For the Love of Airedales - Help Some of Them Get Home At Last

Some of you may already know that I participate in the online Airedale Rescue Quilting Bee. Every year we collaborate to create a quilt focused on Airedales. This year's quilt is called "Home at Last" in honor of the rescue process and the help given by hundreds of volunteers in various Airedale rescue groups across the U.S. The proceeds from donations for this quilt will help homeless Airedales find homes at last. I hope you can find it in your heart and pocketbook to make a donation of $5.00 or more. In return, you'll have an opportunity for this beautiful quilt to be yours.

Go to Airedale Quilting Bee to learn more about "Home at Last" and the ladies who made it. The Airedales will be grateful and so will I and the rest of the quilters.

Hannah is not a lover of baths but at least she doesn't fight against them. Into the tub she goes and I pour water, add shampoo, wash, then rinse.

As I was shampooing her today she kept turning her head into my arms. I asked her to please turn her head the other way. She suggested I just move my arms out of her way!

Finally rinsed and slightly dried, she hopped out of the tub and shook.

We got the job done and she looks and feels great!

She's Up to It Again!

When I heard noises outside the window I suspected Hannah was up to it again, but by the time I got to the breezeway to snap some photos, she'd stopped digging and was standing in her hole. She walked away to investigate, returned a few minutes later, and settled very comfortably into her cool spot.

Why is it I can never catch her digging?!

I know some people don't like their dogs to dig but Airedales are diggers and Hannah confines her holes to behind the bushes next to the house. We have no mines in our yard.

Uh oh! What did I just say? I may be in for it now!

Airedales are True Friends

In addition to loving Airedales, I enjoy family history and often search old newspapers for obituaries and other announcements. I was thrilled to find this ad for Velvet tobacco in the January 21, 1920, issue of The Steubenville Herald-Star. Isn't this drawing of an Airedale grand?!

Airedales were popular in the 1920s but they didn't always look like our Airedales of today. This one does!

He's part of an ad for Velvet tobacco. While I don't condone the use of tobacco I certainly appreciate Velvet's choice to use an Airedale to represent a true friend.

If you'd like to see the images larger, you can click on them. They'll open in the same window. When you've finished, click the back arrow on your browser to return you to this blog post.

I hope you're enjoying your Airedale and find that he or she is the truest friend you've ever had!

Airedale Equipment: The Great Big Black Licorice Nose

There are several variations of and uses for the Airedale nose. Sometimes the nose is clean and wet; sometimes clean and dry; and sometimes dirty or muddy. The uses of the nose include sniffing out biscuits (or other delicious bits of food), other animals, or the remains of other animals; pushing objects to invesitgate or move them; nose-poking to get the attention of the Airedale's human; and to assist in the digging process.

How does your Airedale use his or her nose? Do you notice a difference in the noses of the Airedales you've loved?

How to Avoid Airedale Mind Control

Airedale lovers know the persuasive powers of the Airedale mind. This video teaches one way for Airedale owners to protect themselves from those powers - with use of a tin foil hat. This video was originally presented on Electech. Enjoy!

Welcome!

Welcome to My Airedales and Me. This blog is relatively new (even though the first post was over a year ago). I don't know how often I'll be able to post but I hope to add content as often as I can.

Have fun with your Airedale!

When You Foster

When you foster an Airedale your heart gets involved. And when that foster Airedale leaves, even though she's going to what may become her forever home, your eyes and heart cry. Another rescue volunteer (whose probably fostered hundreds of Airedales and sent them on to forever homes) tells me that she still cries.

Little Bit, a girl we fostered for nearly four months, left this morning to try out living at a home that could become her forever home. She's a 9-month-old puppy whose confidence is bigger than she is; whose attitude is bold; and whose style is energetic. She's sweet as all get-out with the uprights -- and wants to be in charge of all the four-leggeds. The home where she's going has a one-year pup of a different terrier breed. They seemed to get along well during the visit. We hope they'll continue to get along.

There were several reasons why it was best for Little Bit to go to a new home but the most important was because she and Hannah didn't develop the best of relationships.

However, Hannah now misses Bit. She asked to go outside a few hours after Bit left. She only wanted to look out the breezeway door to see if a car was bringing Bit back. And she repeated her request to check the driveway several times. Hannah may be hurting a bit at her absence - she had no way of knowing what was coming. I, on the other hand, knew Bit would be leaving and yet I was not able to prevent my heart from being involved.

I'm grateful that we can foster 'dales in need and yet sad when they leave. If it doesn't work out at her new home, she'll come back again. I hope the best for you, Little Bit! I hope you grow into a very well-mannered adult Airedale!

Tug-A-Whirl

When Little Bit first came she didn't know how to play tug. Whenever Hannah and I played Bit became very upset and growly. Hannah eventually taught her that tug can be fun. They don't play often but they play hard when they do. It sometimes becomes energetic, fast, and furious!




Hannah on the left, Bit on the right.













Bit on the left, Hannah on the right.













Bit on the left, Hannah on the right.













Who knows? And where is the tugger, anyway?!

Ten Tiny Terriers (but probably not Airedale Terriers)

The first time I saw this little clip was about 25 years ago. The TV was small and the clip short. In that brief moment I thought I was seeing Airedale puppies. Probably not, but you can imagine the black saddle and face and you know the Airedale puppy energy! Enjoy!

What Do You Want?

Sometimes Hannah gets tired of my doing things without being involved with her. She comes and sits beside me, gazing at me hopefully.

I was at the computer when she came and sat. I turned to her and gave her a hug, and then asked, "What do you want?"

She gazed.

I said, "Do you want to play tug?" No response.

"Do you want a brush?" No response.

"Do you want a toe clip?" No response.

"Do you want your teeth brushed?" No response.

"Do you want a biscuit?" No response.

"Do you want a kong?" No response.

"Do you want to play Find-It?"

Yes, yes, yes! That's what I want! Yes, please, let's play Find-It. I love that game!

And so we went to the kitchen and I took 4 biscuits out of the biscuit container. I told Hannah to sit and stay, and I came back into the room and hid the biscuits. It's getting harder and harder to find hiding places that she doesn't find in a minute. She sniffs out the biscuits but she's learned to sniff all the best places first. After they were hidden, I called, "Okay, Hannah. Come find them."

She bounded into the room, nose in high gear. It took her a little longer than usual because I found a new hiding place. But she'll remember it the next time we play.

Sometimes when she gazes at me for attention, I only have to offer one or two suggestions for activities and she'll choose. Sometimes she tells me she wants a toe clip, or to have her teeth brushed, or some other thing that some dogs wouldn't really be interested in. I think she's just thrilled to have the attention.

Hannah and the Door, part 2

I wasn't thinking clearly when I taught Hannah the command, "Open the door." The problem isn't that she opens doors when she shouldn't. The problem is something else. I'll tell you.

The latch on our bedroom door doesn't latch so from the hallway all I have to do is push it and it will open. Inward. Hannah's not so thrilled to open that door, but she'll push it open. On the other hand -or rather, on the other side of the door - she could open the door because there isn't a latch, but she has to pull instead of push.

The problem is that the command was wrong. I should have been teaching her to "Push the door open" and "Pull the door open." We humans know the word "open" can include push or pull, but to an Airedale, "push" means one action, and "pull" means one thing. So I've had to go back and reteach. Now when we come in the back door or stand outside the bedroom door, I tell her to "Push the door open."

The fact is, she doesn't want to pull the door open because it pulls into her - and that's exactly what she's afraid of: being hit by a door. I know she can overcome this fear and learn this job.

To help her learn to pull the door open, I put a knot in the end of a bandanna and tied it to the inside bedroom doorknob, leaving the knot hanging down. (I should probably use a long sock and put a toy inside to make it more enticing.) Every morning when we get ready to come downstairs, I tell her "Take it" and put the knot in her mouth and hold her mouth closed around it. At first she just sat. I put her up on all legs again and tell her to "pull the door open" and help her do it. We've been doing this for a week or so.

For the past several days she's taken the knot in her mouth and held it tight. And then she lets go without pulling. I think that's a great start! Then I put it in her mouth again and help her hold it and pull the door. She's learning!

Hannah and the Back Door

I've been teaching Hannah to open the door. This is a really big deal.

When she first came she was terrified of doors. She'd lived outside the better part of her life and doors were things that moved on their own without warning, things that might hit and hurt an Airedale. She stayed as far away from them as she could. That was nearly 2 years ago.

I started thinking about teaching her to open a door when I saw a video of a puppy-in-training-to-become-an-assistance-dog learning to pull a door open with a ball attached to a rope on the doorknob. It was a game to the puppy. I thought, Hannah could learn to do that.

We didn't start on pulling a door open, though. Our back door from the breezeway into the house opens inward. One day when I went out to let her back in, I left the back door slightly ajar so all it took was a push to open it. When I let Hannah into the breezeway, I didn't open the back door for her, but encouraged her to push it open, showing her how to do it. It didn't take her long to learn the command, "Open the door." Now, when she comes into the breezeway from outside, she races to the back door, stands with her front paws on the threshhold, tail wagging, and waits for me to give her the okay. She gives the door a mighty push with her nose and bounds into the house.

What a good learner!

Snowy Day

It snowed today.

I sensed that Hannah wanted to go outside. We went into the breezeway on our way outside. She raced around eager and excited, sniffing here and there.

I said to her, "Hannah, you're going to be very surprised when I open this door."

I opened the door, she looked out, and then said, No thank you. I want to go back inside.

So we went back inside. I can perfectly well understand that an Airedale who, in a previous life, had been chained to a tree outside would not want to go out into the snow. Sometimes she does want to and she did later that day, and enjoyed herself. She just didn't want to when I first asked her.

Pumpkin Pie

For Michael's birthday today I baked pumpkin pie. Because we wanted to eat it sooner than it was cooling, I put one on the table in the breezeway.

A little later Hannah said she needed to go outside. Hannah is a 3 1/2 year-old rescue 'dale. She enjoys her food but is always very, very mannerly and has never tried to steal a bite in her life -- at least not in her life with us.

As soon as she walked through the door to the breezeway, her nose went in the air, sniffing, madly sniffing. She said, I smell it. Sniff, sniff, sniff. What is it? Sniff, sniff, sniff. Where is it? And she pranced around, nose high.

As she approached the pie, I lifted it off the table and held it like a tray in my hand. I opened the back door for her to go out. She would have none of it. Oh, she said, pie! I LOVE pie. I could have some of that pie. This from a dog who has never in her life at our house eaten pie.

I put the pie on a higher cupboard and again opened the door and invited her to go outside. She went, turning around as if to ask whether I was coming outside with her. "No, Hannah, I have to take the pie inside." And she raced away to play.

By the time she came back in the house she'd forgotten about pie.

Funny girl.