# "Airedales are a failure?"



## Adjecyca1 (Jul 25, 2010)

I was always interested in an Airedale terrier, mostly because of Scruffy, and me wanting to have another large terrier.. While researching the breed, i stumbled upon this
http://airedalesareafailure.wordpress.com/about/


----------



## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

Adjecyca1 said:


> I was always interested in an Airedale terrier, mostly because of Scruffy, and me wanting to have another large terrier.. While researching the breed, i stumbled upon this
> http://airedalesareafailure.wordpress.com/about/


Just one guys opinion.....

While I am not a huge fan of Airdales, I have hunted with a few really nice ones. 

And I would not give you a fat penny for a Drathaar.


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Um. . .consider the source? Anyone who considers a dog a failure if it won't fight other dogs is not the sort of person whose opinions I would take seriously.


----------



## Adjecyca1 (Jul 25, 2010)

Willowy said:


> Um. . .consider the source? Anyone who considers a dog a failure if it won't fight other dogs is not the sort of person whose opinions I would take seriously.


i don't remember reading anywhere him saying there were a failure for not fighting other breeds, but rather because they wont engage when hunting


----------



## Adjecyca1 (Jul 25, 2010)

If anyone had some personal experiences with Airedales please share, i only had the ability to work with 2 in my life and it was for a short period of time!


----------



## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

Adjecyca1 said:


> If anyone had some personal experiences with Airedales please share, i only had the ability to work with 2 in my life and it was for a short period of time!


As I mentioned.... I have hunted with a couple... They were fair hog dogs... They really did not catch.... But I do not think that is what they are supposed to do..


----------



## Foresthund (Jul 17, 2013)

I believe they are used successfully as a hunting dog,they may not be as gritty or hold on like the dogs they prefer on that site. They bay more then working terriers or bulldogs,it is also harder to find a good one. There are good breeders and Airedales out there. I've also heard of some unusual breeds used in boar hunting like Rottweilers,Australian shepherds,Lab mixes and Great Danes,so you never really know. Of course if a person is used to a certain style or deep gameness in a dog they would dislike the dogs that don't fit it,but they can still sometimes get the job done.
The article seems pretty biased and written by one of those people that only like a breed or type of dog and hate all others.

Copied,slightly edited from the other forum.


----------



## gsdhunter (Nov 10, 2013)

I had 3 airedales before I got my gsd. They are super smart and very independent. They are meant to hunt independently, so if you want a Velcro dog this is not the breed for you! 

They can be frustrating to train because they are so smart they easily get bored and then start to ignore or get naughty. Get used to being the dumb one in the relationship 

I loved my airedales. They do great with other dogs and people. 2 of mine were fierce hunters. I never hunted with them, but they would kill anything, including the neighbors cat that came In the fenced yard. My last one killed a large **** when he was 13.

Any questions just ask  I miss my airedales...

Btw I don't agree with that guys assessment.


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Adjecyca1 said:


> i don't remember reading anywhere him saying there were a failure for not fighting other breeds, but rather because they wont engage when hunting


"but out of fourteen that I have personally tried at badger and fighting with a bull terrier, I have Never found one game – at least, to my idea of the word.’" But I guess that's a quote from another source. But meh, anyone who considers any living creature a failure for not playing their games is not a person I would want to know or be around, and I certainly would consider their opinion fairly useless.


----------



## PatriciafromCO (Oct 7, 2012)

A neighbor in this area worked for the BLM he had an Airedale , his job was to track down wild life that was attacking open range cattle, I never asked exactly how the dog worked, I assumed tracking was tracking.. never considered if the dog engaged or not, or if the dog just tracked down and the owner shot the offending wild life." But he loved that dog .. he did get a second younger Airedale since his dog was getting older to transfer training, but he complained the younger one was not right, not interested, Asked me if I wanted the younger one.. Am attractive to the breed but I don't have any purpose for owning a hunting dog.. And when it comes to Terriers I often why people need or want so much dog for a back yard.. ??


----------



## samshine (Mar 11, 2011)

The kind of gameness that this guy is talking about would be a detriment for the average pet owner. Very few people want or need that kind of prey drive and intensity.


----------



## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

Willowy said:


> "but out of fourteen that I have personally tried at badger and fighting with a bull terrier, I have Never found one game – at least, to my idea of the word.’" But I guess that's a quote from another source. But meh, anyone who considers any living creature a failure for not playing their games is not a person I would want to know or be around, and I certainly would consider their opinion fairly useless.



There are successes and failures in life. We all succeed at some things and fail at others. I have given away hounds that failed as deer and hog dogs. More so hog dogs, it takes some grit. Far more grit than chasing deer. So those dogs failed at what I needed them for...


----------



## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

We had an airedale growing up... she was a fine family pet and sweet. Poor thing spent most of her life in a backyard, with a 5 year break in a larger family compound (we lived overseas for awhile).... and then back to AR with her. 
The people we got her from were breeding large (mom weighed close to 80lbs and dad was huge bigger than that) dogs for hunting, which I had never heard of.
She had a very soft mouth and would carry baby birds around in her mouth....


----------



## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

I do know that some guys that run lions and bears with hounds will run an airdale with them. And the airdales I have seen doing this have a LOT more black on them than most you see. I think this is because there are a couple of guys breeding airdales for this and they have a lot of dark dogs in their line.

Anyway, the dogs that run with the hounds for mountain lions and bears are there to protect the hounds in case the lion or bear does not tree and gets cornered on the ground. Their job is to fight the lion or bear.


----------



## JohnnyBandit (Sep 19, 2008)

Here is an Airdale working with hounds.... Granted this is a short video... I see no problem with the way the dog is working.... Smart actually.. Not over committing...But seems ready to go if the cat wants to play that game.


----------



## VickytheRobot (May 24, 2012)

My neighbor has two Airedales and a Scottish terrier. They are all crazy from lack of stimulation or exercise. They're not bad dogs, but they have never even been on a walk, let alone worked at all. The neighbor just puts them in the small backyard where they bark and bark - one of them runs in a tight circle over and over with excitement and pent-up energy. It's sad, really. I don't know what in the world made these people decide to get terriers.

They seem really bright when I interact with them through the fence - they pay rapt attention to me and you can see the gears moving. The two Airedales seem better off temperamentally than the Scotty but that's just a single anecdotal group of wildly under-engaged dogs so I doubt it really reflects on either breed.

In this case I would say the owners are a failure, not the Airedales.


----------



## AKdude (Dec 13, 2013)

JohnnyBandit said:


> Just one guys opinion.....
> While I am not a huge fan of Airdales, I have hunted with a few really nice ones.
> And I would not give you a fat penny for a Drathaar.


If you Upland hunt, waterfowl hunt and need a tracking dog..sometimes all in the same day, the Drahthaar is the best dog in the world for this work. 
Drahthaars have proven themselves in Blood tracking, NSTRA Championships besting specialized longtail bird dogs, in UKC HRC testing and on the Louisiana and Georgia state hog bays earning 3rd and 10 th place recently of 40+ Pro dogs entered, and these were 1st time contests for the DDs.
Not bad for dogs barely 30yrs old in America.

Hunters probably kill more Boar in Germany that all other species and the Drahthaar is the dog of choice by an oiverwhelming margin. It is Law one must hunt with a trained dog there and losing game is punished with heavy fines.

The Airedale is not used for hunting there or in its native land of England for that matter. Youll see them occasionally in hound packs if the hounds are real soft, but real hound packs like Plotts, dont need a dale.
The DDs cousin the GSP is the worlds most popular gundog and for very good reason....the DD/GWP gives cold weather and big game hunters a little more versatility however and why the rapid growth among hunters.
I believe the context in which it was said the Airedale was a failure in that link, was as a game terrier, ie when 14 of them were tested for that which it was bred-hunting and dispatching vermin, in the dog pit etc. it was a miserable failure, thats what real hunting dogs are to do.


This is a Drahthaar / Fousek upland hunting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGcCFz4CxLs






And this is an Airedale, it is worse than watching paint dry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_b8FvPI7eI


----------



## AKdude (Dec 13, 2013)

For hound packs that are real soft, sometimes other dogs are used. Jagds are replacing airedales quickly as they have alot more pluck, as do DDs and Cur dogs.

HUnters out West are using DDs for Mountain Lion and Bobcat with good success Ive heard.
























































DDs however are only sold To License Hunters and breeders check before selling..QC is very tight.
Many State DNR Depts are using DDs for their research on quail populations for their excellent noses, and licensed state boar hunters in NC, GA, CA and MS are using them as well. They work very well, as do Jagd Terriers, 2 German breeds taking American hunters by storm.
The same blog posted above had a DD post with lots of photos. They are amazing dogs.

http://airedalesareafailure.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/gritty-drahthaar-dispatched-badger/


----------



## AKdude (Dec 13, 2013)

Willowy:


> But meh, anyone who considers any living creature a failure for not playing their games is not a person I would want to know or be around, and I certainly would consider their opinion fairly useless.



Working Terriers are not supposed to Bark at vermin, they are supposed to dispatch it....I think that was the point.
From otters, badgers, rats etc
For some game terriers, quit is not an option. They kill or die trying, its what makes them a terrier.



























2 20# German Jagd Terrier dogs have more heart than Airedales 4xs their size.


----------



## AKdude (Dec 13, 2013)

samshine said:


> The kind of gameness that this guy is talking about would be a detriment for the average pet owner. Very few people want or need that kind of prey drive and intensity.


Hunters do.
DDs in that blog link are NOT sold to someone unless they are a Licensed Hunter and that has been verified with a hunting license.
Seriuous dogs like this will only get in trouble in the burbs killing cats, *****, and anything else it considers game.
I did know someone who kept DDs and 1 airedale and lived in Manhattan however!


----------



## AKdude (Dec 13, 2013)

JohnnyBandit said:


> Here is an Airdale working with hounds.... Granted this is a short video... I see no problem with the way the dog is working.... Smart actually.. Not over committing...But seems ready to go if the cat wants to play that game.


Airedales never over commit. I think that is the issue.

Plus, Airedales are known for running very hot in that coat-sometimes dying of heat stroke even in night hunts, running lots of trashed or jumped game like deer- which is not the intended quarry, fighting other hounds in its pack, and being very independent, which is a huge pain to someone working small 500 acre or less fields or timber that needs a dog to check back after casting 800 meters or so and coming back if nothing is jumped ie cooperation.


----------



## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

JohnnyBandit said:


> Here is an Airdale working with hounds.... Granted this is a short video... I see no problem with the way the dog is working.... Smart actually.. Not over committing...But seems ready to go if the cat wants to play that game.



Oh JB you are soooooo bad (well that video is!) set all my dogs to barking, whatever they said it was super-Alerting to my crew (trying to get them settled now)...

And that big ole hairy Airedale is a dead ringer for my Tombi- girl.....


----------



## ufimych (Sep 5, 2011)

It depends. I had a pair of good Airedales. My female came from so-called Oorang type of hunting Airedales of Arkansas. Her name was Litte. She was lean and mean Airedale, excellent hunting dog. The male was named Rudy, another good hunting dog, but he was out of a show strain, oversized and, therefore, sold to me at a lower price. None of them would pass at the show, but functionally they were perfect. I hated their hair, too much trouble with trimming and removing burs and ticks. Otherwise they were fine dogs. I understand that life under conditions of TLC and without hunting is destroying the breed. No surprise some Airedales should be not as good as others. To save their hunting qualities hunting dogs should be kept for hunting and bred for other hunters. Pet/show breeding ruins many formerly glorious in the past hunting breeds.


----------



## Avie (Jul 10, 2011)

AKdude said:


>


People hunting threatened species make me sick. 

Back on the subject: I didn't realize Airedales were actually used for hunting. I don't know, I guess I don't consider them the hunting type. Not that that makes them failures as working dogs. I've seen a few guide dog Airedales around.


----------

