Llewellin Setter - Registrations

Registrations

When the American Kennel Club was established in 1878, English Setters, together with eight other Sporting breeds, were accepted as the first pure-bred registrations by the Club. The very first dog registered with the AKC and the holder of registration number one was an English Setter named "Adonis". He was born in 1875 and is recorded as sired by "Leicester" out of a bitch named "Dart". His colours were given as black, white and tan. He was owned by his breeder George E. Delano of New Bedford, MA.

English Setters were especially popular during the 1960s, 70s and 80s and registrations of puppies reached 1344 during 1974.

In 2012, the Kennel Club in the UK listed the English Setter amongst the Vulnerable Native Breeds as only 234 puppies were registered. A decade earlier, in 2002, there were 568 English Setter puppies registered. However, during 2012 the number of English Setter puppies registered increased to 314, so the breed was moved to the Kennel Club's "At Watch" list, which is for breeds with registrations from 300–450. The breed is still fairly well represented in Italy, where it is popular as a working gun-dog. Even in Italy, however the breed is in sharp decline, going from 20,999 registrations in 2002, to 14510 registrations in 2011.

In contrast, the American Kennel Club stated that 2011 was the "year of the setters, with all four making big jumps over the past year". English Setters had previously ranked at 101 in 2010 but moved up to 87 in 2011, a position the breed maintained in 2012.