WORKING AIREDALE TERRIER ASSOCIATION
Clint Stubbe
PO Box 106
Winlaw, British Columbia
Canada V0G 2J0
email
 Kevin G. Kelly
PO Box 228
Boulder Creek, California
95006
email


Full Cry Column
August 2001

Kevin Kelly - Southern Working Airedale Terrier Association correspondent

Well, here it is, June 2001 and here at the RDR Ranch in Santa Cruz County, California, we are experiencing summer without the benefit of the usual marine layer. It usually does a fine job of acting as a canopy or shade cloth to keep the temperatures in a comfortable range. But this year we went straight to August temperatures, right off the bat. Hot! It rained last week, which is very unusual but was thoroughly enjoyable for humans and dogs. The dog’s seemed to romp around with each other, like little kids in a yard sprinkler. I enjoy the time we spend here at the house as much as the time in the woods (All though I’m glad the time in the woods is the lion’s share.) because here at the house I pay more attention to the dogs, to their personalities and high jinks. We can tell as much about a dog’s intelligence and temperament by the way they play, as well as, by the way they hunt.
     Dennis and Shelley Hescock and I, talked dogs on June 19, 2001. Shelley raises Springer spaniels and has five of them at the moment. She recently bred back to some English stock to get some good bone and intelligence from the sire that she picked. She strikes me as someone who is very conscientious and breeds for the all around dog, not sacrificing important qualities just to emphasize one or two traits.
     Dennis and I talked Airedales and hunting and how much smarter the dogs are at this game than we are. He gets out often with his dogs and sure appreciates how much they come alive on game. He said he hadn’t really planned on doing much bear hunting until his dogs treed one. He said he took one look in their eyes and knew this was something they wanted to do. Bear training season started the first of June and they have been out but not yet treed anything this summer. Dennis, maybe some time this week will be the first one!
     Dennis owns Molly (Bossman/Amy) maybe nine years old and Georgia (Hammer/Lucy) two years old. We talked about the possibility of breeding Georgia to Rhino (Slim/Brisk). Rhino is owned by Ben and Donna Timme and their two boys Ben and Charlie. With Georgia in Vermont and Rhino in Connecticut it seems like a real possibility.
     Dennis and I talked about how we would like to get down to Billy Harkins’ at the same time and do a little hunting with Billy. Maybe get Henry to join us too. Dennis was talking to Billy last March and Billy invited him down, saying the nights were 50 to 60degree’s, the hunting was good and the snakes weren’t out yet. Dennis, at the time, was sitting in four feet of a Vermont winter snow and thought the idea was a good one!
     Good to meet you two, Lets all stay in touch.
     To me, that’s what this column, and this magazine is all about. Staying in touch. We don’t all have to agree on anything. And we can have different desires about the type of Airedales or dogs, we want to live, hunt and work with. But sharing the stories benefits us all.
     I had a good conversation with Donna Timme as well. The whole family seems to be having fun with Rhino. He is a year and a half now and has taken family protection on as one of his chores. Donna said her husband Ben had to give Rhino a subtle lesson about who was OK. If I remember correctly, some relatives, that Rhino had never met, showed up at the front door and Rhino, with a low bark and a quiet growl made sure they passed inspection before they got in. We don’t want dog or people aggression in these Airedales at all. But, it’s sure good to know that they aren’t going to let strangers into our homes or next to our children, without the OK from higher up.
 
     I was looking around the internet the other day and ran across the UKC web page. I thought you might like to read the, UKC Airedale Characteristics:
Airedales are above all fearless, and majestic in appearance. Their courage is unquestioned, but they are not quarrelsome. The Airedale's proud character is denoted in the carriage of ears and tail. They have quick movement and are always ready for action. They are alert and are a good protection and family dog.
Clint has mentioned in the past that it is not necessary to state the obvious about Airedales, their versatility for example. So it may be redundant to print the characteristics above, but I like the description and it is good for folks who are interested in Airedales but don’t know a lot about them. I particularly like the phrase; they are not quarrelsome. It is very important in a working dog that we breed the dogs with the even temperaments. The last thing anyone wants on a hunt is a dogfight! Their courage is unquestioned, but they are not quarrelsome.
     I talked with John Byce of Covington, Georgia. He has a Rocky/Cece pup from Stan Townsend. He waited awhile for the right dog and say’s Casey was worth the wait! She has more personality than any dog I’ve ever owned. I saw Stan’s litter, when he very graciously drove to Lilburn, Georgia so Henry and I could pick out pups for ourselves. I kept a female, we named her Alberta Trickum and Henry picked one, which he named Gringa, for Dave Raber who gave it to his sister to raise in Holmes County, Ohio. I think the idea there is to breed her to Dave’s male Buster (Gurkha/Otter), when she is old enough. Those will be good pups.
 That whole Rocky/Cece litter was a ball of confidence and energy. We unloaded them at my sister Katy and her husband Phil’s place in Lilburn, Georgia after a long drive from Odum, Georgia and they bounded around and investigated all the new smells, new people and the surroundings, as if they slept all the way and were fully rested. All their little tails flying back and forth with that dry fly rod action, that is, an unmistakable trait of that Airedale Spirit! My great nephew and niece were there,(that’s Katie in the picture with Alberta Trickum, as an eight week old pup) and my nephew is Matt, Katies younger brother. At one point after Matt had been sitting on the ground with the puppies bounding all over him, he said with glee; look at all the puppies, there are hundreds and hundreds of them
     John Byce told me that he and a friend of his by the name of Curtis White drove to Dublin, Georgia, which is about half way to Odum. They met Stan Townsend there and picked up Casey. She’s working into a good all around farm dog on John’s property that has been in John’s family since the 1800’s.
     John’s first introduction to the Airedale was a mix that was half Airedale, one quarter St. Bernard and one quarter Lab. The pup was given to the family, by a forester from So. Georgia, when John was 17 or 18. He said; all the good traits in that dog were attributed to the Airedale. They called her Mime and a couple years later bred her to a male Airedale they got from Sparta, Georgia. They kept a female and two males from that litter. I believe Casey is the first Airedale, John has had since that time and he seems very glad to be back in the Airedale game. From the looks of the picture’s he sent, she is a well put together dog. If her intelligence and temperament are any thing like Alberta Trickum’s, they should have a fine time together.
     I found this history of the Airedale Terrier from a Swedish Airedale Terrier Club. I like it because it offers the most extensive list of breeds that most likely went in to the making of the Airedale.
 THE AIREDALE TERRIER'S HISTORY
If any dog has a diffuse background, it's the Airedale Terrier. It seems to start in the middle of the 19th century in west Yorkshire, where miners and textile workers used a dog for hunting and poaching to provide food. A popular game was to participate in water-rat matches, where every dog broke the neck of as many rats as possible on a given time. In these matches teams of terriers joined together.
To make these terriers more skilled and more suitable for water work a lot of different crossbreeds eventually lead to the airedale terrier. Reports on how these crossbreeds were performed are many and varying, but the breeds usually mentioned are the Old English black-and-tan terrier, the scotch terrier (something quite different from todays scotch terrier), Welch fox-hound, otter hound, bullterrier, collie, Dandie Dinmont terrier, Bedlington terrier, Irish terrier and the South-English hunting dog. It's told that the first crossbreed between Otter-hound and English black-and-tan terrier was carried out 1853 by Wilfred Holmes close to Bradford. The old English terrier was not large and the Otter-hound was probably added to upsize the off-spring and to make it work better in water. A larger dog who kept down water-rats was conceived, and it could be used for hunting otter as well.
     Interest for the new breed was rising fast, especially in Yorkshire where it was given local names as Bingley terrier, Otley terrier and Waterside terrier. In a show in the eighteen-sixties there was only one class for wired terriers and there participated dogs who are believed to be early Airedale terriers.

The breed's first standard is not dated, but, is believed to have been created in the middle of the 1870s.  Soon after it was decided to name the breed Airedale terrier (after the river Aire which floats through Yorkshire), and in 1883 this name was used on the breed's own show classes for the first time. In 1885 the breed was accepted by The Kennel Club as an independent breed.
     The English Club National Airedale Terrier Association have had some troubles to decide the breeds "birthday", but in September 1976 plenty of Airedale terrier people from all over the world were gathered in Scarborough, Yorkshire, to celebrate the breed's 100th anniversary. The small country of Sweden became famous among all those people, from some twenty different countries and five continents. You see, Ch Drakehall Dinah owned by our own "Mr Airedale Terrier" Stig Ahlberg, Ragtime airedales - was selected Best in Show !

     There are many places we can find the history of the conception of the breed. At this point it is all conjecture and anyone’s opinion is as good as an other, but this one mentions right off that these miners and textile workers were breeding for a hunting dog that would put food on the table and win the water-matches. Often, all of a week’s pay would be riding on the outcome! These were regular folks breeding the best to the best. It was the best available dog, not picked as the best purebred, but as the best working hunter. It seems likely to me that all of the above breeds were worked into the stew, and probably others. At one point it mentions that they were lumped into a single category called wire-terriers. The variations must have been great.
     Today we can still find many variations of Airedale Terrier, although the differences are subtle. I believe we should breed for the dog that works best for the type of hunting, and the terrain being hunted. We are betting more than a week’s pay on these fine versatile working Airedales. We are betting the future of the breed. This Airedale breeding is about perpetuation of the good working lines, not about personal acquisition.
     I got word from Clint, that the trip to Idaho to breed Lulu (Grit/Maggie) to Chukar (Cajun/Cherokee Rose) paid off with eight beautiful pups, four males and four females. Good luck with the litter and I hope all is well with Lulu. I hear Chukar is passing out bear jerky cigars!
     Here’s another ‘How do they Know’ story about Boru. Last Sunday morning, I was out side early, with Boru, doing a couple small chores, while I was still drinking my morning coffee. I set my cup on the top shelf of the Garden Bench and went down stairs to water Brigid . When I came back up stairs Laurie was sitting on the front deck enjoying the morning, the view and her cup of coffee. That whole scene looked like a nice view to me so, I told her I would ‘go find’ my cup of coffee and join her. Boru took off around the house, and although I didn’t think much of it, I still wondered what he was up to? I went to the back of the house and as I walked around the corner, there was Boru. He had his front paws on the garden bench and his nose was pointing straight at my cup of coffee! I far as I can recollect, I cannot remember having a conversation about coffee with Boru. How Do He Know?
     The quote of the month this time around is: There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. /AynRand.
     A police state is one in which everything is either mandatory or forbidden. I believe the best government is one that is all but non-existent.
     That’s all for this month, remember as Henry S. Johnson Jr. always said: Until next month let me hear from you Airedale people and don’t forget to put your arms around those black and tan dogs with the beards and moustaches and talk to them. They are people dogs and family members. Respectfully submitted, Kevin G. Kelly, RDR Ranch Correspondent for the Working Airedale Terrier Association. No rules, regulations, officer’s, dues or formal affiliations. It’s more a state of mind!
     Clint’s e-mail is airydales@telus.net  My e-mail is rdrairedale@yahoo.com