My Precious Airedale Terrier Bobby

The Airedale Terrier, the "King of Terriers," is full with personality. His temperament can best be described with: energetic, curious, lively, and excited. You get the feeling that the Airedale thinks he is a comedian and will provide you with years of comic relief. He craves your attention and will act out to get it.

Airedales are very intelligent, and quick learners, but they certainly think for themselves, so they might be quite stubborn - Yes they are! They like to work with you, not for you. Airedales tend to be naughty and act like puppies until they are about two years old. They like to destroy doggie beds, shred newspapers and eat rugs. They also love to dig - Bobby was constantly digging huge holes in our garden! They will also steal laundry and food.

I remember a funny story when my stepfather made himself bread with cheese and left the plate on the table in the living room to go to the bathroom. I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I watched Bobby eating the cheese off my stepfathers bread. He did that so carefully, it was hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even act, I just let him commit his crime. When my stepdad came back and saw his bread with butter, and me crying and laughing on the couch, he kind of knew what had happened. We both laughed and Bobby totally knew he was not allowed to do that!

Airedales are loyal, devoted, and protective, and will bark when someone approaches the door. They are excellent watch dogs! The Airedale will certainly stand his ground (one time that the stubbornness works for you). However, Airedales like to find their own adventures in life. To minimize their misbehaviors, it is imperative that you give your Airedale daily exercise. They enjoy doing most anything you do: hiking, jogging, backpacking, canoeing, camping, and agility. Be carefull when letting your Airedale off the leash outside, they tend to run off as soon as they smell the wild life. It's their instinct. Uou will end up searching your Airdale for many hours, as I had to do with Bobby a couple of times.

Airedales do wonderfully with children, but these are large, exuberant, high energy dogs with head-butting enthusiasm who like to roughhouse. They can injure a young child without ever meaning to, because of their energetic temperament many breeders recommend they don't go to homes with young children. When we got Bobby I was 12 and my brother was 8. We totally did not find that Bobby was harsh on us. Exactly the opposite was the case: Bobby was gentle and careful and he knew when was the perfect time for playing.

Airedale owners need to keep a close eye on their dog's health, because Airedales rarely show pain. They can be seriously injured or really ill and still be wagging their tail. If you want to own an Airedale, then you will need to be devoted to a high maintenance, high energy member of your family. Airedales really need your affection and attention and they will want to supervise everything you do. With careful, diligent, patient training and parenting, the Airedale can be the best family pet in the world, but you have to be the right family. You need to be okay with a rowdy, jolly joker helping you run your house!

Dog size:
Height: Male 22-24 inches (56-61 cm.) Female 22-23 inches (56-58 cm.)
Weight: Male 50-65 pounds (23-29 kg.) Female 40-45 pounds (18-20 kg.)

Life Expectancy:
About 10-12 years.

One thing you should know about Airedales: They really love water! Bobby often took off when running without the leash to take a quick swim wherever possible. Even if the water wasn't the cleanest and we had to give him a bath afterwards. They just love jumping into the water and swim or just play around in it.

Also, he ran away many times as soon as he smelled rabbits or wild birds. So many times I had to search for him for a couple of hours - thinking I lost my dog forever. Many times, after completing his mission, he returned to the spot he saw me last. It just took a lot of patience and hope that nothing happened to him on the way.

Airedales have a hard, short-haired, double coat. The hair should be groomed about twice a year. You can let professionals do that, as it is a lot of work to do it yourself! If you keep the coat nice and short it will shed little to no hair. If you do not take care of the coat, you will find your dog to end up as big fluffy teddy bear. At some point he will not even be able to eat and see normally anymore. It is also important to regularly brush your Airedale as his coat becomes sticky and all the food residue will stick to his beard.
Bobby didn't really like being brushed, but he accepted when we did it. He was so funny: Laying there letting us brush him, but he was growling like a bear. He was not biting or anything, just expressing that he didn't enjoy it too much
Airedale Terriers can be good for some allergy sufferers.

When Bobby was 8 years old we first noticed that something was wrong with him. One of his eyes was very red and it seemed that there was a swelling behind it. We went to the vet for many many times. He had medicines, unfortunately none of them really helped to bring the swelling down. Then the vet decided to make a scan and found out that he had a tumor behind his left eye.

He needed to be operated and his eye had to be removed. He recovered slowly after his operation, and after that he had to adjust to having only one eye. That was not always easy. He started bumping into things which he could not see without turning his head completely. After a couple of month we noticed that he had pain when opening his mouth too far. The vet said it was his muscle which pulled from the head. He had to receive cortisone for the pain every day together with his food. He also became much calmer and thinner. For the rest he was doing well and we wanted to see how this would develop before taking too quick decisions. He got special food to get his weight up again. We wanted to try everything possible to save him. His urine started to smell like acid from the cortisone and he didn't like to go on long walks anymore ;-(

Around 2 years passed and even though the situation wasn't ideal, he was doing fine. After those two years we noticed that his skin behind the removed eye started to swell up again. The vet said that the tumor might have grown back again - and indeed this was the case. Shortly after that Bobby's condition got worse. It seemed that he was loosing sight on the one eye that was left and that he didn't hear so well anymore. He started bumping more and more and I felt it was time to make a decision fast. Due to his condition we decided the best we could do is not to hold on to him any longer. It felt as if he wasn't happy anymore and we didn't want to torture him. It was the hardest decision ever, but I knew it was the right one!