Monday, March 16, 2009

Russian Airedales

http://www.airedale.ru/history_eng.php3

I had been thinking of adding an Irish Terrier to my two female Ridgebacks. I finally got around to talking to an Irish Terrier breeder today and she pretty much talked me out of it. She thought the Irish Terrier would become too focused on the rabbits down at the river and not come back. My Ridgeback girls love to chase rabbits but they never catch them and come back fairly quickly. Also, she described the Irish Terrier as “dog aggressive.” I might have to lock the Irish up if a visitor brought over a male dog. I said that my son had been trying to talk me into getting an Airedale and she, the Irish Terrier breeder, thought that might be a better choice for me. An Airedale wouldn’t run away from me at the river and while it can be provoked by a really aggressive dog of the same sex, it isn’t nearly as dog-aggressive, usually, as an Irish Terrier.

So I broke away from reading about the Red Army and the Second World war to Google Airedales and one of the first articles I encountered was the above article about the history of Airedales in Russia. Maybe the Airedale suffered less than Russians purged, sent to Gulags or killed by Nazis, but not by much.

2 comments:

Heidi said...

Oh, darn! I hated reading this. I have a Ridgeback currently, and an Irish Terrier is my next dream dog. I had one growing up .... and I guess I must admit she was pretty feisty. But she was a terrific family dog and would never have run away. I can still dream about having one of each, can't I? :)

Lawrence Helm said...

See my response at http://www.lawrencehelm.com/2009/03/re-russian-airedales.html