For those of you who do not know me very well, I am otherwise perfectly sane, but I am owned by two Airedales (a.k.a., Terrier Rex, King of the Terrorists, etc.). These are rather demanding Airedales (not to be confused with mere dogs), and unfortunately for me, rather intelligent Airedales. On the good side of things, I can put Merlin on a lead, enter a store, and when challenged by an employee because of the store's "NO DOGS ALLOWED" policy, "Dogs?!?!?! This is an AIREDALE"
This has worked several times, notably hardware stores and book stores. Someday I may get brave enough to try it in other places. Somehow folks never think to challenge the assertion, and generally I get an apology, something really sharp like, "Oh... Uh... Gee, sir, I'm sorry ... I didn't realize ... (ad nauseum)."
But enough about that... another thing to keep in mind in dealing with
these ADT's (short for Airedale Terriers) is that they have the greated
bite pressure of any breed recognized by the AKC. While a full-grown,
male pit-bull can muster a full 1,850 lbs/in2 of pressure, a
full-grown 56-pound 23-inch (at the shoulder) male ADT can manage about 1,900
lbs/in2, and Merlin is way over breed standard.
While Merlin and I have done both obedience and agility traning/competitions, Sarah is more of the stay-at-home type, and so far has agreed only to do limited obedience training IF sufficiently bribed (cookies are good for this purpose).
Wondering what Merlin and Sarah look like? Here is their christmas card from last Christmas (2000).
OK, this isn't the most representative picture of Airedales that one could get, so here is a better one, taken from the cover of an issue of Connoisseur magazine. There's something wrong with this picture, too: Airedales are real clowns. One of my friends (who is also possessed by Airedales) insists that the better term for the species would be the "Clown Prince of Terriers" -- no comment, but here is a more typical pose for a resting ADT than the one in that picture... And no, I'm not sure that the ADT in the picutre fell asleep reading the magazine. It's much more likely that he took a nap before reading in order to be on a sharp lookout for mistakes, typos, and scratch-and-sniff pages.
The other thing wrong with those pictures is that you get no idea of what the business end of an ADT really looks like. Unfortunately, this is hard to photograph as most cameras are destroyed by that kind of bite pressure. Maybe later.
And did I mention their digging ability? Ever see the Grand Canyon? I think a dozen or so ADT's could have dug that in about 2 weeks. Although I hope never to find that out for sure, Merlin once tried to prove this in my back yard. Several truckloads of dirt later, the damage was mostly concealed...
Airedales are EXTREMELY intelligent and the brightest ones can learn several hundred spoken commands. (I have a simpler opinion: I think they just read minds.) And possibly as a direct consequence, they were also the first canines (notice how deftly I avoid the dreaded d*g word here?) used by both the police and the military. They are excellent at S&R (search and rescue) as well as military duty -- all of the WWI messenger canines were Airedales and one was decorated after traveling several miles through enemy lines with 5 bullet wounds -- and he lived to receive the medal and eventually retire. And they can be trained to be great hunters as well -- although here a basic tendancy in that direction on the part of the individual ADT is probably a pre-requisite here. Airedales have in the past been used to hunt down, capture and sometimes kill bears, wildcats, mountain lions, boar, badgers, and other rather nasty game. (Merlin and Sarah, on the other hand, generally content themselves with barking at the birds on the front lawn and then returning for the obligatory praise for having driven off the intruders. But I digress).
If you really want to know more about Airedales, I suggest you start with the links such as the Airedale List website and go from there.
I will fill in a few stories from Merlin and Sarah's checkered past as time permits...
OK, they are interesting to me at any rate
By the way, among his many other acomplishments, Merlin is a published author (isn't the web fun? you get to waste other people's time as well as your own when your Airedale publishes something. but i digress.). One of his first tomes was a treatise entitled "Merlin's 20 Canonical ADT Rools 'n Dools for Riding n Your Hooman's Kar," and you can view it here.
Merlin and Sarah are also great traditionalists, and they are careful with the details. For instance, for the past 4 years Merlin has been careful to send letters to important figures such as Santa Claus (whom he sometimes calls "Sandy Paws" or "Sandy Claws" for some reason), and I have included his and Sarah's letters from the past four years below:
They also seem to possess a wisdom which belies their young years. Most interestingly and from time to time, they reveal parts of that wisdom - sometimes in ways not expected. About a year ago (they got a little drunk at the time) they revealed the following: history Note: for those of you who would prefer the original "pdf" format document - which is a tad more readable - you may get it by clicking here). I find it very revealing - and it does tend to clear up a few point left otherwise obscured in the mists of time.
As a result of my having published the previous item on both the Airedale mail list and on the web, there were some consequences, which I describe here.
This story became so popular that it has found its way into a published book or two, and you may view it - complete with Roberta Sparr's fascinating illustrations - by clicking here. One note, though: someone else edited the text and wrote the introduction, and she seemed to think that 31 December 1999 was the last night of the 20th century. Hoo Haa and other frivolous comments. I didn't see that one until after the book was published. Apologies and so forth.)
But if you liked the illustrated version, please to back to Roberta's web site - she is an excellent commercial artist who lives and works in Montana. Both her nature scenes and here Airedale drawings and stories are excellent and well worth the visit to her site.
