the countess' two dogs

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (PD)

England, 1787: here's "The Countess of Effingham with Gun and Shooting Dogs," and I get the sense she's been telling those two to whoa and stay for a a while.  They want to go back to the field and work, clearly.
The definition of a shooting or gun dog is one that is bred to help retrieve game, usually birds.  They may be retrievers, flushing dogs, or pointers:  they go fetch the bird, or they run up and make the bird fly out of its cover, or they point out exactly where the bird is hiding.  I can't tell which sort these are (Setters? They are big enough) but they are a handsome pair.
George Haugh executed this piece; I do believe this portrait by Benjamin West shows the same woman 10 years later.