Full Cry Column
December 2001

     Kevin Kelly – Southern Working Airedale Terrier Association Correspondent

      Hello! It’s good to be back.  We have recently gotten our first rains here in the Redwoods of Big Basin, at the RDR Ranch. A light day and a half with fog and overcast, before and after. The temperature drops in the evening now for some good sweater weather. Both the dogs and myself like that a lot. After a good rain the leaves on the ground soften and are much quieter as we move through the woods. Yesterday I made it to a stand I picked out in the woods, up back of the house, with out making much noise or attracting much attention. It was fun trying to get there as quiet as possible and I was pleased with the ground conditions. I sat for awhile enjoying the comings and goings of the forest, feeling somewhat invisible, until a squirrel decided the stump I was sitting on was his stand! Well he started cussing me out and speaking his mind and was soon joined by one of his croanies. I looked up to where the second was scolding from, up over my head, and there was a big nest. About that time a squirrel about thirty yards away joined in the chorus. Soon to be added to the harmony was a chirping about fifty yards in the opposite direction. Well the Raven couldn’t ignore this and they became the background singers. The symphony was in full bravado... so much for blending invisibly into the landscape of the forest.

     I liked the thorough discussion, in Clint’s column, last month about the Redline and Third Quadrant definitions. The terms are very good for clarity in descriptions of different  characteristics. For the most part I believe, as I think most working dogmen and women do, that temperament, intelligence and the working instincts for which your using the dog, are the essential criteria in a breeding program. The physical conformation contributes to the dog’s ability to do the job. His locomotion, agility comes from his conformation. His coat contributes to his purpose. All of these things are a matter of personal choice. The Airedale Terrier is just that; a Terrier. The Redline Dale, I believe is a throw back to the original crosses made in the breed. The Original Stew. I was reading last night in " The New Airedale Terrier " by Dutcher and Framke, a discussion of the early days and breeding; " The problem of evolving a smart, though large, Terrier from the amalgamated tribes of sporting dogdom was no easy one... The descriptions of parents of the best early winners indicated that, the sires were often the large somewhat houndy dogs, but the dams were neat, rather small, very rough coated and sometimes even smooth bitches, fiery and Terrier-like through and through." This description refers to the years after the first crosses were made in Northern England, to the early nineteen hundreds when the Airedale was established but not producing a consistent type.

     I'm not after the slick coated Redline like some of the guys but I sure like their hunting energy, temperament and intelligence and am striving to put it in a hard self keeping coat. The show world has tried to lock him into one particular type based on the fad of the day, which is far from the original, utility Airedale Terrier. If that’s what they want, that’s OK with me. But always we have gotten litters with mixed types, we can all relax now because that’s OK too. Hunt and work the dog you choose!

     The following was an e-mail I received recently from Henry Johnson, another good perspective of the big picture; “For what it is worth, I am fooling around with a lot of terriers these days. There are smooth, broken, and rough coated variations of almost all the terriers, often in the same litter. And they all have their uses and all are considered terriers. And of course there are smooth and rough coated Collies and both types, though shown separately, are recognized as Collies. The variation in Airedale coats is perfectly natural and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. There is room for all types and they are all Airedales. If somebody likes one type over another that is fine. Everybody should be free to do what they want. I like them all but do prefer the third quadrant type and would be breeding for that if I were still breeding Airedales. “ HSJ

     Personally I’m taking the Redline into the Third Quadrant.

     Steve Brown up in Oregon has a litter that’s about ten weeks old, if your reading this in the first week of December. The sire is Dusty and is a pretty good example of what I consider a Third Quadrant/Redline dog. The Dam is Shonie, an extreme fourth quadrant, redline. Dusty’s outward appearance is Third Quadrant all the way but his father Cajun is almost completely Slick and his mother Maggie is Redline on her fathers side. From what Steve tells me he is a very good Airedale and loves to hunt. “Dusty is a nice looking 65 to 70 lb., rough coated Airedale, with facial beard and has intelligent looks and personality.

      He was the only survivor of his litter, as a cold spell unexpectedly blew in and killed all of his littermates, one night. I have never had to shear him since his coat is a low profile curly low maintenance type. It only grows to about 1and1/2 inches in length. He took after his Momma (Maggie ) in looks. His hunt drive is quite good as he will check out everything and is quite game minded, with an extra dose of cat aggression, which I appreciate. He has some retrieving instincts, though I have not worked with him much in that area, but plan to eventually. His temperament is wonderful. .He is just a big kid with a good sense of humor, and is pleasant to have around, and is a good watch dog too. I hunt him on raccoon in this area and he caught on fast. With no fear of taking hold and receiving a bite now and then to go with what he dishes out. I plan to get him started on coyote decoy training soon, as it is now that time of year and we have plenty of coyotes to play with. His Momma, (Maggie) was a decoy dog and was quite good at it according to John Houben.

     Dusty, fathered another litter, earlier this year with my female hound. The pups turned out awesome. 10 were born with 1 getting laid on at birth so 9 survived. 7 males and 3 females total. All looked Airedale except 2, a male and a female looked like black n tan hounds. Two males most recently went to a cougar hunting guide, in Winnemucca, Nevada. I'm looking forward to reports on those two in the future. Two females went to coon hunters locally, and the other female went to a coon and cat hunter in Washington State. And two went as pets. I still have 2 males left. The hound looking one Slick, and a large boned, mostly black with beautiful dark reddish tan trim that will go 80 lbs., at full growth, I think. I call him Brewzer, as in big Brewzer. All of them showed a lot of hunt drive at 6 months on. So  I expect them to do well with game. We'll see. I'll look up some pictures to send to you. Bye for now, Steve “

     Thank’s for the report Steve. Let me know how those Airedale pups, from the newest litter, are doing and if you have any left, people might be asking.

     I had " the girls" out in the woods a couple of days ago, ( Brisk 3yrs., Brigid 20 months and Alberta Trickum 11 months). They picked up a scent trail and took off, after it. I wasn't sure what they were following. We went quite a little ways and found a cougar kill. Most of the deer carcass was gone, but what was left was buried in a mound of leaves. I don't know if the cougar scent attracted them or the deer remains, but it is good to watch them use their noses and instincts for such a distance and find the thing they were tracking.

     One of the things I'm impressed with is the way Brisk will hunt one way on one type of game and another for something else. When we bird hunt she will cast back and forth not getting to far out in the field. When we're in the woods she will go out of sight for two, three, or five minutes at a time before she check's back in. ( I need to find a tracking collar for when we are after boar) I haven't worked at training her, to teach her the difference, she just knows. The terrain is different and with birds we both know what works.

     Speaking of what works, that would be Buster and Banjo, owned by Sandy and Scott Seaton Sallee up in Montana. Sandy wrote recently saying;  “ Howdy! I just wrote Henry a quick note - our guide was in camp with Buster and Banjo when they started barking furiously in the night - he ignored them, and Buster ran into the tent, and as the guide puts it, "Buster made me get up and go outside" - Buster ran ahead of him where Banjo was barking at the bear outside the cook tent, a big skinny grizzly.  Buster hit the bear and the bear swiped Buster in his rear end, whereupon Garrett shot in the air and the bear took off with Airedales pushing...Buster is very sore and cranky but I rode in with praise and aspirin the next day and he cheered up! He hardly sleeps at night anyway doing camp patrol - he's even more nocturnal now, leaving Banjo to day duty! Love those Airedales! Sandy Seaton Sallee “

     I’ll bet Garrett pays more attention when Buster and Banjo are calling.

     Back in July on one of the message boards, there was talk about Airedales and barking and apparently some of the folks had barking Airedales. Henry posted the following; “ I don’t know where you guys get the idea that Airedales are noisy. In my experience they are a quiet breed and only bark when there is reason and a need to. Like when, "There's a deer!"; There's a cat!"; "Somebody is coming, probably a burglar!", or "Why don't you get off that computer and come out here and feed us, you're late already!" /HSJ, Fults Cove.

     It made me laugh because it is so true. I would be with the dogs right now if I wasn’t on the computer, writing this column.

     Back in July I got a letter from Charles Raymond from Natchitoches, Louisiana. Charles I was writing a response to you back in August for the October Full Cry when I was distracted by a family situation and unable to get that month in. So here you go. Charles wrote; “ Dear Sir: I am interested in the Airedale for coon and squirrel hunting. Do they make good coondogs? Do you know anyone in Louisiana who has Airedales? I read Mr. Johnson’s columns in Full Cry. Where is Mr. Johnson. I want to get an Airedale or two. Thanks for your consideration of my request in your next column or by mail. Sincerely yours, Charles Raymond “

     Thank-you, Charles, for writing the letter. Airedales are very often used for coon and squirrel. They do not generally open up on trail the way a hound will but they will let you know when they have one located, once they get the hang of what you want. Jim Price up in Michigan uses Belle, his Airedale, to help eliminate coons on his farm. A whole lot of my time in the woods, with the dogs, is just taking a look around. They have taken to squirrel hunting pretty much on their own. It’s great entertainment and the squirrels are plentiful. They don’t bark on the tree but I feel that it would be a small step to encourage and train them to do so.

I ask some of the fellows around the country that hunt Airedales and here are some of the responses I got; Richard Dwyer from Illinois said; “I have hunted Airedale on coon but in a more non-conventional way than most people would. I have had mixed results. I have had dogs that were excellent and some that were not so good. As a whole they do quite well.

     Are you asking if we free cast our dogs like the boys with the hounds? I work my dogs with more of a search and destroy type of method of barns, woodpiles, heavy cover, and so on. The only treeing that I get is if the coon is lucky enough to be able to make it to a tree or rafter in the barn.”

     Billy Harkins, in Georgia, had this to say;” As for hunting coon and squirrels with the Airedales. I have had Steel on a few coon, that he treed with my old black and tan coon dog and he was getting the hang of it, but when I got him into the big game (Bear and Boar) he kind of lost interest. I tried to get Lucy on a squirrel the other day when I had her at work with me and she ran it up the tree but soon lost interest when it got out of site. She is an old dog but I could get her into the squirrels if I would just spend some time with her. In fact I may since I most likely won’t do much hunting in N.C. this year.

I will keep you up dated.”

     I’ve gone back into the Full Cry Archives, to the December 1991 issue and found this from Al Kranbul who was training his pup Airedale, Charlie Girl ( Kabar/Sheena ) ; “I have been working Charlie Girl almost everyday with Buck and Bone ( 6 month old coonhounds) and so far she has shown much progress even though she is just a baby (5 Months ). The pups are being worked on scented drags, old skins and a live lead coon. A little progress is shown every time out, and I have been pleased. Hopefully good progress will continue and Charlie, Buck and Bone will make us both proud. “

     Well I know Al still has Charlie Girl, and it is not likely for him to keep a dog that doesn’t work out.  Al, let us know what the past ten years have been like with Charlie Girl.

     My suspicion is that in the United States, Airedales are used to hunt coon and squirrel as much as anything else. Once again it is the versatility of the breed that, to my mind, makes it an excellent hunting dog and partner.

     As for Airedales in Louisiana, at this time I do not know of any. Billy Harkins is in Georgia, (706-745-9405) Eddie Boatwright is in Tennessee (931-722-6326) and Lawrence Alexander is in Alabama (256-766-0193).

     To answer your inquiries of Henry Johnson, he is doing fine in Fults Cove, Tennessee. These days he is working and breeding mostly smaller Terriers. Border Terriers seem to be a favorite but he has a blend of Border/Patterdale and a Lakeland from Irish parents,  that’s a beauty. Henry is mostly interested in good working dogs. And I believe his love for Airedales will never die, whether he is breeding them directly or acting as a mentor and advisor for folks like me around the country who are carrying on his line of good working Airedales.

     Charles, I hope that answers your questions and please do stay in touch. If there is anything else I can do for you please let me know.

     Theresa Baker, called herself a Newbie, and had some questions about the Airedale; “ I live in Mn. where