Our First Setters

Our attachment to setters began when our first dog, Simon (pictured above), was older and I saw a litter of Gordon Setters. I knew I was drawn to setters, and Mac (Dornoch's Ralph McPhail) came to live with us from 1980 until his death twelve years later.

Our first showdog arrived in 1985. That was Arion's Stellar Dahlia. Dahlia's first day in the ring as a puppy gave her Puppy Group. However it was shortly after that she was attacked by a Springer as she was exiting the ring. We didn't force the issue, as this experience resulted in a real fear of the entrance to showrings, so she did not finish her Ch.

It was left to her daughter Jasmine (Ch. Caniscaeli Jasmine Flower) and son Woody (Ch. Caniscaeli Arion Woodruff) to be the stars in the showring. They were born in 1987 and are both gone now.

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We kept Jasmine's son Tommy (Caniscaeli Tom's The Berries) but unfortunately Tommy was diagnosed with congenital kidney disease as a puppy and never finished his Championship. Like his dam and granddam, Tommy was very birdy, and it was in the field that we focussed with Tom, so that he might get the most enjoyment possible from his short life.

We brought one of Woody and Jasmine's sisters home at age five. Caniscaeli Pennyroyal (Penny) did obedience and pet therapy until Penny died at age 10 of cancer. Photos of Penny on sit-stay and Penny doing pet therapy.

We still have an English Setter though. One of Tommy's littermates was returned from a pet home in 1999 at five years of age, and Louie is our biggest couch potato, now ten years old.

Louie was the last of the Caniscaeli English Setters. Born on Aug. 16, 1994, died on Oct. 20, 2007.