Post by randym on Jun 29, 2007 15:18:45 GMT -5
Got your email Curt, so I thought I would respond.
I believe Maugh Vail had the first III. Tom Wilkins would have had the second, awesome dog in spite of poor OB foundation. Tom's dog was just super in bite work. He was as good as any GSD on the field. I never got my III. We trialled and during tracking my dog had a heat stroke and I had to pull. It was 100 degrees and the tracking conditions were the worst I have ever seen. His track had aged for 3 hours and the tracking consisted of nothing but basketball size dirt clods. Only 2 dogs passed that day. He was one, and the judge said he was the only dog that day that actually wanted to track. He was the best tracking dog that I have ever seen, any breed. He scored 100 points on his Sch. 2 track under the late Rienhardt Lindner. He said at the time he could count on one hand the number of 100's that he had given in 25 years as a judge. A great accomplishment.
I purchased my dog from Nancy Nieset in Ohio. He was basically from show breeding. Ton's of drive and as they like to say a dog that will bite you for real. To me he was the perfect AT. He did not want to be everybody's pal, he was my pal,and that was good enough for him. Like a friend of mine once said, I've been around pit bulls my whole life, Bay is the only dog I've ever been afraid of. He was not a big dog at 25" and a working 55 pounds. I worked him on the suit with some French Ring folks and on his first bite he took the decoy down to the ground. He was very fast, explosive, and all heart.
As far as NAWATA, we got off to good start but I dropped out after it seemed to be more about some of the members rather than what was good for the breed. There was too much bickering and in fighting for such a small group so the club and the breed were doomed as a working entity. I don't know anything about NAWATA now but hope the club can be revived, this noble breed deserves it.
I still meet Schutzhund people that say, aren't you the guy that had the Awesome Airedale?
I don't want to get too far off topic, but I think that too many people are writing off show dogs for working homes. I've seen some outstanding working dogs come from show lines. Unfortunately in the past when the've surfaced, they've been ignored by "Airedale breeders" for one reason or another. Neither my dog nor Tom's were bred more than once that I know of. That would not have happened in another country where they took working dogs seriously. There in lies the problem.
Hope I answered your questions Curt.
I come (usually) for the pictures,
Randy
I believe Maugh Vail had the first III. Tom Wilkins would have had the second, awesome dog in spite of poor OB foundation. Tom's dog was just super in bite work. He was as good as any GSD on the field. I never got my III. We trialled and during tracking my dog had a heat stroke and I had to pull. It was 100 degrees and the tracking conditions were the worst I have ever seen. His track had aged for 3 hours and the tracking consisted of nothing but basketball size dirt clods. Only 2 dogs passed that day. He was one, and the judge said he was the only dog that day that actually wanted to track. He was the best tracking dog that I have ever seen, any breed. He scored 100 points on his Sch. 2 track under the late Rienhardt Lindner. He said at the time he could count on one hand the number of 100's that he had given in 25 years as a judge. A great accomplishment.
I purchased my dog from Nancy Nieset in Ohio. He was basically from show breeding. Ton's of drive and as they like to say a dog that will bite you for real. To me he was the perfect AT. He did not want to be everybody's pal, he was my pal,and that was good enough for him. Like a friend of mine once said, I've been around pit bulls my whole life, Bay is the only dog I've ever been afraid of. He was not a big dog at 25" and a working 55 pounds. I worked him on the suit with some French Ring folks and on his first bite he took the decoy down to the ground. He was very fast, explosive, and all heart.
As far as NAWATA, we got off to good start but I dropped out after it seemed to be more about some of the members rather than what was good for the breed. There was too much bickering and in fighting for such a small group so the club and the breed were doomed as a working entity. I don't know anything about NAWATA now but hope the club can be revived, this noble breed deserves it.
I still meet Schutzhund people that say, aren't you the guy that had the Awesome Airedale?
I don't want to get too far off topic, but I think that too many people are writing off show dogs for working homes. I've seen some outstanding working dogs come from show lines. Unfortunately in the past when the've surfaced, they've been ignored by "Airedale breeders" for one reason or another. Neither my dog nor Tom's were bred more than once that I know of. That would not have happened in another country where they took working dogs seriously. There in lies the problem.
Hope I answered your questions Curt.
I come (usually) for the pictures,
Randy