THE USEFUL AIREDALE
Had there never been a specific need for just such a dog as the
Airedale, he would never have existed. He was "manufactured" to meet a
distinct want: the need for a big, strong dog, game to the bottom and
with a liking for water, who would serve the all-round purpose of pal,
guard, poacher, and vermin destroyer. Had the Airedale not filled this
bill, he would never have persisted. He would have died out
ignominiously, without even winning a local fame.
The Airedale, however, is not only all that his Yorkshire "manufacturers"
longed for, but he has shown himself much more. Wider acquaintance with
the world has placed him under many different conditions, and he has
not very often been weighed and found wanting. He has made his home in
all countries from Alaska to India. He has been used for all sorts of
game from the grizzly to mice; he has done police duty in France,
Germany, and America; he has drawn sleds in the Arctic and driven sheep
in Australia--all these things and many others he has done, and in the
doing of them he has won a reputation for intelligence, docility, and
affectionate disposition that few less talented dogs do not envy. As a
writer in the _Belgian Breeder_, the Brussels journal devoted to
horses, dogs, and livestock, has said, he is indeed "_le chien le plus
utile_," which is freely Americanized by the doggy epigram that "an
Airedale will do anything any other dog can do and then lick the other
dog."
The Airedale is indeed ideally useful, and he is also usefully ideal,
for he has size and strength; nobody ever questioned his courage; he is
blessed with exceptional brains; and he is obedient, faithful, and
affectionate. What more can man ask of a dog? By inheritance he is a
thorough sportsman and by instinct a perfect gentleman.
Training, education, and specialization are all familiar terms these
days. It is acknowledged that the skilled dwarf is more powerful than
the ignorant giant: that the efficiency of the genius is increased many
times by proper schooling. So it is with dogs. By nature and by the art
of breeding the Airedale has been endowed with gifts fitting him to do
whatever a dog may be called upon to do, but proper training will
enable him to do it more easily and better.
With a dog of so many talents it is somewhat difficult to decide just
the best way in which to take up the different branches of his
education, but let us divide his training upon the basis of the
Airedale in town and in the country.
I suppose that it is useless to say, for dogs will always be kept in
the cities as companions, that a Harlem flat is just about the worst
place in the world for an Airedale. Any terrier just cries for room.
He is lively as a cricket and as full of spirits as a nut is of
kernel--both excellent qualities in any dog outside a flat. The city at
best is no place for any dog; no place for terriers of all dogs, and of
all terriers, the Airedale! Yet hundreds of dogs live in town, and they
serve their purpose. Also, they have a great deal to learn.
House-breaking is the first lesson that has to be taught the city dog.
Usually it saves time and money to see that the dog you buy is already
so trained, but this cannot always be done. It is a risky business to
guarantee a dog house-broken and too much faith must not be placed in
any such promises. It often happens that while a dog will always behave
perfectly in one house he may have to be trained all over again when
introduced into another. This is mainly true of puppies, so you need
not consider yourself basely deceived if, in this particular, a
youngster does not live strictly up to the word of his seller.
If your dog arrives in a crate, he should be given a run the very first
thing after unpacking. The safest way is to bring him into the house on
a lead and to keep him tied up short in some convenient place for a
couple of days, taking him out regularly at fixed hours. He will soon
get into these habits. Should he offend, he ought to be punished at the
scene of his crime, taking care that he is aware of his offense and
tied up again. A very few days of this treatment will house-break any
dog who is old enough to understand what you are driving at. Trying to
house-break a very young puppy is cruelty pure and simple.
In punishing a dog, do not beat him about the ears and never use either
a fine whip, or a stick. It has happened twice in my knowledge that a
dog has had his hearing seriously damaged by a rupturing of the ear
drums caused by blows on the head. A whip will cut the skin of a dog
and a stick may break a bone. A smart slap under the jaw, accompanied
by a word-scolding in a severe tone and uncompromising manner, is a
thousand times better. In extreme cases a strap may be used, but always
remember that the object is not to flog the dog into cowardly and
broken submission, but merely to impress upon him that he is not doing
as you wish.
In all cases it is best to punish a dog "red handed," but in no case
should you punish him "red headed." Unless the dog knows for what he
is being punished, you are like Xerxes whipping the Hellespont for
wrecking his ships, except that a dog has more feelings than the sea.
The best way to be sure that the dog knows is to catch him in the very
act. This has the disadvantage, however, of making it likely that you
will be in a temper.
No dog should ever be punished when you have not got perfect control
over yourself. The patience of Job was never tried by a healthy,
terrier puppy, or it might have reached its limit. A spoiled rug, the
flower-beds wrecked, a new hat chewed up, slippers and rubbers all over
the house, religious disobedience, all these things do cultivate a
temper, but temper and dog-training do not live together successfully.
In training a dog be sure that he knows exactly what you want him to
do, and then be sure that he always does it. Make obedience a habit. In
time, it will come as natural to him as breathing. When you say "Come
here," see that he comes, and let him understand that "Lie down" means
just that and nothing more. It is very useful to have a dog that lives
in the house "stay put" when placed in a chair or a corner, and this
should be part of his education. It is very bad dog manners to jump up
on visitors. Even to those who love dogs it is often disagreeably
bothersome. It is bad enough in a toy dog, but in an Airedale it is
worse in the ratio of five pounds to fifty.
I am not personally in favor of teaching a dog tricks. A trick dog soon
learns to "love the limelight," and will be continually begging to be
allowed to show off. Besides, I have an inborn dislike to seeing a dog
doing stunts, and I know the feeling is shared by others who are fond
of a good dog. It seems a silly thing to see a big, strong terrier
begging or walking on his hind legs. It may be very clever for poodles
and pugs, but with a man's dog--and the terriers are all "man's
dogs"--it always calls to my mind a painting in the Louvre in which
Hercules is depicted sitting at the feet of Venus industriously winding
up a ball of yarn. However, tastes differ, and these tricks are all
easy to teach a bright pupil, who has already learned the lesson of
minding.
When the city dog goes out for a walk his training gets its real test.
What a lovely spectacle it is to see a dog owner rushing and yelling
after a dog who runs about paying no more attention to him than to the
clouds overhead. It is a sight that has but one equal, that of a
portly, pompous gentleman chasing his own hat. Even if a dog is
perfectly trained indoors, he may break loose when first taken out on
the street, but he can easily be made to understand that master is to
be boss on the street as well as in the house. One of the best habits a
city dog can have is that of keeping close to his owner's heels
crossing streets. A dog is perfectly well able to cross a crowded
street, but in busy thoroughfares a dog and his master are apt to get
separated, and all may not be so fortunate as the Washington physician
who had his champion Airedale returned with a note which read:
"Dere Doc--Here is your Yeller Dog. Will you Please give me 15 cents I
hate to ask so much but i had to fead him 2 days."
The Airedale who lives in the country is more fortunate than his
brother in town. His preliminary education is just the same, but he
gets a college course in hunting, and maybe a little post-graduate work
in cattle driving. All that has been said about house-breaking and
teaching to mind applies with equal force to the country dog. If there
are not so many interested spectators to make it embarrassing it is
just as provoking to have a runaway dog in the meadows and pastures as
in the streets and avenues. A single motor at sixty or seventy miles an
hour on the turnpike is harder for a dog to dodge than the whole flood
of traffic that streams up and down the city thoroughfares. So, city or
country, teach your dog to mind.
An Airedale will take as naturally to rats, woodchucks, and such vermin
as a lot of little yellow ducklings will to the mill pond. But to make
assurance doubly sure, it is best to introduce him to mice or small
rats when he is four or five months old, then leading on and on till
you can end with the biggest game found in America. This is the way
terriers are broken in England. It has been found that if a terrier is
jumped bang at Mr. Woodchuck, for example, he may be spoiled by biting
off more than he can chew the first time.
In the Rockies, where Airedales are used on grizzly and mountain lion,
the dogs hunt in packs, and the old dogs train the youngsters. Example
and experience make an excellent pair of tutors, and the work is such
that unless the lessons are grasped pretty quickly, there will be a
dead dog.
The gradual system of breaking applies to water. The veins of the
Airedale are filled with the blood of the otter-hound, and from this
ancestor he has inherited a love for the water. Practically all
Airedales will swim naturally without any training at all, but once in
a while there comes along one who does not take to water. He should be
coaxed in, not taken by the scruff of the neck and pitched overboard.
Methods like that are not generally successful when dogs are concerned.
In hunting and swimming the Airedale is but following the strongest
instincts that he has. All one has to do is to curb and direct these
instincts. Experience will do the rest, for the dog has brains and is
very quick to learn, and the teacher is proverbially a good one. In
driving cattle and sheep, however, the dog is going into a new trade,
as it were, and not one to which he was born. He proves his versatility
by the quickness with which he can learn to be an excellent drover. The
easiest way is to take him out with a dog experienced in this work. If
this cannot be done, one will have to train him himself, and this is
not so difficult as it sounds, but it is best to make sure that the dog
has carefully learned that minding trick above mentioned before
undertaking this.
Almost any and all dogs are watch-dogs, but the Airedale, because of
his size and intelligence, is a particularly good one. It is not the
wisest policy to chain up a dog at night, for he will be much more apt
to sound false alarms, and in any case of real need he is powerless to
give active defense of himself or his friends. The watch-dog ought not
to have his big, heavy meal at night, or he will go to sleep and snore
peacefully till cock crow, while if fed but lightly, he will rest in a
series of cat naps, if a dog can do that.
The Airedale is more practically useful than any other breed of dog. He
can do more things better than any other variety. It is this eminent
utility of his that has been one of the greatest factors in his
success, but he would never have become so widely popular with men,
women, and children of all classes had it not been that behind his
usefulness there is sterling character and good disposition.