Mythen Irish Setters

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Gwynnie joined us when she was 10 months old. She was already showing how special she truly was when she was shown before coming here and won First in Class in Specialty, Best Puppy in Specialty and Best in Juvenile Sweepstakes at the Irish Setter Club of British Columbia's Specialty. These were clearly an indication of things to come. 

She has a high prey drive and is a huge cuddler. I call her my couch potato because she is quite happy to lounge around when she is inside. Outside is a whole different thing though! She was a chicken chaser prior to joining us and we also have a flock of chickens so she had to be retrained that chickens were "babies" not "birds" and she was to leave them alone. She is very bright and a quick learner but if the birds are flighty at all she could easily forget her manners. She truly loves the chickens, and loved the 3 cats that she has been raised with but in the deep recesses of her mind they are play-things! When you spend time with Gwynnie you realize that she has such a personality! She is stubborn to a fault but is quick to bring humour into any situation. She LOVES people (especially kids), other animals and car rides. She reminds me of "Tigger" when she's in her silly state.

Physically Gwynnie has a beautiful self-stack, well-sprung ribs, a lovely head and croup. I have never seen a dog with more expression than she has! She is a deep, rich mahogany colour with a shiny, healthy coat. She has a tendency to put on extra weight in the winter because she is such a couch potato so we reduce her feed by a tiny amount and increase her activity levels. :)  If she thinks she has been caught doing something wrong (or if she just plain doesn't want to "hear" you) she squints at you to try to make you disappear or she pretends to be asleep... fake snores and all!!! Her favourite thing to do is chase Whimsy and grab her by the tail to slow her down. Her second favourite thing to do is sneak up on our bed when we are downstairs and roll around all over it until it looks unmade. She likes to gather up toys and stuffed animals and put them near her where she sleeps.

Gwynnie is somewhat birdy and attended a field training day a few months after she joined our family. I think she was a bit afraid to show much interest at the time as it was shortly after her chicken retraining course. In 2019 we focused on other things but we would love to try out some field work in the future. Gwynnie has had a Sprinter "fun run" and was eager and fast! Hopefully we can attend a Sprinter Event soon so she can earn points towards her title. Unfortunately, she isn't allowed to participate if she is in season and as luck would have it she has been in season at the same time as the Sprinter events we would have been able to enter her into since then. As I said in my first paragraph, when Gwynnie was a puppy she won lovely ribbons at the Irish Setter Club of British Columbia's Specialty for: First in Class in Specialty; Best Puppy in Specialty; Best in Juvenile Sweepstakes; and First in Class - Juvenile Sweepstakes!!! As there aren't many Irish Setters being shown in the Maritimes, our Whimsy has been her only competition (except for one show) so the points are earned one at a time. Therefore we haven't shown her very often in Nova Scotia.

Finally, we decided to take the girls to a more competitive show to see how they would do with some competition, give them some exposure and so we could learn a lot more. So we headed to Ontario to the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Dog Association's shows in August, 2019. It was our first time hiring a handler (thank you so much, Noreena Seery) and so well worth it. Gwynnie was very competitive in the Irish Setter Club of Canada's Specialty that weekend placing 1st in her Canadian Bred class of 2.  She was also very competitive in the Ottawa Valley All Setter Association Specialty (2nd) and the All-Breed Championships (coming in 1st in the two events in which she was entered) that same weekend. However, the most exciting for us was her unexpected HUGE win - Best of Winners in the Ottawa Valley Pointing Club Specialty! This meant she was the best non-champion - beating 13 other Irish Setters for that ribbon, earning the maximum 5 points towards her Canadian Championship. Sadly, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we haven't attended any other shows since the August show in 2019 so we still look forward to her obtaining her Championship (she only needs 2 points and the major is out of the way now. We do hope to get her to a show in Spring 2022 to finish off her Championship.