Great topic, one that I need to learn a lot about. I am fortunate that the lady I work for runs her German shorthairs in every venue, field trials, navda, and the show ring. She tells me what she looks for in a dog, and she does a good job of explaining why. I feel she is lucky because, the discrepancy between a show gsp and a field gsp is next to nothing compared to a lot of breeds out there. She is teaching me about angulation bone structure, and overbites. We will sit there when she has a lit of pups and play pick the pup. I tell her the puppy I would pick and why, and then she would show me the one she would pick, she would explain the very small differences between the pups. I am learning a lot, but when you go to a breed like setters there is so much variance between the lines, more than any line I can think of. Cliff was right about the Irish setter, the show ring ruined there dogs, it took a very dedicated group of people to bring them back, and they actually had to outcross to the English setter to bring it back. Every breeder has a different vision on what a perfect dog looks and performs like, that is why when Mr. Ryman passed, that was the end of his dogs, because it was his vision. While others try to duplicate it, there will never be another ryman setter. I like a short coupled dog that has an easy gate, I am a suckerer for a great head, I like good solid bone structure on a pup, and I know it has nothing to do with conformation, but I also like the pup who shows the most energy:) This is why I really love the idea of the ryman get together, I feel it will help the breed tremendously by seeing other dogs and finding more comparable matches to enhance your line, it can be nothing but beneficial in helping to keep the ryman type line alive.
A Community Of Ryman-type Setter Enthusiasts