TJ's Big Adventure

 This is a piece I did a few years ago for "Terrier Man" Pete Bassani to help him kick off his own new "Big Adventure" of taking on the writing of his Traditional Working Airedale column in "Full Cry Magazine"

A hunt some years ago with my young at the time male Airedale
"California Tee Jay Mack"


Al Kranbuhl
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                         TJ's Big Adventure

     I have been pretty busy the past few months and have not had a lot of time for writing. Most of my older dogs have passed on and I am left with a bunch of half trained youngsters. So this past fall has been one of the busiest years ever, too many dogs and not enough time. I've been working the dogs mostly on squirrels, coon, and some grouse and there comes a time when you have to put some game in their mouths. I started looking at some new areas as close to home as possible where I could do some hunting and put something down for the dogs. I decided to check out a state co-op that can only be hunted by permit. I usually stay away from such places to avoid crowds, but I wanted to at least check it out as I knew there were pheasants there. So I signed up and got my permit and maps and took my young male Airedale, TJ with me  to scout this area and see if it was worth messing with.

     TJ is a 70 pound male that is one of my yard dogs, and far from any kind of finished dog, I have messed with him some on squirrels, coon, and some retrieving work. I would say TJ's biggest turn on is birds. He is crazy about them. This turned out to be one of my best days hunting with a dog ever and I call it
"TJ's Big Adventure".

     I opened the gate to this area and pulled down the dirt road and went about half a mile. We came to a parking area and mine was the only vehicle there. I let T J out to stretch while I signed the 'sign in' board. I got my gear out of the truck and my .20 gauge double along with the maps and sat down at a picnic table to plot some strategy.

     I was not sitting there but for a couple of minutes when I heard TJ bark once and I saw him tearing through the woods. I grabbed my gun and went over to see him run a gray squirrel up an oak. As I approached the tree I saw the squirrel timber over to a big evergreen and disappear into the top. I wanted to put the squirrel down to reward TJ and bring home, as he was treeing pretty good, but I could not find the squirrel to get a shot. I was not too happy about missing an opportunity right off the bat, but I petted TJ up well and decided to move out on a trail that cut through a huge swamp and see what we could find.

     I had not walked too far when I could see TJ was again working scent. I got up close to him and all of a sudden two woodcock flushed. I shot twice and never touched a feather. I reloaded quickly and walked into T J and he flushed another woodcock and I shot and missed again. To say I was not happy was an understatement. I do not claim to be an expert shot, but I was not this pathetic either. TJ was doing his part but I am zero for four on game in the first half hour of hunting.

     So on we go. I was in an area of old growth trees that one doesn't see much around here as we come up to a ridge. I saw TJ getting gamey and as I got close up to him I heard a grouse flush but I had no shot. About the time I am thinking what else could go wrong, another  grouse flushed straight up and landed on a branch looking down on TJ. Not being proud, I immediately dumped him, as they say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and we were finally on the scorecard.

     About a mile up the trail I heard TJ bark and I could see that he was working around a big pile of brush, looking to get in it. I got over there  and looked around and saw nothing, so I climbed up on the pile and jumped up and down a couple of times and out shoots a cottontail rabbit which I bagged. Now I am feeling a little better, as things are now starting to go our way.

     On we go heading for an old railroad bed that cuts through a huge swamp. I hear TJ bark and whine a couple of times working scent along the edge of the swamp. He was having a hard time moving it out so I figured it must be some kind of feed track. I just followed behind him and let him work and after a bit I moved out some. I had no clue what he was doing but I was ready. He started checking trees for scent and I started looking around myself. The one big oak that he was especially interested in I looked over well and there sat a good sized layup coon. He kept getting up on the tree and whining so he knew the coon was there but lacked the confidence to tree hard. I encouraged him and he started to bark treed well. Now this was the situation I wanted for TJ. My problem was I had the shotgun and didn't want to ruin the hide so I took careful aim at the head and touched one off. It looked like I shot low and just splattered the coon with bark, but out he came. He was full of fight but was no match for TJ as things were settled in short order. I was real happy with his job on this coon and it looked like we were now on a roll.

     We found this railroad bed and started through the swamp to an open area where the pheasants were supposed to be. I got my map out and took a trail towards some open fields. We then went about a half a mile and came up over a small knoll and there stood two cock pheasants on the trail about 30 yards away. I could have probably gotten both with one shot, but I put TJ on them. One flushed and went to my left and I shot. I could see him go into the woods with T J in hot pursuit a long way and I assumed I missed clean. The other bird ducked into a field of goldenrod to the right. I called TJ back to me and was just about to see if we could flush the other bird when a couple of other hunters appeared and said they saw the whole thing and were positive I had hit the other bird good and said they saw it go down I should be able to find it. So I took a good look at my map and saw that where the pheasant had gone was a several hundred acre patch of woods, and was surrounded by a trail, oval in nature and kind of looked on the map like a giant NASCAR race track. I got TJ in there where I thought the pheasant  flew and he started quartering back and forth. I could see that TJ had scent and was working it so I started following him, staying as close to him as possible. After several hundred yards, I started to think we were not on a pheasant, but definitely on something.

     Finally, we came out on the other side of the woods to the trail surrounding these woods and there was that huge swamp full of water facing us, I began mumbling about those two guys being full of it about me dinging that pheasant. I was just about to call TJ in as he was heading towards the swamp when up flushes the pheasant and he lands in a tree looking down at TJ  just like the grouse had done earlier. Needless to say the way I had been shooting, I flattened him right where he sat. I must say that TJ put on quite an exhibition of tracking on this pheasant.

     I forgot to say this was getting to be a fairly hot day. It was now 3 PM and we had been going since 8AM and I was beat. I found a resting place and sat down to eat one of those power bars. While sitting there I got out my new varmint call. It is produced by a local outfit called a Black Creek and it is a three in one call: squirrel, rabbit squeal, and coyote howler.

I tooted on the squealer a few times and was just sitting there when I saw TJ coming to attention. Looking in the direction he was staring I see a red fox coming in on the run. We were busted immediately but I got off two quick shots with three inch number fours. TJ got on the trail and went only about 50 or 60 yards and he found the fox.

   Well by this time my old bones had enough for the day and it was a long way back to the truck so we started out. I can't remember when my feet hurt more but I also can't remember  having a better day afield. A pleasant Fall day with your Airedale, in the woods that contains a good population of game animals, man life don't get much better than that.

 I'm not trying to kid anyone, TJ was still pretty green and could stand a lot of improvement in order to be a number one hunting dog, more experience and some polish. That being said for the actual amount of hunting he has had, he sure made me proud. The thing I was most interested in seeing was that real natural ability and drive geared toward hunting multiple types of game animals. If I would have done my part, we would have bagged seven different species of game this day which in my opinion is a pretty good feat in any hunter's book! In traditional Airedale fashion, he showed he is a versatile meat dog and game for anything that walks, crawls or flies, I am sure the breed founders would have been happy with him.....a pretty good hunting Airedale.

TJ and our catch

My Dogs Had What It Takes.

Well known outdoor writer, author and hunter Elliot Barker describes his hunting dogs. Barker's dogs of choice happened to be Airedales. This article gives an idea of what kind of hunting dogs Airedales once were and how they gained their well deserved reputation.

I would like to add that the kind of hunting that Mr Barker put his dogs through and the kind of hunting on various game animals found on this blog done by other hunters is what needs to be done to evaluate hunting Airedales to find out if they have what it takes.

In my opinion it is the very best way to judge breeding stock, only when they can show that they do have what it takes on game are they then are allowed to reproduce! Speculating that they have what it takes does not cut it with me!

One more thing, Barker's Airedales were far from being pretty looking but as game producers they were outstanding and while I appreciate beauty as much as anyone, from my hunter's perspective being an accomplished game producing hunting dog is what counts to me as it should be to any other serious hunting dog breeder. When breeding for performance don't be worrying too much about what your dogs look like, concentrate on how they perform in the field.

Al Kranbuhl
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Pup, Puse, and Queenie were the best trained dogs I ever had. They were trained to hunt, to work and fight, and they loved to do just that. I had taught them absolute obedience in essential matters. They were entirely loyal to me and tried at all times to accomplish what I indicated I wanted them to do. They worked together admirably, yet they differed greatly. Each had their own personality and own way of doing things.

Queenie was a little perfectly marked, straight haired Airedale. She has a stubborn streak in her, but was very smart and calculating to an extant that her actions were indicative of advanced planning. For instance a neighbor's hogs got into my field a quarter of a mile from the house. Pup and Puse went after them at top speed, but Queenie would not go. Instead she leisurely trotted down to the side of the road where the  hogs had come in, and then lay down in the grass and waited. In a few minutes the hogs came by on the run, with Pup and Puse right after them. Timing her actions perfectly Queenie caught a sow by the ear, and held her right there until I went down and made her turn loose. She thought I wanted a hog and planned it so she could catch me one with the least effort.

Queenie would not follow me when I rode away from the house unless I had a gun. Show her the six shooter or rifle and you could not make her stay back. She liked to hunt and she knew perfectly well I wasn't going hunting unless I had a gun. She was an excellent trap dog and would work persistently for a Coyote when he got away with a trap.

Queenie was thirteen years old when I was at Vermejo Park, and slowed down so much by age and the bearing of pups that she was of little use except to help me follow the other dogs, for she barked on a trail some while the others ran silently until the track became quite fresh.

She was a prolific breeder, a large litter of pups twice a year if permitted. Once she gave birth to an even dozen. In almost every litter  sired by an Airedale, there would be one natural bobtailed pup. Students of genetics are agreed that acquired characteristics can not be transmitted to the offspring. Yet Queenie did it many times, although perhaps she did not mean to.

Pup was a fairly large, huskily built Airedale, with light brown back and sides and nearly white below. He had medium short hair and and a very short bobbed tail. His eyes were inquisitive and intelligent, his ears alert. He was two and a half years old when I picked him up as a stray, and in gratitude for the home I gave him he became the most devoted dog I have ever owned. Through all the years I had him he would follow me everywhere I went if permitted to do so.

He was loyal to me and my family and would fight for any of us if he thought we were in trouble. He was deliberate in his actions and sure in his decisions. He was afraid of nothing, accepted any challenge, and welcomed a fight with dog or wild animal no matter what the odds were against him. I never saw him fail to acquit himself with credit in a fight, although the odds were to great to overcome and sometimes he had to be carried off the battlefield. He was just a little too determined and self confident for his own good.

When I was at Vermejo Park he was thirteen years old, but though battle scarred, he was as active as a dog half that age. At eighteen, he was still able to tree a Lion. When he died at the advanced canine age of twenty one his hair had turned perfectly white. He was a great dog.

Puse was Queenie's son, but Pup was not his sire. Instead his sire was a highly bred Airedale with a pedigree as long as your arm. Puse was a medium sized and a typical Airedale in shape and color but excelled the average in intelligence, speed and endurance. He was very smart, quick and impulsive. Never did a man and a dog get along better than he and I, but he did not show the wonderful devotion that Pup did. Puse took the attitude that we were partners, Pup that I was his master.

Always alert, Puse had great initiative, was sure of himself but acted on impulse rather than deliberation. He specialized in taking shortcuts to unravel a trail, and was so fast that he would get up on a cat or Lion before they knew they were being chased. He was fearless, and the going never got too bad for him to follow his quarry.

He could come nearer telling me by his actions just what he wanted to than any dog I ever worked with. The different ways he would cock his head, first on one side then the other, prick up or lower his ears, wriggle his stubby tail, bark, whine and jump around, all had their meaning which I learned to know as well as he learned to understand what I said to him.

There were mighty few chases he was ever on, no matter whose dogs he was with or what the competition, that he was not the first one to the tree. I fear there will never be another Puse.

I found that in training a hunting dog, it is essential above all else to teach him his name. Teach it to him so that he recognizes it when spoken under any circumstances. It is therefore important to give him a short name easily understood and susceptible of great emphasis. No two dogs in the same pack should have names that sound alike.

Puse was originally named Pusillanimous by my then young son but it was soon shortened to Puse. Pusillanimous may have fit him as a small pup but it surely did not fit him at all when he grew up.

Often when riding through game county, I found it desirable to have the dogs stay behind. I could accomplish that  merely by speaking the name of each dog and then saying get back or get behind. The three would then follow back close at the horse's heels. Then if I saw predator sign that I wanted to know more about, I would stop and look back at the dogs, say Puse!, here, see what it is, and Puse would come around in front and test the sign, telling me by his actions, not only what had been there, but about how fresh it was. Or if it was Pup or Queenie that I wanted, they would come while the other two stayed back until I would tell them to go on or go get him.

They loved a Lion trail, and if it turned out to be a fresh Lion track that one dog was testing, the other would quickly recognize that fact by his intense interest and tense actions, and would sometimes have to be told again to stay back. There was an entirely different reaction to a coyote track than to a Bobcat or Lion. It would always cause the hair to raise on the back of their necks, and sometimes they would act resentful that a Coyote had been there, and sometimes half growl or snort as they tested the track. It was plain that they did not like it. But when they could catch a Coyote they loved to fight him and kill him.

They were pleased when they found either a Lion or a Bobcat track. They show that they wanted to go and showed no ill temper at all, but all interest and anxiety to find him. The difference between a Lion and a Bobcat was in the degree of the same reaction rather than a different reaction. Intensity of interest, eagerness and an all absorbing anxiety, born of anticipation for what they knew they would find at the end of the trail, were characteristic of their actions upon finding fresh Lion sign. As they were silent trailers except when the track was very hot, one had to watch their actions rather than listen to their tone of voice, as one does with a hound.

But they were as good Bobcat dogs as you would find anywhere. I recall one day in late November at the Park soon after a 16 inch snowfall, we went out in the turkey winter range country to try and cut down the Bobcat population. Ordinarily I have found Bobcat harder to tree than a Mountain Lion. Of course they don't travel as far as a Lion and many more of them are caught each year, because there are so many more of them. But the individual cat can pull more tricks and get away from the dogs after being jumped oftener by far than a Lion.

But when there is a fresh deep snow on the ground, they are greatly handicapped, and the finding of a fresh track usually results in a quick catch. So it was that I wished to take advantage of this snow and pick up a few Bobcats. The snow was soft and had blown off the trees pretty much and had melted down to six or eight inches on the steep south slopes.

Old Kate was not in condition to hunt and Queenie was slowing up so much with age that I left them both at home. I knew that Pup and Puse would get the job done anyway, and with snow on I could always be sure of following them up if they did make a long fast run.

After riding three miles or so over into Gachupin Canyon, we struck a track of a very large Bobcat and followed on the trail for a couple of miles before we jumped him. He had been hunting and had killed one rabbit and a Tasseled eared squirrel, and then with a full belly had taken to some sunny cliffs to lay up for the day.

The dogs were trailing silently and were right close on to him before he knew it, and they saw him as he left his bed in the rocks and bounded off down the hill. Both dogs followed in hot pursuit, barking at every jump and forced him to take a tree within a quarter mile. I shot him and and quickly skinned him, tied the skin on the back of the saddle and started on hoping to have another track soon.

In a short while, on a ridge top we struck the track of not one but three Bobcats. One was fairly large and the others much smaller. I surmised it to be an old mother cat with two half grown kittens and that is what it had proved to be.

We trailed the three to some big rocks on a sunny slope and jumped them out. They ran along the sunny south slope for quite a distance, giving the dogs a little trouble on account of the great number of deer tracks where a sizable herd of deer had been feeding and bounded away as we approached.

Finally one of the half grown kittens took to a small yellow pine and I just luckily saw it as I approached, because the dogs had gone on after the others. I shot and skinned the kitten as quickly as I could and hurried on after the dogs. I kept watch for the other kitten as I rode along, for I was sure it would be next to tree.

While a Bobcat (or a Lion for that matter) will not stop and fight the dogs to protect it's young, it will run on and on, leading the dogs away from the trees in which the young had taken refuge. It is my belief that they do this deliberately, just as some birds will flutter along the ground, feigning a broken wing to lure one away from their nest or young.

I expected this old Bobcat to run quite a distance after the second kitten treed. Soon I heard the dogs barking treed, I rode on to the tree and as expected, found the other young one. I shot it out and when the dogs had wooled it a moment, I made them stop and sent them on after the mother cat, but I was entirely wrong.

She had crossed the ridge into a deeper canyon with a very steep southern exposure, where there was not very much snow left, and what there was now was pretty wet, causing little scent to be left. In this type of country, the tracks showed that she had circled and dodged and run for some time, keeping ahead of the dogs. I lost some time trying to make out where they had gone and in getting through some pretty rough areas where she had led. I could not quite make out why the dogs had not crowded her enough to make her take a tree, for I could not hear them at all.

At last I came to where she had made a long open run with the dogs evidently right behind her. Of a sudden I rounded a bend, and there, stretched out on the snow, lay the big spotted, bedraggled Bobcat, stone dead, while both Pup and Puse were wallowing in the snow rubbing their heads and shoulders in it to clean the blood off. From the blood on the snow it looked as if they were cut up pretty badly.

What had happened was that the Bobcat, a large female had taken refuge in a hole in the rocks, thinking she could defend herself rather than take a tree. To get her out required stamina and intestinal fortitude, and I would have given anything to see it done.

The hole was about seven feet deep in solid rock of breccia formation and sloped down very slightly. It was almost round and less than thirty inches in diameter at it's mouth, and tapering to about a foot at the back end. I crawled partly in to figure out what had happened.

From the blood and hair at the back of the hole, it was evident that the Bobcat had gone to the end and had turned around to fight off the dogs. One of the dogs had gone in  and faced teeth and razor sharp claws to bring her out. There was not enough room  for both dogs to work side by side. Pup had a habit, in a fight of any kind boring in and taking all his opponent could give, for the sake of a throat hold. That is just what he had done here.

He had faced teeth and claws in a direct frontal attack, where not strategy or maneuvering tactics could be employed.
He had gone in head on into all the cat had to give, which was plenty, for the sake of getting a neck hold, and when he had got it, he held it and dragged the Bobcat out where Puse helped him kill it. The fact that that the cat was dead right outside the miniature cave, showed Pup had never released his hold.

That act, I believe, took more nerve than anything I ever saw a dog do!!

Pup was pretty badly cut up around the head and was bleeding profusely, but was not seriously injured. In his lifetime Pup had to be carried home three times, and sewed up a half dozen times, from cuts received in fights with bears and Lions.
But this time, he was able to walk in and needed stitches in only two places around his eyes.

Puse was not badly scratched but just enough to show he had been in a fight. I have no doubt that Puse would have finally gone in and got that cat, but he was younger and not quite do deliberate and determined in a fight as Pup, and the older dog seized the opportunity to do so first.

The cat's skin was badly torn, but I took it anyway, and rode home with the skins of the whole family tied back of the saddle.
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One of the classic works of hounds & hunting. The author recounts the year he spent on the Vermejo Park ranch in northern New Mexico, 1929, hunting mountain lion, bobcat and bear with hounds and Airedales.

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Airedales & Docked Tails

These days it is common to see discussions on whether dog breeds with traditionally docked tails need to have this procedure done any more in this day and age. Most of the breeds that have been traditionally docked are sporting-hunting dogs along with a smattering of other working breeds.

In many countries in Europe they now ban the docking of tails even though it is part of many breed standards. It is also plain to see that this banning business has coincided with the banning of hunting with dogs in many of the same countries, what hunting there is being done with dogs is very limited.

Here in the US as hunting with dogs declines we will more than likely see more and more clamoring for docking bans. Those doing most of the squawking for the most part do nothing activity wise with their dog for which it was originally developed and bred, as in hunting their hunting dog! What cracks me up is the stop the tail docking zealots will scream and yell that snipping the tail of a pup is cruel and painful yet they will have no problem pushing for major surgery as in Spaying and Neutering!!

Personally I am against any government decreed bans "period", on top of which there are very legitimate reasons to have the tails docked on hunting-working breeds.'

If one prefers having an undocked tail "fine" but as a hunter who uses his dogs in the field and has experienced tail tip injuries to my own dogs from working heavy cover leave me the option! I can tell you there is nothing harder to get healed up than a tip of the tail injury.

 Also on a personal note, from an aesthetic point there is nothing more ugly to my eye than an undocked Airedale!

Owners of dogs who are "couch taters" just do not realize the beating a tail tip of a hunting dog can be subjected to while working heavy cover, here are couple of photos showing tail tips injured on hunting dogs and it is more common than the unknowing would think! A couple of years ago I had a female Coon hound of mine get her tail injured as pictured and it took most of the summer to get that tail tip healed.!

Sausage Heads

I own a fairly comprehensive library of not only vintage Airedale books but also a bunch more on various other hunting breeds. One of the things I find interesting is the evolution in physical characteristics of a breed as it is refined over the years.

I would like to believe that most dog breeder's ultimate goal when they make a mating is to make their breed of choice better in every way they can, but of course the way the dogs are used will be a major determining factor.

In reality most show people will be slanted toward conformation and looks where performance breeders such as hunters will be looking more at how the dog produces in the field.

Sometimes things breeders do with dogs start getting out of hand and some breeds end up being distinctly different in both looks and performance. In some breeds like Hounds, they remain relatively unscathed by the show crowd. Other breeds like the English Bull Dogs, they are so screwed up they can not even mate naturally.

In my opinion it all stems from the breed moving away from and not participating in the jobs and work they were originally developed and bred to do.

Below are a couple of photos of Airedales that were on a calendar I received as a gift, I was left not only scratching my head but I was also angry. Take a look a the heads on these dogs, their skulls are barely wider than their muzzle, and look at the muzzle length, they almost appear "Anteater" like. As the tennis player John McEnroe would say "You Can't Be Serious", I am trying to figure out what the hell are these people thinking??

Sorry but this is no improvement of the Airedale breed and I sure hope this narrow headed conformation fad falls out of any kind of favor and goes by the wayside!!

Below those two are some photos illustrating my point, first one of those calendar photos compared to my big Mooreland hunting bred Airedale, below them an old time Airedale from 1899 and another current Airedale from hunting lines, wider heads and medium length muzzles.

I want to see some space between the ears with room for brains and power, when that Mooreland dog chomps down, bones start breaking,  I will take the old fashioned heads any day, the breed founders knew what they were doing!!

What I Know About Airedales (HUNTING)

The Naysayers!

I belong to several hunting dog forums and visit them all with some regularity. Once in awhile on one of these forums the subject of Airedale Terriers is brought up from someone looking for some opinions on what kind of hunting dogs they make. Most of the answers are of the generic type, stuff that is the oft repeated tales found on the internet and in books. Then there are some folks giving information that actually have some experience with the breed. And of course there are the naysayer internet experts. I have even come across a blog which has the sole purpose of berating the Airedale as a hunting dog. Below are a few examples of some typical responses from some of these self proclaimed experts.

Airedales to me are very overrated living off undeserved decades old reputation, and a waste of good dog food.

"I hear talk of how 'gritty' they are, but all I see are singing dogs, not biters.. I think their reputation is unearned and living off wives tales for half of century."

"If I hear one more time how tough Airedales are or how they outhunt Pointers in the field or out retrieve Labradors on the water, Im going to vomit. All I see in Hunting photos of Airedales are them barking, not biting, game. None of them close on dangerous game or are catchy."

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I can surely understand how one can get down a a breed or line of hunting dog when they have a bad experience. But it is a big mistake for one to paint any breed of hunting dog with a wide brush as sorry especially when one has limited experience with the breed. Whoever made those statements above never owned or hunted with an Airedale personally and would have you believe there is not a good hunting Airedale in existence. It is plain to see this fellow above has an agenda and a vendetta against Airedales, there is plenty of picture evidence just on this Blog to prove him grossly wrong!

Making a breed evaluation and indicting all the dogs in it from such scant information such as a few internet pictures or an I knew a guy or heard a tale does not tell the whole story about any breed, far from it!

I started out in the heyday of the dog jockey, if I had a dollar for every sorry hound I got taken on I could buy myself a pretty nice present, that was the bad part. The good part is I now can spot a shyster or blowhard almost immediately.

I owned and hunted with a good many Hounds of all breeds in my lifetime, if I dwelled on and just went by every shy, track jacking, dog aggressive=tree fighting, gutless, retarded no account hound I owned or saw owned by others I would not mess with Hounds period. Especially Walkers, yet the truth be known Walkers are far an away the most successful and popular Coon Hound breed, the fact of the matter is I just had the bad luck or misfortune to get some poor performers, it happens! Even though I was disappointed and yes "Angry" I am not going to stand on a podium and rip Walkers! This kind of stuff comes with the territory and if one can not face disappointment they should stay out of this line of sport.

On the other hand I have also owned and hunted Hounds that were and are as good as any. Even though I have had my fair share of poor performers Hounds are still far and away one of my favorite breeds and I will always have a couple around until I can't hunt coon or rabbits anymore. What I am saying is for me to indict Hounds as worthless hunting dogs because of the sorry ones is ridiculous. Yet you will have some people rip Airedales on just an isolated incident, a few pictures or hearsay.

I have owned and hunted Airedales since the sixties and as I did with Hounds I have had plenty of sorry ones and yes some were produced by me personally. By the same token some of the best all around hunting dogs I have ever had were Airedales, I don't believe there is a more versatile hunting dog alive when you get a good one. There are some pretty fair hunting bred with guts to spare Airedales to be had if someone wants to take the time to look for them.

The Airedale is seeing a resurgence as a hunting dog in recent years, there are never guarantees with any breed but your odds getting a decent hunting dog can be increased substantially. A breeder can tell you anything and everything you want to hear but in the end the dogs they produce have to speak for themselves and that is when and where the truth comes out! My best advice to anyone buying any kind of hunting dog is to do your homework, closely consider the source of your info, find reputable breeders who actually hunt their Airedales and get references from people you can trust!

Now if you think the breed assassins have just crawled out of their holes in recent years with the advent of the internet WRONG! It is something that seems to have been going on forever, before the internet there was magazines for them to push their agenda.

Below is an example of Scott McGill's reply to an magazine article from the early 1900s where a fellow wrote his disparaging remarks about the Airedale breed!

On a personal note when I am looking to buy a hunting dog from any breed, it is the dog men like Scott McGill that I seek out!

Enjoy,

Al Kranbuhl

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What I know About Airedales

Out of an old outdoor publication circa the early 1900s, the author

Scott McGill

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I don't suppose anything I can say will settle the argument between the hound admirers and the Airedale fans, but for the benefit of both of these fine dogs, the opinion of a man of sixty-two who has hunted with dogs continually for over fifty years may help some.

My first experience with hunting dogs was down on the farm, where game was plentiful, and "Old Shep' answered our purpose very well. We had many of these shepherd dogs and considered them the best hunters and game getters, until some city men came to our place to hunt bobcat, and gave my father one of their hounds that had been mauled by a cat. We soon got this hound in good shape again and took him out for a hunt, and as he did not do much the first time, my father called him a "lazy cuss," but after a few hunts he soon proved his superiority over Old Shep as a trailer, and what my father at first termed as "yawpin," he later said was "fine music" when this dog opened up on a trail. After the passing of this grand dog, we got more hounds, and later got to crossing them with bird dogs and water spaniels. Among these mongrels were the best all-round hunting dogs my father ever had, and one in particular, a half water spaniel and hound, I place first among all the dogs I have ever hunted with, for work in the rough country where we lived.

When I became old enough to own a dog of my own I got pure bred black and tan hounds with long thin ears and good voices, and for many years would consider nothing else for coon or other fur hunting. Occasionally my neighbors would take their mongrels out with me and tree ahead of my hounds, but I noticed that my hounds would usually get the trail well started first.

I preferred the black and tans with long ears, not because the color or length of ear made any difference in the hunting ability, but I considered these points an indication of good breeding, and certainly they were beautiful dogs. I always kept my dogs in the best of condition, and I am sure I have been repaid many times over for my care of them. I have raised and trained many pups and found that they suited me better than the so-called trained dogs that I have bought.

I have owned upwards of seventy-five or eighty hounds and of these I would place about five of them in class number one as coon hounds; I would place about twenty of them in class number two, and the balance were third grade or worse. The first class do-;s are the kind you seldom get, and then only for a very high price, or through the use of extra great care and patience in training. The second class coon dogs are good coon dogs and cost about a hundred dollars today.

I owned one pure bred (as far as I know) hound that was as game a fighter as I ever saw in action. I never knew him to quit, once he got into a mix-up. On one occasion he was frightfully punished by a bobcat and never made a sound or gave sign of quitting during the fight, though he was bleeding from ugly cuts in the throat, had one eye gouged out, ears split to ribbons, and a broken and badly lacerated foot. By the time I crossed the river to him he was badly used up, but still doing his best. He was, of course, an exception in this respect, for a pure hound, whose business it is only to find the game.

My first experience with Airedales was when a neighbor of mine had a year-old pup sent to him by a city relative. I was not very favorably impressed with this dog at first but consented to have a. hunt with him and take my old dog "Bugle." When my neighbor arrived at my farm, I let Bugle out of his yard, and we did not see him again until we arrived at the tree where he was barking up.

This Airedale did not quite understand Bugle's musical efforts at lirst, and stayed rather close to us most of the time, but I noticed several limes during the hunt that he would smell around a bit, and pick up a rabbit track and run it a few minutes, then come back to us. This was his first trip out and he was a young dog so we did not expect much of him. When we got to the tree, this dog smelled around, watched Bugle, looked up the tree, growled, bit, and tried to climb up, then started to bark. On our next hunt, when we shot the coon out of the tree, the Airedale had him almost as soon as Bugle, and after a few times out this dog began to hunt some and finally we let him kill a coon alone.

From that time on he began to improve fast and or his third hunting season was a good coon and cat do?. He became an eager and persistent hunter, a good tree dog, and though he could not unravel a trail like a good hound, would stick as long as allowed to, or until he had treed. He once killed a twenty-two pound bobcat without help.

I decided to buy an Airedale to take the rough work off my hounds and got a twoyear-old dog. After much patience and care; trying to train him, I gave him away as worthless. My third one proved to be a good one. He was bred from hunting stock, and showed it in his work. He was a good tree dog and first class in water, would also run a hot track faster than most dogs and was an all night sticker at a tree. I have owned seven other Airedales since this one, but only one of them was as good. My second good Airedale was an excellent cattle dog as well as a hunter and watch dog, and like most Airedales, a good tree and water dog. We never kept him tied from the time when we got him as a puppy, and I never knew him to stray off my farm without one of the family going with him. I worked this dog with a black and tan fox hound bitch and believe they were the best team I ever owned. Each seemed to know just what the other, would do in any circumstances, and each did its part of the work.

Later the Airedale, through an accident, became the sire of a litter of pups out of this bitch. I now have a dog out of that litter and can not think of any price that would buy him. My oldest son also has a dog from that litter, which, with an Airedale and two hounds, makes up his pack of bear and lion dogs, and he says the cross bred is the best and brainiest dog he has, and, as he expresses it, "The best dog in Idaho."

The Airedale to begin with, is half otter hound and half terrier, but the fancy breeders have all but spoiled him by in-breeding him to a fashionable and unnatural standard. I would not consider the average show Airedale worth much to a hunter; such a dog would be too narrow and flat in the skull to have room for much brains or good temperament, he would be too narrow in chest and short in back to have the endurance and ability required in a hunting dog.

But there is a good kind of Airedale; he is bred intelligently, from hunting stock by hunters; he is a "natural" dog in type and disposition, with the hunting instinct and lots of courage and grit bred in him. He has all the desirable qualities of the good Airedale and many of the good qualities of the good hound. The hunter who has such a dog and works him with a good hound is going to get the game and have lots of fun doing it.

The good Airedales may be a little jealous, but that quality makes him a good tree dog, watch dog and companion, and loyal to his master.

There are individual Airedales which are good coon dogs; there are individual hounds not worth their salt; however we can not condemn all hounds on account of the poor ones, nor say all Airedales are good. The average hound is superior to the average Airedale as a hunter and the Airedale requires more care to keep him looking presentable, but the man who likes dogs will be well repaid for the extra care. As puppies, the Airedales are more ''foolish" and require more training to make hunters of them.

A man is not qualified to make the broad statement that "Airedales are no good" or any other similar statement, because of having had an experience with one or two Airedales of the inferior kind. Some of the brother hunters speaking of the Airedale, seem very much peeved at him. Such a peevishness could be brought about by trying to enter a neighbor's chicken coop when an Airedale was on guard, or by trying to take game from a boy that had an Airedale companion. However such feelings are acquired, it shows poor judgment to exhibit them.

The Airedale, being the newest breed, is least standardized, and is. therefore, most likely to produce off-shoots of good and bad. with- all grades in between. In time to come the practical hunters, such as the readers of this magazine, and other sportsmen will perfect a strain of Airedales, exactly suited to the purpose of the hunter, not to take the place of the hound, but to work with him, each dog to supply the quality which the other does not have so highly developed.

Of the dogs that I have owned, the hounds were the best trailers and did it with greater ease and perfection; the Airedales were the most persistent and busy hunters and had more grit and determination; the hounds had the most endurance in a long chase; the Airedales were better at tree or hole. I always love and admire the beautiful appearance of a well conditioned hound, and I honor and respect a good Airedale for those qualities which make him loyal to one master and the courageous fighter that he is. The Airedales I have owned would fight for me; but the hounds would not.

If I were hunting fox exclusively, nothing would answer would be a well bred fox hound; for rabbits I would want a beagle hound; an English setter for birds; an Airedale for woodchucks, but as I hunt nothing but coon, I have "degenerated" so far as to select a first cross of Airedale and hound.

Hunting With Airedales Demographics

Had an interesting question posed to me the other day asking who are the folks that are using Airedales for hunting purposes and what are they hunting? I did not exactly know the answer so I decided just for the heck of it to do a bit of unscientific research into that question.

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I used the Traditional Working Airedale message board's members to get some idea who are the people that hunt with Airedales. Online since 2004 the Traditional Working Airedale message board makes no bones about who we recruit for members. Our focus for members is a narrow one, you must have an serious interest in hunting with Airedales and you must participate on the board along with an introduction of who you are and where you are from. As this is being written the board has some 300 members. While certainly not the last word it does give a pretty good representation and shows hunting trends of hunters who are actually using Airedales to hunt with.

So after sorting through the information obtained from this group of folks we will try to answer the question, "who are the people that actually hunt with Airedales and what game do they hunt?

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We will look at the gender statistics first off, out of that 300 plus membership there are only a half dozen women members that are regulars and only one or two of them would be considered a hard core hunter. Interesting considering that there are probably more women that own and breed Airedales than men but when it comes to numbers we can see that men are far and away the ones that actually seriously hunt Airedales.

The board's new member introduction section tells a lot and it is one of the reasons it is a requirement for new members. Below is a typical introduction and the majority of the intros are pretty much the same.

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Hello everyone, my name is Joe and I live in Ohio, I hunted with hounds and trapped lot as a boy but after I got out of school and got a job and started a family, I had to let my dogs go and hunting was set on the back burner.

I am now at the point where things have settled down and have some free time. I would like to get myself a dog and get back into hunting. I not only want a hunting dog but I want the dog to double as a family pet for my wife and kids.

I have done a bunch of research and the Airedale seems to be tailor made for what I am looking for. A great companion and pet for the family and also a dog I can take out on the weekend and do a bit of hunting with.

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What we are seeing on the board is typically middle aged to older retired guys (40s through 60s) that were hunters in their youth, got away from it for a little bit but have now come to a time in their lives where they can get back into the swing of things. Not what one would call hard core but for fun and some recreation.

In my opinion a good Airedale makes the perfect hunting dog for these guys and I must admit that the type and frequency of hunting I am involved in these days, as I get older, I am kind of starting to fit into this group myself.

While we have a few young Airedale member-hunters we do not have anywhere near the numbers I would like to see and that is for a couple of reasons. First of all when young most of these guys are hard core, speaking for myself I would hunt just about every day during season and would consider a day I did not limit out a failure.

Most of the really serious hunters I have been around go with a top performer of specialist breed, for Coons it was a Coon hound, for Rabbits it was a Beagle. Personally while I was always serious I was different in that I did bring in an Airedale along most of the time and they certainly always were contributors to the hunt but I was an exception to the rule as most hunters would stick with straight up specialists.

The second big thing is the price of an Airedale, many breeders are asking two to three times higher for what it costs to buy a top bred Hound or Cur and even a Bird dog pup.

It is a pretty hard sell to get somebody with a half a brain to pay three times the going rate for a well bred cur pup to hunt Squirrels with for an Airedale pup that in most cases will not do nearly as well.

We need the young folks, personally I will do my best to get a pup into the hands of a serious young hunter, the youngsters hold the future.

And lastly there are the serious straight up Airedalers, the guys live, eat and sleep hunting with Airedales, our numbers are not huge but these are the guys, hunter-breeders, that work to maintain that Airedale hunting Tradition both in the dog itself and in the field! These guys hunt their Airedales on anything and everything!

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What kind of game do hunters use Airedales for? On the board we have three categories of hunting, Small Game, Big Game, and Birds. It is pretty easy to see where the interest is.

Half of all hunting threads and posts are in the Small Game section, by Small Game we are talking Coons, Squirrels, Possum, Fox, Chucks, Rabbits, Rats, Coyotes etc for the most part.

We then can divide what is left of the second half of the posts and threads into thirds, two thirds of which are in the Big Game section. By Big Game we are talking Bear, Lion and Hogs.

The last third are threads about Bird hunting, this may be surprising to some considering the push in recent years to represent the Airedale as a bird dog. Not surprising to me, in all my years with the Airedale breed I have had very few inquiries about using an Airedale for actual bird hunting.

I will say there are some folks involved with bird field trial type events that are training and using Airedales, but as with Hounds, trialing is a lot different than actually going into the field with a gun and hunting wild game.

This Blog's hunting Airedales In Action Photo section is indicative also, those photos show pretty much the member's hunting tendencies and were their interest is. These stats also fall in line with pretty much with everything that has ever been written about hunting with Airedales going back to day one.

Approximate Percentage Wise Breakdown Of Game Hunted Is As Follows

Small Game = 50%

Big Game = 34%

Bird Hunting =16%

So there you have the breakdown and it is what it is, most Airedales are hunted by middle aged to a bit older men who are not the hard hunters they once were but still interested in getting out and having a productive but more a casual day afield. They want a dog that doubles as their family pet but can do a reasonably good job producing a wide variety of game to the gun. For that job there is no better a candidate than a well bred Airedale.

Al Kranbuhl

Hunting Dog Faults

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A survey taken back in 2006

The question was posed to those in the hunting community who trained and used dogs. I asked hunters in all disciplines of hunting and those included were bird, squirrel, big game and coon. Breed was of no consequence as long as it was a hunting dog.

The individuals polled were "REAL" hunters that actually hunt with dogs not internet pretenders.

The question is a simple one but one of the most if not the most important regarding hunting dogs.

WHAT IS THE ONE FAULT THAT YOU WILL "ABSOLUTELY" NOT TOLERATE IN YOUR HUNTING DOGS?

1. Dog on Dog aggression= 1973

2. Shy-Timid= 1528

3. No Nose, Can not move a track accurately= 617

4. Various Other, slick treeing, babbling, jacking a track, no ranging out, etc.= 598

Timid and shy were almost interchangeable with dog aggression, in other words most said that even though one was their first pick the second pick was just about as bad.

My personal thoughts when is comes to faults are about the same as the survey, I detest dog on dog aggression and will not own a dog that exhibits that trait, it is the absolute worse fault a hunting dog can have.

I want to add something here, there are some that believe that grit and dog aggression go hand and hand. With correctly bred hunting dogs that train of thought is pure "Bullshit"! Airedales are indicted by many unknowing hunters as being surly and ill toward other dogs which puts an immediate stigma on them from being used by serious hunters for the reasons shown in the above survey.

Airedales that are bred up right for hunting should not be causing any trouble when hunted with other dogs, Historically Airedales have always been hunted not only singly but in packs and especially with Hounds. I have personally hunted my Airedales from day one along side both with other Airedales and many other hunting dog breeds with zero problems. I will add that my Airedales have shown me all the grit that is needed to get the job done for the hunting I do.

I can tell you all this, anyone defending dog on dog aggression is not any kind of a real hunter, real hunters just do not hunt with those kinds of dogs, they are dogs I would avoid like the plague no matter what the breed.

Al Kranbuhl