AIREDALE TERRIERS. 151 



out sideways. Also take half a dozen men who say they have a good Airedale over 50 Ibs. 

 weight, and make them show their dogs, and you will find that five of them are fully three- 

 quarters Otter-hound. 



" This breed was originally started from twenty to forty years ago by working men about 

 Leeds, Shipley, Otley, Bingley, although many gentlemen had them, and in all the 

 towns and villages in the valley of the Aire, hence the name 'Airedale.' They were used by 

 them for water-side hunting after rats, water-hens, ducks, and in fact, anything that might turn 

 up. They are also used for poaching hares and rabbits, the gates in the field being quietly 

 netted, and the dog then sent in to ' seek up.' He would hunt the entire field over without 

 ever a whimper, if properly trained to it. If broken to the gun they are one of the best 

 sporting dogs out, as they will hunt, retrieve, and set and carry either 'fur or feather' without 

 hardly a mark, and yet, if told, will chase and kill and almost catch anything. I need not 

 tell you how game they arc, as many of them have been known to stand up for an hour 

 and forty minutes to Bull-terriers. Thunder when only twelve months old was killing his first 

 rat, and a bystander was not satisfied with the style, and said he had a dog that would eat 

 Thunder and the rats too. He brought it out (Thunder then weighed about 45 Ibs., and 

 had never fought or seen anything before) ; it was a white Bull-terrier, with marks about 

 the head, chest, and fore-legs ; it weighed 36 Ibs., and had never been beaten. He 

 slipped it at Thunder, who would not meet it, but stood for it ; it simply worried him for 

 the first round, also the second and third, all being done in half an hour, at the fourth 

 Thunder got his hold low down on the throat, and you heard the breast-bone go with a 

 'crack.' Thunder was choked off, and the Bull-terrier died in two hours, of internal 

 bleeding. Yet Airedales will never start fighting, and pass any dog in the street. As 

 they are a dog that is constantly exposed to water and the weather, and always ready for 

 any work hence their first name ' Working Terriers ' particular attention must be paid to the 

 coat. The hair ought to be Jiard in texture, and broken or rough. It is a great deal 

 harder to the feel than it really looks, being a good admixture of hard, bristly, and soft hair. 

 You will not find many of the large dogs with really hard coats, because such a lot have 

 been spoilt with the cross of Otter-hound as to the coat, but they are improving them every 

 year. I might say a little more about their gameness and obedience. Thunder, after 

 having first seen a live rat thrown over the rails of the new Leeds bridge at the bottom 

 of Briggate, over the Airc, on being told to 'fetch it,' jumped over into the river after it, a 

 distance of from 40 to 50 feet : and will go into the heaviest sea after a wounded gull. He 

 will, if in a room with a fire in, if told to ' put it out,' rush at the fire, and scatter all over 

 the room with his mouth and feet the whole of the burning coal and red-hot cinders, and 

 has only once burnt himself with it, and that was with a very deep and narrow grate. They 

 make first-rate 'night dogs,' and all mine will tell me at night by a low growl whether a 

 man is anywhere near. I had an Airedale about six years ago that we used to keep in a two- 

 stall stable with two horses, and we had occasion to send a new lad about eighteen years old for 

 some rugs at night, and he thought, he said, he would look how the horses were, so he opened 

 the door and walked in, but he did not get out again so quickly. Directly he turned to go 

 out the dog was at him, but fortunately he had the rugs, and put them up, the dog caught 

 hold of one and pulled it away from him, and was preparing for another spring when it seemed to 

 change its mind, and went and lay down by the door and watched him. Every time he moved 

 it growled, so he stood there for about half an hour, and then we thought he was a long time 

 bringing the rugs, and went to see what he was about, when we found all the doors open, and 



