An Irish Setter's training needs to start as early as possible with a lot of emphasis being placed on the "recall" command as previously mentioned. They are not hard to train, but their mischievous nature paired to a strong instinct to hunt can prove too much for them at times. However, with a lot of patience and gentle persuasion, the Irish Setter can be trained and some dogs compete and even excel when they take part in obedience trials.
The thing to bear in mind, is that Irish Setters are sensitive dogs by nature and therefore they do not respond well to any sort of harsh training or correction. The breed is also slow to mature physically and mentally which has to be taken into account when training them. Pushing a dog too hard will not achieve good results. However, these setters are also known to be independent dogs and at times they can be a little stubborn and hardheaded.
