The English Setter was originally bred to set or point game birds. From the best available information, it appears that the English Setter became a highly trained bird dog in England more than 400 years ago!

Wikipedia contributors, 'English Setter,' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_Setter&oldid=180902818 (accessed January 8, 2008). Photograph by I, Lilly M [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or. CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons