think the hair sticking out in the front is possibly what looked the oddest to me - so thanks for explaining.
I did know they were deep chested - and he does look like a healthy handsome fellow

I'm sorry that you're moment of glory in the ring didn't quite work out as you intended, such a shame after all the work you must have done before to get him looking good, but look on it as a practice for next year

Thanks for explaining that because, like Pam, I was wondering about it, and TBH it did look funny, and I was also thinking it must be a nightmare when he runs through muddy puddles etc. but if you say that the hairs are not abnormally long then I guess it's something you have to get used to with Setters.

Just as nature intended, that's the key to good show ring performance. Fingers crossed for next year then.

Yep that's her, lovely lady had a nice chat.