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Irish Red and White Setter — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Irish Red and White Setter

Temperament: Friendly, biddable, and energetic. The Red and White is closer to its working roots than the solid Irish Setter and retains strong bird-hunting instincts. Affectionate with family, good with other dogs, and needs serious daily exercise.
Height: Males: 24.5-26 inches (62-66 cm), Females: 22.5-24 inches (57-61 cm)
Weight: Males: 55-75 pounds (25-34 kg), Females: 35-60 pounds (16-27 kg)
Life Span: 11-15 years
Outlier Index ?
0.31
Born before 2016: 0.28 Born after 2024: —
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
-0.01
Born before 2016: -0.01 Born after 2024: —
Internal Relatedness ?
0.01
Born before 2016: 0.03 Born after 2024: —
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Dubliner Canberra F 0.61 -0.28 0.36
2 Simply Red and White Lord Cashel M 0.30 0.06 -0.17
3 Simply Red and White Sherlock Scott M 0.29 0.05 -0.10
4 Simply Red and White Shane M 0.21 0.07 -0.05
5 Simply Red and White Lady Jane Gwynith F 0.38 0.00 -0.05
6 Rock'n'Roll Girl Shadow Dog F 0.32 0.02 -0.05
7 Silroxaya's Ava F 0.36 -0.04 0.00
8 Silverline BJs One For The Money F 0.30 -0.06 0.13
9 Caniscaeli's Encore M 0.25 -0.02 0.09
10 Celtic-Red and White Osprey F 0.34 -0.05 -0.01
The Irish Red and White Setter is actually the older of the two Irish setter varieties - the solid red Irish Setter was developed from it by selecting for color in the 19th century. As solid red took over the show ring and the popular imagination, the Red and White was left behind and came very close to extinction by the early 1900s. A handful of Irish breeders, notably starting in the 1920s, pulled together what dogs remained and rebuilt the breed from a tiny base. The modern worldwide population descends from that rescue effort and remains small. The breed was recognized by the FCI in 1989 and by the AKC in 2009, later than most setters.
Canine leukocyte adhesion deficiency (CLAD) is the main Mendelian concern and a DNA test is available. Progressive retinal atrophy, hip dysplasia, and von Willebrand disease also occur. Like other large deep-chested breeds, Red and Whites are at elevated risk for gastric dilatation-volvulus (bloat).
VGL has reported Red and Whites carrying an average of around 6.55 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 3.30. Those numbers are modest but respectable given how close the breed came to disappearing. The usual pattern shows up - a subset of alleles dominates, and the rarer ones need deliberate attention to keep them in circulation. VGL testing has found Red and Whites with observed heterozygosity very close to expected, giving an inbreeding coefficient near zero. Given the tight 20th-century bottleneck the breed came through, that breed-wide balance is a reasonably good sign. Individual IR values still spread widely and breeders should keep prioritizing less related pairings to keep the gap from reopening.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Irish Red and White Setter dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1008
56.4%
1175
14.1%
1201
10.3%
1006
6.4%
1011
5.1%
1069
2.6%
1014
1.3%
1134
1.3%
1202
1.3%
1211
1.3%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2052
39.7%
2012
21.8%
2007
20.5%
2035
10.3%
2005
5.1%
2045
2.6%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1008 2052
39.7%
1008 2012
16.7%
1175 2007
14.1%
1201 2035
10.3%
1006 2007
6.4%
1011 2012
5.1%
1069 2045
2.6%
1014 2005
1.3%
1134 2005
1.3%
1202 2005
1.3%
1211 2005
1.3%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.