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There are currently 13 hunt point retrieve breeds recognised by the Kennel Club and more seem to appear every year. This year it was the turn of the Portuguese Pointer.
In 1960 there were just two: The German Longhaired Pointer (144 registrations) and the Weimaraner (70 registrations) and the English Setter had 388 registrations.
Last year the English Setter had 399 registrations. As I said in my post to Paul's original English Setter article the current registrations for the English Setter are actually closer to the historical long term trend than the numbers registered just 20 years ago. Indeed, the high numbers of 20 years ago could be regarded as a temporary blip.
However, in 1960 there were a total of 133,618 dogs registered with the KC meaning the English Setter represented 0.29% of the total dogs registered. Today, it represents 0.15% of the total 271,719 registered dogs.
So, there is an argument that says the English Setter has maintained its historical numbers but has not enjoyed any of the growth in dog ownership over the last 50 years, and presumably most of that growth has been accounted for by newer, foreign breeds, although don't forget the Labrador which has grown from 6,098 registrations in 1960 to 45,233 last year.
The same numbers can be interpreted in many ways and I think the English Setter is one of the more difficult of the heritage breeds to analyse.
By the way, I have been lucky enough to see a trained working GSP and Italian Spinone and they themselves are also a very impressive sight when doing what they were bred for.
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