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THE BIGGEST AND BEST TERRIER

There are thousands of people, all sorts of people from bankers to beggars, scattered all over this earth from Dawson City to Capetown, from Moscow to Manila, who will echo the statement that the Airedale is indeed the biggest and the best of all the terriers. Moreover, their votes would not be bribed by mere sentiment, but based upon good, sound reasons, for it is certain that he is the biggest, and he is "best" at doing more things than any other dog in the stud book.

An Airedale will drive sheep or cattle; he will help drag a sled; he will tend the baby; he will hunt anything from a bear to a field mouse. He can run like a wolf and will take to water like an otter. He does not "butt in" looking for trouble with each dog that he passes on the street, but once he is "in" he will stick, for he is game as a pebble. He is kind, obedient, thoroughly trustworthy as a companion for children, or a watchman for your property. He has the disposition of a lamb combined with the courage of a lion. He is certainly the most all-round dog that there is and, unlike many Jacks-of-all-trades, he is apparently quite able to master all tasks a dog is called upon to perform.

Over and above his talents and his character, the Airedale has a constitution made of steel and stone. He is equally at home in the snow wastes of the Arctic Circle and on the alkali deserts of Arizona. The dry, bracing air of Colorado and the fever-soaked atmosphere of Florida's Everglades both seem to agree with him perfectly. A sick Airedale is just about as common as a dodo.

"The biggest and best terrier" indeed fits him to a T, but it does not convey any very definite idea as to what he should look like. Even his most enthusiastic admirers never claimed beauty for the Airedale. He is not pretty, unless we acknowledge that "handsome is that handsome does," and can see the beauty of perfect symmetry under wiry coat and odd coloring.

A good Airedale is about as big as a pointer; somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-five pounds, a little more for a dog and a little less for a bitch. His head should be long; the skull flat and broad; the cheeks smooth; the muzzle strong with tight lips over big, white, even teeth. His eyes should be small, dark, and full of fire and his ears little, carried high, and shaped like a V, for nothing can so detract from the correct terrier expression as large, light eyes and houndy ears. His front legs ought to be a pair of gun barrels, straight and strong and about the same thickness all the way down. His shoulders are like those of a race horse, long and sloping; while his pads should be firm and hard, not those loose, sprawly feet sometimes seen.

The only kind of a back for him to have is short, and his ribs must be well sprung. A long backed dog lacks staying qualities, and a slab-sided one has not the room for lungs. His chest should be deep, but narrow, and he should be slightly cut up in the loin--not the wasp-like waist of a greyhound,--but no better is a body like a stovepipe. His hindquarters should be strong, with the hocks quite near the ground. The Airedale that does not carry a gay tail is a delight to no eye.

Last, but not least, comes the coat. In color this should be a deep, rich tan on the head, face, chest, legs, and under parts, while over the back is a saddle of black or iron-grey. Personally, I like the black more than the grizzle, for it makes a prettier contrast with the tan, but "a good horse cannot be a bad color." The Airedale's coat is double. The overcoat is of hair like wire, stiff and hard, about an inch long all over the dog, except on the skull where it is shorter. Under this jacket of wire, there ought to be a vest of soft, woolly hair.

If you can collect in your mind's eye all the above details of description you should see a big, strong, compact, businesslike dog, full of the proverbial up-and-ever-coming spirit that inspires all terriers. His every movement shows strength, yet he always moves in that effort-economizing way which is the very personification of grace. When running he sweeps along with the free open stride of a galloping thoroughbred, with his head often carried low, but his tail always high.

Very often the man wanting a dog for hunting, for a guard, for a pal turns up his nose at all the finely enumerated details in which the standard describes the fanciers' ideal of Airedale perfection. He is wrong, for, as the advertisements say, "There's a reason." Take the double coat for example. The Airedale was originally bred to be a water dog. The wiry coat sheds water like a duck's back, and the undercoat keeps him warm in all weather. With the kind of a jacket for which the standard calls an Airedale can swim the river, scramble out, shake himself, roll over, and be dry. Moreover, such a coat is a perfect armor against all kinds of thorns, claws, and teeth. The long, clean head with its strong muzzle means a jaw with plenty of room for big, strong teeth and muscles to shut those teeth as quickly and as surely as a spring trap.

Of course, not one Airedale in a thousand comes within seventy-five per cent. of being all that the standard describes. The average, however, is high in America; much higher here than anywhere else in the world, except England, and our best can even hold their own with the champions from the land of the breed's creation. Americans who have been interested in the dog have been blessed with enough of this world's goods to buy what they want, and almost without exception, they have been inspired with the best fancier ideal, that of breeding their own winners.

This has given us a breeding stock second only in numbers to that of Great Britain in the hands of men who could and would use the material to the best advantage. Accordingly, the American-bred Airedale is noted the world over as a show dog, and in no other country has the breed's sporting possibilities been so fully tested as here in the United States.

The wise dog owner then will learn all he can about his breed. "Book larnin'" is good, but better still are talks with all sorts and conditions of Airedale owners and a visit to an Airedale kennel or the ringside at a dog show when the breed is being judged. No men ride their hobbies harder than dog fanciers, and all will talk and from all can something be learned.

When one has learned something about Airedales let him then buy his dog. It is best to buy a dog about six months old--old enough to be over puppy ills and not too old to learn new tricks. A puppy of that age, over distemper and house broken, is as satisfactory as it is possible for a pup to be. Bringing up a terrier puppy is hard on one's shoes, the ladies' hats, and everyone's disposition, but it is much more satisfactory to train him yourself in the ways you would have him go.

In picking out a puppy select the bright little chap to whom you are naturally attracted--I am advising the "dog owner" who knows the breed well enough not to be interested in any litter not of orthodox breeding. Only in case of doubt need you pay attention to show points. If it comes to a question of that pick the dark eye, small ear, long head, short back, straight legs. Do not worry about size or color or coat, nor must a novice expect to be able to "pick the winner" of a litter. Go to a reputable breeder and pay as much as you can afford. You can take his advice, for all dog breeders are not crooks and grafters, but like any other kind of a business transaction knowledge is very valuable to the purchaser.

May I plead the case of the bitch as a companion? Nine out of ten want a dog, but a bitch has many advantages. She is usually more clever, a great deal more affectionate and faithful, much less given to roaming from home, and should one ever want to raise some puppies she may prove a valuable investment.

The kennel owner, turning now to him, will, I take it for granted, read all he can lay his hands on that treats of the Airedale, go to shows, visit kennels, and talk, think, and dream Airedale. If he is to have a small kennel I advise his buying one or two good young bitches. Puppies are a chance and old bitches, however famous, are poor breeding stock. Buy young winning bitches, proved mothers and of desirable blood lines and you will have the best possible start along the road of kennel success. It is as rocky a thoroughfare as the proverbial one to Dublin, full of all sorts of disappointments and maybe even losses, but its pleasures and its gains are sure to come to the man who follows it in the right spirit.

The large kennel owner is either going into it for pleasure, where he will have a check book to help him, or for a business. In the former case he will probably leave much on the shoulders of his kennel manager, and I am writing on Airedales not the servant problem. If he is going to make a business of raising Airedales that is his business, not the author's.

To all Airedale buyers let me again say that it pays to know all you can about the breed and to buy the best you can afford. The "biggest and best terrier" has been tried by so many different people in all parts of the world and has won such unanimous praise that his admirers can recommend him to anyone, anywhere, for anything.

THE AIREDALE'S HISTORY

The Airedale is a product of the middle of the nineteenth century and was manufactured in Yorkshire. The streams that tumble down the deep vales of that Midland county are the homes of hundreds of crafty, hardbitten otters; there are thieving foxes and very game, but very rascally badgers in snug dens in the hills; many a swift English hare lives in the broad game preserves. The hardy Yorkshireman of 1850--his sons and grandsons to-day are real "chips of the old block"--loved nothing so much as a hunt after the vermin, with possibly a rat killing contest with "a couple o' bob" at stake of a Saturday night, and sometimes, on moonless nights, when game keepers were asleep, a little trip after the filling for a rabbit pie. Now, you cannot do these things without a dog that is brainy, game, obedient, and as much at home in water as on dry land; so they just naturally set to work to make themselves such a dog.

All this we know positively, but when it comes to saying anything definite about how they made that dog, which we now call the Airedale, you begin to deal in traditions as conflicting as theories on the Martian canals and speculations as vague as old wives' tales. Taking all the yarns and guesses and boiling them down to an average, we find that the Airedale, so most people think, was originally a cross between a tan-grizzle terrier, now extinct or absorbed in other breeds, but once common in the Midlands, and the otterhound, a big, wire-coated water dog of the bloodhound type, that comes in all colors of Joseph's famous coat, but mainly white with black and tannish markings. To this cross were added dashes of bull terrier, which breed was, at that time, just coming to the fore with its deserved reputation for grit, and Bedlington terrier, a light-weight, top-knotted dog from the North of England.

Probably there were sprinkles of the blood of the collie and of all terriers found at the time between the Midlands and the Scottish Borderland. All these were then more or less indefinite as to type and uncertain as to breeding, which helps materially in making confusion worse confounded. Just how and why this strange, indefinite mixture should have resulted in the Airedale no one can say. The otterhound donated the size and the love of the water, and all the terrier blood made him a terrier in spite of his size. From the very beginning the breed had the advantage of having an object. The Yorkshireman wanted a big, strong, dead game, water-loving terrier. That furnished a standard to breed to, and they got what they wanted.

When the fame of this dog first spread from the valleys of his birthplace, he was pretty well established as to type, and once taken up by the dog showing fancy and a standard drawn up the type was soon firmly fixed. Since his first introduction to the world he has changed, becoming somewhat larger. The seers and wise men of English dogdom raised a great hullaballoo when this giant among terriers appeared, saying that no dog over twenty pounds could be a terrier because a terrier must go to earth. The dog, however, was mainly terrier in blood and so very certainly terrier in characteristics that he was classed with the family. Maybe it is out of respect to the authorities of the early days of the dog fancy that we have gradually dropped the terrier in his name, and though it is a part of his official title, still the dog is universally spoken of as the Airedale.

This, however, was not his original name, for in early days he was called the "waterside terrier," and his official d?but at the English dog shows was in classes for "broken-haired working terriers." Both titles were felt to be too indefinite, and "Stonehenge," the sporting authority, suggested "Bingley terrier," from the town in the heart of the district where the breed originated. Local jealousies prevented any one town giving its name to the breed, and there was quite a war waged till some unrecorded genius suggested that, as the birthplace of the breed had been in the valleys of the Aire River and its little tributaries, Airedale was the best name. So Airedale he became, having an official christening at the Otley show in the late seventies.

Besides adding some ten pounds to his weight and getting a distinctive and pleasing name, the Airedale has changed in other ways since he took his light from under the bushel basket. His head has lengthened, following the tendency of all terrier breeds. His shoulders, legs, and feet are worlds better now than they were years ago, but coats have suffered. The wire jacket has improved, but the woolly undervest has been sacrificed, though now more and more attention is being paid to this by breeders and judges.

The breed first "took on" in New York, but Philadelphia has long been its stronghold. The Quaker City, boasting such fanciers as Clement Newbold, William Barclay, Russel H. Johnson, W. H. Whittem, Daniel Buckley, and Dr. Henry Jarrett, has away and beyond passed other cities in the number and quality of its Airedales. In early days the New York fancy was represented by Mr. J. L. Lorillard, the purchaser of Clonmel Marvel, whose importation boomed the breed's stock in this country; Messrs. De Witt Cochrane, Foxhall Keene, and C. O'Donnel, all of whom have not been so active lately. Later Theodore Offerman, James H. Brookfield, James Watson, and John Gough entered the game, and they figure to-day as owners of winners.

This is a short sketch of how the breed originated and how they came to America, but real "history is men, not events," or rather dogs, not events. It is interesting, but more important is a knowledge of the dogs of the past. In limited space, one can only say a word or two about the most famous of the breed's celebrities, so I must be pardoned if some reader is disappointed in not finding mention of some dog in which he is particularly interested. Almost each year has seen its good dogs, but we can only touch those which time has declared to be truly great.

The sigh for "the good old days" is common in all things, and we often hear it from dog fanciers. It is good food for talk, but that is all, for the old-timers of any breed could not win in the ring against the cracks of to-day. Among the very early Airedale winners were: Tanner, Young Tanner, Rustic Twig, Rustic Kitty, Rustic Lad, Newbold Fritz, Vixen, and Venom, none of whom would be one, two, three in a good show to-day. Clip and Ch. Cholmondeley Briar were the two first really good dogs. Clip was a sound, honest dog who showed real modern type, and gave black, real terrier eyes to his pups; while Briar was the first real show hero, having gone undefeated till he met Clonmel Marvel.

Clonmel Marvel, one of the really great dogs of the world, was bred by a novice, a Mr. F. C. Brown, who mated his Cholmondeley Mona to Clipper, a good dog, but no wonder. There were nine in the litter, and Mr. Brown showed Marvel, whom he called Warfield Victor, in a ?3 Selling Class, where he was placed second, being sadly out of condition. "Jack" Holgate saw the rough diamond, bought it, and resold it to Messrs. Mills and Buckley, the famous Clonmel firm. Marvel beat all of his time--dogs and bitches--and won eighteen championships. Eventually he came to America, along with Ch. Clonmel Sensation and Clonmel Veracity. He was by far the best Airedale seen up to his time, a dog hard to fault, even in "the light of modern criticism." He proved as wonderful a sire as he was a show crack, and much of real terrier style in the breed to-day is due to him.

A contemporary of Marvel's was Ch. Dumbarton Lass, who also came to this side of the Atlantic to the kennels of Mr. Joseph Laurin, in Montreal. She was bred by Capt. Baird Smith, who benched her at Woolwich in poor condition. Mr. A. E. Jennings, whose kennels were then paramount, bought her and showed her for three years, when she went to Mr. Stuart Noble and was later bought by the Canadian fancier. She proved a gold mine as a brood bitch and was personally hard to fault--barring her coat.

But the most wonderful brood bitch of the breed, one whose name should be written in gold in the Airedale Hall of Fame, was not a great show winner. She was Bath Lady. Her first big winning puppy was Briarwood, who came out in London in 1896. Briarwood was by Hyndman Briar, by Willow Nut, and like all Bath Lady stock proved his value in the breeding kennels. His most famous get was the beautiful bitch of Ch. Broadlands Bashful. We can only mention two others of Bath Lady's offspring, but those fanciers who have dogs in whose pedigrees she appears can congratulate themselves. To Ch. Clonmel Marvel she produced Ch. Clonmel Kitty, a really good one all over, and to Master Briar she had Walton Victory, even better--except in skull--than Kitty.

During the nineties the Tone Kennels with Ch. Tone Jerry, whose forte was his wonderful coat and color, and Ch. Tone Crack, excelling in bone, coat, and body, but broad across the skull, had a big say in the prize-lists. In 1896 Studholme Sherry came out and was hailed as a flyer, but he did not last, though in his day he was a beautiful terrier.

Ch. Clonmel Monarch, who has done so much for Philadelphia's Airedale supremacy as a sire and as a show dog came as near the ideal Airedale as we find, made his d?but about this time in Leicester and ran second to Ch. Rock Salt. Monarch was undeveloped, but six months later at Alexandra Palace he came to his own and after that his show record in England was an unbroken string of firsts. He was a grand terrier--almost faultless--his coat waved a bit and his critics used to say he was "so fine he was bitchy." Just to mention some of his pups shows what he was at stud: Ch. Broadlands, Royal Descendant, Ch. Tone Regent, Ch. Clonmel Bed Rock, Claverhouse Enchantress, Clonmel Coronation, and Strathallan Solace. Ch. Rock Salt, mentioned as the conqueror of Monarch, was a good one whom Americans know best through Ch. The New King, his son, who has done so well for the New England fancier, Mr. Arthur Merritt.

Ch. Tone Masterpiece--known here as Ch. York Masterpiece, for Mr. Offerman gave him his own kennel's prefix--was a dog of ups and downs, but he was an honest champion, who just missed being great. His son Floriform was another good dog who did things in New York in the early years of the new century where he was owned by Mr. Offerman and later by Mr. Brookfield. Floriform was the sire of Ch. Engaflora, the first great American bitch.

In 1902 two good but unfortunate sons of Clonmel Monarch came out, Ch. Legrams Prince--a real flyer--and Bandolero, who never got his just deserts at the shows. Rheumatism spoiled Prince's shoulders for the show ring and his ill-starred half brother died of wasp stings. A contemporary of these dogs was Ch. Wombwell Rattler, a rattling good one with a softish coat who sired Mr. Offerman's well known crack Ch. York the Conqueror. In the same year Ch. Delph Girl, wonderful color and coat, good head and expression, but too fine, and Ch. Dumbarton Sceptre, the best bitch of the time, both made their d?but and eventually came to the United States. The dam of Sceptre, Claverhouse Enchantress , needs special mention. She won a number of prizes, but soon passed into the hands of a novice, Mrs. Cuthell, and as a mother and grand-mother of champions made a place for herself second only to Bath Lady. Dumbarton Sceptre and Claverhouse Sorcerer--the former a real flyer, the other a dog above the average--were in her first litter. Her second, by Ch. Master Briar, resulted in the great Ch. Mistress Royal, probably the best show bitch produced. Enchantress was next bred to her own son Solace, mentioned above, but died of poison before whelping.

Ch. Clonmel Bed Rock, whom Mr. Foxhall Keene later imported, came out about this time. He was a good, sound terrier, full of fire, sound as a bell, with wonderful legs and feet and won lots of honors here and in England. Ch. Broadland's Royal Descendant was a rival of Bed Rock and a very classy dog with exceptional coat, real terrier fire, a good head, but not very beautiful ears.

After these dogs came Ch. Master Royal, which brings us down to the dogs of to-day--if not the present generation and it is out of place to say aught of dogs which one can see and judge in flesh and blood.

The show cracks have so very often proved so valuable in the breeding kennels that the two terms--great sire and show crack--may seem synonyms. They are not. Nevertheless there is a close chain that binds the whole of a breed of dogs to the show ring, for the show ring winners are the dogs most often sought for breeding purposes and so the styles of the main bench authorities are forcibly, if unwittingly, thrust on the race. The Airedale, however, has always been known and appreciated as a sporting terrier. His owners have fortunately never lost sight of the reason he was manufactured, and they remember that to-day he is intended to be a rough-and-ready dog, willing and able to do all terrier work just a little better than the other members of the family, and because of his greater weight enabled to do things his smaller cousins could not even attempt. His great usefulness has kept him from being wholly at the mercy of the faddists of the dog shows, who have given him all the great advantages of their skill in scientific breeding and all the advertising of public exhibition without turning him into a freak.

THE CARE OF A TERRIER

One of the most noted veterinarians in New York once said to me that, if it were not for too much or too little attention, he doubted if he should ever be called upon to treat a dog. He explained his meaning by adding that the toy dogs are generally killed by kindness and most terriers die of neglect. If this is true, and this doctor has a canine practice that keeps him busy from morning till night, there must be something radically wrong with the care of most dogs.

The terriers--for the evils of a candy diet and a life spent on silken pillows do not need to be even mentioned here--the terriers can, it is perfectly true, get along with less attention than most breeds of dogs, for they all have wonderful constitutions. Does that, however, give the terrier owner a free right and license to neglect his dogs?

It is almost a joke to keep such a naturally healthy dog as a terrier in the pink of condition. All he needs is dry, clean kennels, with decent bedding; good, nourishing food at regular hours; all the fresh water he wants to drink; plenty of exercise, and a little grooming. Given these few things and a terrier will be "disgustingly well," full of high spirits, and happy as a clam at high tide. It is really so easy to keep a terrier "fit," and it means so much to the dog and his owner, whether he be a dog owner for pleasure or profit, that it is nothing less than criminal not to do so.

Kennels, bedding, food and feeding, water, exercise, and grooming--these are the things which given proper attention mean a healthy and happy dog. Let us take them up, one at a time, for it is as often ignorance as thoughtlessness that causes the trouble.

The question as to the kind of a kennel is bound to have a variety of different answers according to whether one lives in the city or the country, in the North or the South, and whether one is to keep one dog or fifty. There are, however, certain fundamental considerations that apply to any home for dogs.

In the first place, all terriers, especially those wearing those wonderful, double, weather-proof garments we call "wire coats," are best off living the simple life out of doors. This is true in any climate. I used to have all sorts of troubles with the skins and coats of my wire terriers till I just turned them out, providing them with dry, draft-proof, but unheated shelters in which to sleep and where they could escape very bad weather.

My own experience has proved to me that wire coated terriers are worlds better off for being out every day and night in the year. Even in the severest weather they do not need artificial heat, if they have a perfectly dry, draftless, well bedded place to sleep in and to serve as a shelter on very wet, stormy days. A decent kennel for any dog from a St. Bernard to a Pomeranian is dry and draft-proof, and so the terrier owner can eliminate the question of artificial heating.

The ideal terrier kennel is an oil barrel. These cannot always be obtained, but any barrel or keg intended to hold liquids, and so made water tight, will answer. A hole, just large enough to let the dog in and out, should be cut in one end. Then the inside may be painted with kerosene and a lighted paper dropped in. This cleans the barrel and destroys any insects, and is an excellent thing to do every month or so.

The barrel ought to be painted inside and out, and to keep it from rotting on the bottom must be mounted on blocks so that it just clears the ground. Rain can be kept out of the door either by tacking a curtain of sacking over it or by making a roof of V shaped planking, which sets over the barrel, projecting in front like the eaves of a barn. Two small terriers or one Airedale can live easily in these keg kennels in summer, with an extra dog added, for warmth's sake, in cold weather.

Another kennel that is fine for terriers is one I adapted from the suggestions of a chicken owner, who used a similar box as a coop for hens with young chicks. It is a box that can be taken all apart. The floor is a raised platform against which the sides fit closely, being fastened together with hooks. The roof slants backward and is held in place by thin strips that fit just inside the walls.

This is fine for summer, but must be very carefully made to be tight enough for cold weather. Its flat floor makes it admirable for a bitch with puppies and it has the great advantage of enabling you to leave off any side you wish. Naturally, they are very easy to clean. They can be made any size or shape you wish and cost from five dollars up.

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