Airedale Stories

We think Vanna has decided to stay–she wakes up so happy and keeps us in sight at all times. She becomes more confident every day–yesterday was the first day she woofed a bit upon hearing a neighborhood dog barking loudly. She does mumble and grumble, especially when waking up or easing into sleep. Fireworks on the 4th and the noisy Harleys next door did not cause even a blink (we were careful to act as though all was normal). She must wonder why anyone would live in such a noisy place! She was discovered by mosquitoes today. She is learning to cast on the long lead (30 ft) like a hunting dog.

Obviously we are delighted with Vanna. She is so smart–very quick to teach herself new things. Our deck is on the 2nd floor, and we have reinforced the fencing so that she can’t accidentally slip through. She learned how to go up and down the stairs in one day with no hesitation. She rides well in the car with no car sickness. Tomorrow Gary will hold her in his lap while a friend starts the airplane so she can acclimate to that sensation. They may take a short ride depending on how she does.

This week she seems to be taking in all possible sights and smells. Each day seems to bring something new, and each day brings a new behavior and reaction to her world. She’s developing before our eyes–amazing after eventually owning older Airedales who find their comfort zone and lock in to preferred habits. She’s still in the pick-and-choose stage. Housebreaking is going very well. She likes her Purina Pro Plan and is eating well, too.
Go to Vanna’s First Week In Pictures to see pictures of Vanna in Alaska.

After a small break, we’re back at the obedience. Danika is working with Chip on getting his CD. Dave is working with Junie B. for the same title. Laura is working with Foggy on…it’ll come to me in a minute.

Okay, here’s what I’ve been doing. Living with a vet has its hazards. We now also have, besides the Airedales, a rescue Dachshund named Abbie (short for Abandoned; it was a parvo puppy left at the clinic door) and a rescue Boxer named Sandy (named after the squirrel on Spongebob Squarepants. Guess what? Our 10 yo son named her.) And here’s the funny thing. Sandy, her breed having German roots, has a different sense of humor and personality than Airedales. 180 degrees different. Actually, not much sense of humor. None, really. It’s like living with a dog version of The Terminator. In my head I hear Sandy talk with an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent.

Take cats, for instance.

I tell Sandy, “Leave the cat alone.”

Her behavior says, “Oh.Okay. Leave-cat-alone. Head-program-now-updated.” Just like in The Terminator when the kid tells Arnold to not kill anyone.

I tell Ruth the Airedale, “Leave the cat alone.”

Ruth says, “What cat?” Nose touch to cat’s side.

“Leave the cat alone!” Voice raising an octave.

Ruth: “Oh. THIS cat?”
“Yes, THAT cat.”

Ruth says, “This here cat? You’re sure?” Nose touch to cat’s tail.

“Stop touching the cat!”

“Can I goose it?” Nose bump to cat’s rear-end.

“*@#$!!!! Stop with the cat!!!!”

Ruth: “Ah-hahahahahah!!!! Gosh, you’re uptight right now. Relax a little, will ya?” And she bounces around the yard, running by the cat once to go “Boo!”

It’s The Punk versus The Terminator.

And so, I’m not sure how to handle the Boxer. She looks at me with that serious, smushy face and I wonder if she’s going to bite me. I’ve finally figured out she just wants to know what to do. Know what to do? What does that mean? I’m supposed to tell her what to do and she does it. Weird. So I’m spending time figuring out what to tell her and then marveling at the fact she does it.
Where are my Airedales??? They tell me what to do and then we “discuss” it. Gosh, I’m familiar with that.

Actually, the Airedales are easily trained, just with their own spin on it, kind of like a conversation with two thinking individuals. There’s a lot of rapport on the Airedale’s part and laughter, goofing off, rolling on the floor and joking around. The Boxer, on the other hand, had to learn to play and it’s not as free-flowing as with the Airedale. And I’m not sure if she likes me. I’m pretty sure she does, but it’s a “You-are-a-nice-human.” Butt wiggle, butt wiggle. Nothing says, “Yo, babe, you’re the best!” like an Airedale nose-poke and wet beard rub does.

(I esp. love the rug rearrangement by Vanna.  Apparently the decor of the room needed a little something! Laura)

Hello Laura and Dave,

Gary and Vanna are off for a walk at the float pond–it’s about a 20-minute ride away. She slept well in her crate and woke up around 5 our time, which I guess would be 8 your time. Of course, since we had only gone to bed at 4 a.m., we have had several naps since then.

We are totally taken with her–she’s a delightful dog–very bright and curious and unafraid. We don’t have a concrete pad or asphalt driveway, so she has done her business on the street pavement, and avoided the yard. She seems very comfortable on leash and has walked around the yard with us many times, checking out the trees and vegetation. She spotted the robins and went into a low crouch to chase them. She will be a good huntress.

She loves her toys and grabbed a throw rug to drag into her crate, which already had a fleecy pad in it. Very funny. She upended the clothes basket to grab a fringed throw rug and drag it out into the living room. So now the floor is covered with toys and heaps of rugs.

She is wonderfully affectionate, and she is certainly a beautiful dog. We have a mini-elevator between floors in our house, for no reason other than it was in the house when we bought it. She does not hesitate to get into or out of it and did not balk at being levitated between floors. She has noisy drinks of water and a few crunches of Purina Pro Plan at a time. She already sits for a treat, which is super.

We will definitely get her out and about people and other dogs. I am sure she misses you all greatly. She was very curious about the families with children at the airport, so I know it will be hard for her to not have you and the children and other dogs around.

We’ll send pics when we accumulate a few. She is so quick that it’s hard to capture her picture. I think I’ve taken about 20 pictures, but only 2 are very good as half her body is out of the frame before I can take the picture.

More later. She sees our vet for her first visit tomorrow, so I am curious how she will take to the clinic. It has an open floor plan with no real separation of dogs and cat areas.

Thank you for a great dog!

Kathy

Hello Laura, Dave, my great Post children friends, and fellow companion Airedales. I’m telling Gary about this and he’s writing you ’cause he knows how and I don’t yet, to share a story of my first day away from home and the great journey I had. Wow, what traveling I did to a far away place! First I rode in a fast car to the big airplane place in Dallas with Laura and Kate, and said goodbye until next time we play. I miss you already, but hope to see you in the future if you come visit us in Alaska. The big plane climbed high and we flew Northwest from Texas real fast to Seattle. Lots of flat nothing for awhile, then big hills. We missed hitting the hills because the Alaska Airlines pilot practiced lots on how to do that. In Seattle I waited for another big plane to fly high and fast again to Fairbanks, Alaska. That pilot musta’ practiced lots too, as we didn’t hit nothin’, and he finally found the airport so I could go to my new home.

My new home Fairbanks is in the middle of Alaska, and it’s daylight almost all day now. It was 50 deg and and yucky rain when I landed, but I didn’t care. My new family Gary and Kathleen even met me at the airport, so I didn’t have to run all the way to my new home by myself and get wet. Guys, they’re like real old. Gary’s every bit of 62 and his hair fell off, and Kathleen’s a young 58. They smell old and funny, and I learned some new cussin’ words from Gary when a dumb car driver cut us off on the way home. Wow, I better be careful and not be dumb too.

Our home is also old, two floors high, but works ok to keep the heat in and the rain off my back. We have an elevator so nobody sweats too hard climbing stairs. And speaking of stairs, I learned how to climb them outdoors all by myself too. Well, almost, as I let Gary hold a biscuit in front of my nose to show me how. I’m smarter than him now ’cause I got to eat the biscuit after the climb. He got nothing but wet in the rain. Like I said, kinda’ old and dumb. But he loves me and has friends that make biscuits.

I ate a late night snack, had a big drink of water, and did my duties for them on the road. So far I like the road better than going in the house, or woods area around it. Not sure why, just is. We all slept a bit, especially Gary after he had a big beer. I like the smell, and maybe I can get him to open another one someday. Smells better than him, that’s for sure.

I got Kathleen up real early to go out to play and do my duties, as I’m used to doing that with some of you, as you remember. Gary got up later than us, and was grumpy and mumbled words lots until he had his coffee. I don’t like coffee ’cause it smells weird. He does other weird things too, like read newspapers that you put in my kennel, but that’s ’cause he’s old and knows how. We had lunch after the rain stopped. They give me cool water and lots of Purina food - Yum! I didn’t eat too much ’cause I wanted to be polite and not shame my name. And besides, that way they’ll keep some food in the bowl thinking I’m not really hungry for some reason. Good trick, huh? “Gotta’ watch my weight so I don’t get fat”, they tell each other about me. Hah! I’ll fool ‘em.

In the afternoon Gary and I rode to the airport in our Green Honda CRV to meet Jim Webster. The car needs a wash. I was told Jim and Joan own cousin Isabel from our kennel, but Izzy was home, darn-it. Maybe Izzy and I will meet and play tomorrow after I see Dr. Cole for my checkup.

But guess what’s new, I learned to swim! There’s these small sparrows at the airport floatplane pond, and Gary let me loose for a bit of a run in the rain to see if I could smell, find, and catch’em. They’re real fast flyers, but I found three easy and gave’em a good chase. Chasing was good, but catching was poor because I had to jump up in the grass and brush to see ahead and keep on the scent and sight trail.

One took off over the water, so guess what, I didn’t know the water was deep so I just jumped right in and learned to swim! I swam out about 15′ before I realized that darn bird was going faster than me and I was loosing ground in deep water. I just paddled back to shore and gave a good shake to dry off. Gary whistled and I came to him to get another biscuit treat and praise. He whistles before I’m fed at home, so I know he has a snack available for me if I return. Took me quite awhile to teach him to make some special noise like a whistle when I’m hungry to let me know food’s available. Like I said, I’m smart, and he’s not too old to learn a few tricks that will come in useful for me down the road.

Bye bye now, as I’m real tired and ready for a nap in my carpeted kennel. I miss all of you a bunch, and I’ll let you know of more adventures with these weird old humans as time goes by. I like ‘em, so I may stay here for awhile.

Vanna Airedale

Good morning folks from a very sunny and warm Fairbanks. I wrote the hard-wire story to help get through the eve without an Airedale companion, and sure, if you want to Blog it go ahead. I’m no writer, and only recently learned to spell via the computer’s spellchecker program.

Our daylight antipode at Latitude 64N is December 21st, when we get 3hrs 42 min of puny “daylight”. By then the Sun has descended to about a finger’s height (guess which one!) above the horizon, provides no heating effect, and casts a well atmospheric filtered tinted glow on the land. Lots of artificial lights both indoors and out are a part of living, and flashlight battery sales are brisk.

Here’s another true Airedale blog from the North:

If slowly exposed to temperature changes, many dogs readily adapt to cold and darkness. Our Airedales never seemed to slow down in the cold, despite our wishes they do so just a little. For mutual exercise and recreation, I walked them daily at our local airport. There’s a dredged-out water-way used by float equipped aircraft, similar to what you may have seen near oil exploration rigs in the Southeast coastal Delta country. The shore is populated with aircraft in the Summer, and when it’s frozen between October and May, provides a landing surface for aircraft on skiis.

My dogs live indoors, but when outdoors in Winter my dogs wear fleece booties with velcro tightening straps developed for the specialized sport of sled dog racing. Generally, temps below zero require that booties be worn, or they’ll walk about in discomfort on three legs while warming the fourth, all the while glaring at our well bundled bodies with apparent envy. With a good 1″ or more all-around growth of hair they don’t easily get chilled, but I have even provided them a special over the back fleece coat during brief exposure to real cold temps down to -50F. Wanna’ see a warm sleepy dog do their duties before bed quickly?. Come up here during a cold snap, and you’d be amazed at how fast an otherwise reluctant trip outdoors can take. Zoom out, bam, done, back in right now!

Early on I received permission from the airport Operations staff to walk my girls there daily when I’m in town, mainly to discourage shore nesting waterfowl from sticking around. Aircraft-waterfowl encounters are bad, and the Fed Gov’t pays the State owned airport to blast away at them with various noise makers to run them off during the active Summer/Fall months. Shotguns firing cracker shells and propane-fired blasters are employed to discourage residence.

Trust me when I say that the Airedale is quite adept at sourcing out duck eggs and nests, and waste no time in rooting about, digging, or rolling on the mess. Our first Airedale Iris would find a nest and run off the hen. She’d then look at me as if to say “watch this one for points and style”, and perform an astounding side flip onto the hapless soon-to-be remains. All the while the distraught hen would be circling and skittering off, hoping my dog would leave the nest and chase her. As always, she’d ignore the hen until done. When forced, she would only briefly jump in the floatplane pond to rinse off the avian residue. Iris hated water and firmly believed it was only made to drink or wet and cool one’s feet on hot days. “Good sport ‘eh Dad?, let’s do some more” was her assumed reply as we moved on.

Our second dog Rose was more direct. She was a roughie-toughie that would just crash about on the nests, stomp’em, and move on to fresh quarry after a good swim. She loved to swim, and would take off on her own in random pursuits of any floating object. Neither dog ate or licked the nesting site. That’s just as well, as waterfowl carry all manner of infectious disease. Makes you wonder about the health of all the retrievers trained to handle waterfowl. I made sure both dogs were cleaned and dried off before riding home in the car. When warmed year-round, essence of wet dog will eventually overcome any other odor and trash a vehicle’s interior. Non-dog owners rarely accept free rides once exposed to the scent, so prompt drying and a washable car cover are important.

On another note, here are some links that may be of interest to you folks if you’re planning a trip up this way some day:

Our Climate: http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/
Our Newspaper/fish wrapper: http://www.newsminer.com/
Visitor guides: http://adserver1.harvestadsdepot.com/fairbanksdnm/ss/079424/ and http://fairbanks-alaska.com/
Another tourism blog: http://www.explorefairbanks.com/
The Aurora in Winter only: http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/
Great spot to visit east of town, I go there weekly if I can: http://www.chenahotsprings.com/

I apoligize for the long e-mail, but if you folks can get away some day, I’m sure we and the Websters that own Airedale Isabel could help show you the essence of Alaskan living.
Gary.

We recently placed Vanna the Airedale with Gary and Kathleen in Fairbanks, Alaska.  We’ve had some interesting story exchanges along with a description of Summer Solstice in Alaska that we thought to share.  Here’s the first Gary’s notes:

Hello Laura and Dave. It’s Summer Solstice and with 21 H and 49 M of daylight, I’m up and wide awake for a change cooking bratwurst on the grill. I believe Kathleen will introduce herself from her mom’s home in Vancouver, WA. soon, before she returns to Fairbanks Tuesday. She really does exist and loves her dogs. I’m the “daddy’s girl” genetically disposed owner, as I’ll try to explain.

The reason is that my Aunt Jane, now at rest, wrote me years back that my father, uncle, Jane, and their family had an Airedale when they were growing up in Lower Michigan in the town of Rogers City. Probably in the 1930’s. My Grandfather was a boat Captain that transported Calcite used in the manufacturing of steel for the Bradley Transportation Company in big inland ships, namely the Carl D. Bradley, that sunk in the late 50’s. Anyhow, he brought home one fine day a scraggly scoundrel of a dog for the kids. Likely a wharf rat he found near the docks. The kids loved the Airedale, and according to Aunt Jane was the love of her youth for the time he spent with the her and family. Later in life she had her own until he passed. She said she couldn’t bring herself to have another, as the memories of their bond were too strong.

We recently reconnected as relatives before her passing, and when I mentioned we kept Airedales, she emotionally described her bonding with the dog as a youth, her owning another, and wondered if it was fate for me as well. Anthropomorphic, but?

My first encounter with an Airdale was in the mid 1980’s when a co-worker and I were on a long job-related Summer boating trip to a State Refuge wetland area 50 miles west of Fairbanks. Our job with the State Fish and Game was to collect data on resident fish species, mainly Northern Pike and Burbot. We stopped at a fish guide’s camp to say hello, and there were only two teen agers there caring for the camp, as the guide had left to pick up more clients. Their play game apparently was to cast a lure into the water, and have the guide’s male Airedale fetch. However, they forgot to use the special floating Pike lure without the hooks. The dog was mouth-caught and in pain. I walked over to the male Airdale and sat in the mud with him. We talked some and I asked if it was ok if I removed the hook from his mouth, and he whimpered ok, as I recall.

With a swift turn with my needle nose fish pliers I freed the great dog. He yelped once and then came back to me for pets and reassurance. I guess that was to say thanks boss for getting me out of the predicament these young dinks got me in.

After that Summer I owned my first Airedale Iris within six months.

I somehow felt that any dog that would trust a complete stranger to fix a pain problem he was having was worth owning.

That’s a true story, and to this day believe that I’m somehow programmed to own the breed. Dunno why, but it’s in there somewhere.

Gary

Okay, so straight-up confession here:  I, Laura, opted out of the advanced obedience class in July.  Partly because I (and Foggy) are not fans of hanging outdoors in the hottest part of triple digit weather and partly because we had a visitor here from France and I thought I had plenty to do in the entertainment segment of our lives.

     So Dave & Chip, Danika & Junie. B. forged ahead.  First class, they were two of the three sets of participants.  The third person and her dog put on quite the show the first day.  Seems her dog has a serious aggression problem and besides snarling at other dogs and trying to pick fights, he drags the woman around by the leash.  The woman, a timid, slight person, was quite upset by her dog’s obnoxious behavior.  And to give the Airedales credit, they ignored the dog’s stare-downs and gnashing of teeth in their direction (just like an Airedale to turn mannerly when another dog acts up). 

     The dog was so out of control, the instructor finally had the woman just practice walking her dog back and forth in front of the sitting Airedales while the instructor gave tips on correcting the aggressive behavior.  Toward the end of the session, the instructor talked to the woman about correcting the dog’s stare-downs and the woman burst into tears.  Noisy, wet sobs all because of her out-of-control dog and how miserable he was making her life.

She signed on for private lessons after that first day - behavior modification one-on-one with the instructor.

Chip and Junie B. finished out the six weeks of lessons without a hitch.  They both passed the CGC test with flying colors.

As for me and Foggy, we’re wondering about winter classes.  Stay tuned.

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