Breeding Airedales

First of all, not everyone can or should breed dogs. It is a commitment for which you are responsible 24-7 and that goes far beyond selling puppies.  Every breeder has their own way of doing things throughout the breeding process and has likely learned from someone as well as fine tuned methods to improve their efforts through years of experience. Along the way through the breeding process I have also been fortunate to have had some great champions that bear the Style name leaving a legacy to the history of this wonderful breed and making so many people happy with a wonderful companion.   Finding people that will devote the time, dedication, and resources to help grow up a puppy with show prospect is essential to promoting a good hobby kennel.  Most generally I always have something to show myself or with my handlers, but it is very rewarding when someone comes along to pledge their interest and willingness to correctly raise a puppy with such potential.  I will always offer as much training and support as possible.  Periodically people do come along and get very active in grooming and showing and someday they may even look forward to their first litter as I did so many years ago.  There are many things to learn that are vital to ensuring the proper early training and conditioning for a young show prospect.  Mastering how to properly trim terriers is a very daunting challenge to those new in the breed and mentoring seems to be a vanishing art among the dog fancy.  Many refer to trimming the Airedale as sculpting.

Breeding Airedales has many rewards.  It is a passion in which you have to strongly follow your feelings and even still upon occasion you will find yourself heartbroken.  As a breeder sometimes you are faced with making very difficult calls and loosing an Airedale is never easy no matter whether it is a young puppy or an old dear friend.  All too soon your puppies for which you have waited with such anticipation grow up and are ready to leave the nest headed for their new homes.  I have always strongly encouraged new puppy owners to call anytime and ask questions whether it is the first days with the new puppy or when my baby is 10 years old.  You may now own the Airedale, but it will always be my baby. I have proven that to many a proud owner upon visiting their home or perhaps the dog comes back to me for a visit, grooming, or even boarding.  They NEVER forget the first person they saw and heard who loved and nurtured them in the early weeks of their lives.

There are a number of fine Airedale breeders throughout the United States, Canada, and the world over.  Many people feel that they must choose a breeder close to home and while that is good when available,  I think that finding a breeder with whom you are able to develop a good relationship and that breeds a sound healthy puppy for all the right reasons is more important and just being nearby.    Many breeders have unique characteristics within their line if they have been breeding for any length of time.  Some traits may be better than others and often we seek to improve these qualities as we hopefully gain a deeper understanding of the Airedale standard over the years trying to make a better puppy.  Not every puppy from a litter can be a best in show dog.  The least puppy from a litter bred by a good hobby kennel should still display many fine qualities, even though it may not possess all the points of the standard well enough to compete successfully in the show ring.  Sometimes you breed a lifetime to hopefully get that one special dog.  Some breeders have had such success and others strive to develop a little better puppy with each litter.  Everyone has their special likes and dislikes in regards to how they interpret the Airedale standard.  Not all personalities and temperaments are identical just as there are many differences of coat, color, ear carriage, height, shape and eye color, length of neck, structure of the head, and the ultimate qualities of movement and expression.  It is very difficult to get everything in one package.

As the owner of Airedales and a breeder the hardest problem I have with the breed is that your favorite companion will not likely grow old with you.  That is the laws of average in the canine world, but it is simply very hard to accept that these dogs do not live forever.  Just as with people, dogs are sometimes dealt a hand that seems unjust.  Airedales as a breed are basically very healthy dogs.  You therefore can look forward to many of those years to be healthy happy ones. In  each litter I always hope and look for that special puppy to proudly groom and condition to represent my breeding in the show ring at both local and specialty dog shows.

Though Yuri was my first Airedale, Bailey was truly the love of my life of these wonderful dogs and was a remarkable Airedale in many ways.  He was without question “Style” and the ruler of the house, or at least until Margot came.  Bailey will always be the dog that is truly the “standard” for me with tremendous “type and expression.”  While he produced some wonderful offspring most of his boys were generally taller, heavier boned, and stockier dogs than his own body type.  Almost all his offspring had some likeness to him, but never did he produce a near carbon copy of himself in a male puppy.  When you have a wonderful dog like Bailey it is every breeders dream to reproduce that dog.  Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes it never happens.  Sadly I was never able to collect and store sperm on Bailey so continuing to try to reproduce another dog of his likeness seemed unlikely.  He was such a fine showman, with a great deal of flash, a cool head in the ring, and always knew how to give just that little extra to win.  For his entire life he was my constant companion, spoiled rotten, always got his way, and I would have “never” had it any different.  Bailey always seemed to take his role of father seriously as he enjoyed watching and teaching his young kids.  He would always sneak into the room with the whelping box and stand there looking in such amazement at the tiny creatures full of excitement, yet never offering to overstep his welcome.  Raising puppies is a fun, but challenging job.  It really is pretty easy until they are old enough to start hopping and climbing out of the box.  There is always one that seems to figure it out and then the others quickly follow the lead.  That is when the work really starts.  Raising a litter of puppies is very rewarding, but also takes a great deal of patience, tackling the mountains of laundry, and copious quantities of food with each passing day.  By the time they are ready to leave for their new homes you think you may never do this again and if there was something you kept to grow up and carry on your tradition begins to develop and catch your eye, you know that soon you will consider the challenge once again to raise another litter.

Margot (Ch. Fairewood Paisley Tiger) was the foundation bitch for Style Kennels.  She came from the Fairewood Kennel in Canada and with Bailey produced some wonderful offspring that would take the Style tradition forward for many years.  She was very independent with a mind of her own and always marched to her own drummer.  Most Airedale girls are much more independent than the boys and Margot was no exception.  Unless something was going on in the kitchen that was of interest she was always off doing her own thing.  She totally ruled the house from her arrival.  Both Yuri and Bailey rang a bell on the back door to go outside and as soon as she entered the scene they would both ring the bell for her.  She always knew her place in the pecking order.  She was a wonderful super mom when it came to having puppies.  She was gentle and never missed a trick with her babies, kept both her babies and the box immaculate, but she also did it her way and never since Margot have I had a mom to be such a disciplinarian with her pups.  She would take total care of them until about 4 weeks of age and then magically one day she would go to each puppy of the litter and spend several minutes.  She performed this task very methodically and when she was finished with all the pups in the litter she never would deal with them again.  It was if to say I have taught you what you need to know now my job is complete.  All her daughters that I have had that have whelped litters have not conducted this ritual.  Sophia, Madison, Kate, and granddaughter Casey would play with their puppies and let them nurse until I would intervene.  In more recent years Olivia(Ch. Buonaire’s The Heiress To Style) and O.P.(Ch. Tartan Scottshire Oil Patch Star) have proven t o be wonderful with the art of whelping and tending to their babies.  Oddly, each have very different methods in how they oversee their little ones, but both do a terrific job.

As my beloved Bailey was nearing the end of his life, I imported a very promising young male from the Oldiron Kennel of Anne and Ron Sorraghan in Australia.  Lleyton(Ch. Oldiron Playfor Style) came to St. Louis when he was five and a half months of age.  He was a strong, confident, very square, handsome young puppy.  As he learned his way about, the relationship that developed between he and Bailey was one of the most profound and touching experiences I have ever witnessed in all my years in dogs.  Despite Bailey’s declining health, he set about to teach Lleyton all that he knew.  It was if Lleyton knew he had a position of prominence to fill and sadly Bailey died one year to the day of Lleyton’s arrival.  Lleyton grew up to be a very striking Airedale attaining some impressive wins and siring some wonderful offspring.  He has been my buddy and companion and hopefully will return to the show ring for an encore of success as a veteran dog.  As the years passed and many litters had been born I had still failed to produce a dog that so mirrored my beloved Bailey.   In the spring of 2002 I had a promising litter by Bailey’s youngest daughter Kate(Ch. Style Makes the Difference).  There was a young male puppy that very much caught my eye as he continued to resemble Bailey in actions and appearance, always demanding your attention.  Oscar (Ch. Oscar Gone Wilde In Style) proved to be more than capable of walking in grandfather’s steps all the way to Westminster.  His life was one of tremendous human interest as well as that of being a very special dog to those whose lives he touched by all that knew Oscar.  He had a limited, but very successful show and specials career and produced a wonderful litter with Olivia and a single puppy, BJ with Sadie(Ch. Moraine Fancy Lady Sadie).  He had a strong lineage of wonderful dogs as his other grandfather, a grand dog that did some very nice winning for me and could have gone much farther beyond his limited show career named Rex(Ch. Style’s Old King Cole) who is a son of Fortune(Ch. Bristol Aires Fanfare) and a grandson of Ch. Bravo Star Buck.

A kennel breeding program is only as good as the stock with which you start.  Margot and Bailey certainly laid a solid foundation for me that would produce some wonderful dogs in years to come and their children in turn have continued that tradition.  Style like all other dedicated Airedale breeders continues to try and re-evaluate breeding programs so that it will enhance the quality of this line.  Over the years I have had the pleasure of owning some very special dogs both that I have produced and a few that I have purchased to bring into Style to continue to try and make improvements to my breeding program.   For a breeder that works very hard to ensure a high level of integrity among your peers there are two fundamentals that I feel always must be maintained.  The first and foremost is seeing your puppies leave your kennel healthy with good homes and live long happy lives.   Taking up the stewardship of breeding dogs worthy of being bred is a serious dedication and while occasionally some of those dogs are successful in competition, the huge majority of all hobby breeder puppies go to wonderful loving homes to become family members and great companions.  I have always strived to foster a good relationship with my puppy people so that I can follow the health and well-being of my dogs through the years.  The second goal is to continue to breed sound healthy quality dogs that offer a good representation of the breed in the show ring and in the offspring they produce.  Both of these goals can be accomplished with a little practice, dedication, luck, and a great deal of hard work.  The learning process for a breeder never stops.  When you think you know it all you will start to fail, both in the quality of your puppies and the service to your public.  There is no such thing as a perfect dog and it is your obligation as a representative to the breed to strive to continue to maintain and improve the integrity and the line for which you have developed that bears your kennel name.  The Airedale is a wonderful breed well deserving of such dedication.