Wed, 17 Dec 2003

...Our dog, Razzle, is now almost six months old.

We have had an Airedale in our house since 1970 and for awhile we had two males at the same time. We have never shown a dog for conformation but have had obedience training for all of the dogs. Razzle is by far the easiest of all our dogs to train. He likes to please and learns very quickly. The approach has been one of positive reinforcement as opposed to a penalty for not performing a certain task using click and treat methods liberally. He is the first Airedale that likes to retrieve; our other Airedales would get the ball and then run away. He is our "baby" but he is really quite smart. I would think that giving him a lot of time in walking and interacting has also been a factor in his wanting to please.
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In looking for a puppy I looked at a number of different breeders and talked quite a bit with several. I was impressed that Nancy had a vision of what an Airedale should look like and what they should be able to do from a functional point of view and then breed dogs to fit her concept. Many breeders breed but do not seem to have a firm idea of what their goals are.

Razzle is big boned and heavily muscled. He glides when he walks and tries very hard to please i.e. he is easily trainable, not a feature present in all Airedales. He smiles a lot too. Everywhere we go people are really taken with him. His coloring is dark black and a reddish tan. He interacts very well with other dogs and likes people.

We live in Minnesota and went to Akron to get our dog even though there were a lot of breeders closer. We made the correct decision....

May 14, 2006

Well the first show was this weekend and Razzle took a first and a Reserve although I thought he was the best to the dogs there.
He is 24 inches at the shoulder and weighs 60 pounds. He doesn't look overly muscular but if you run your hands over him its obvious that he is really solid. He moves really well so....

Open classes are going well. He goes over a broad jump and turns on a dime for a front. He likes to jump and retrieves consistently over a jump. He will retrieve the dumbell all the time and come right back .. Downs on recall are ok and I'm working to get him to drop faster after the command is given. Off leash heeling depends on his level of attention and is more variable.... In short, I will have a CDX before the end ot the year.

We start tracking lessons on June 6 and if things go well I'll enter him for his TD by the end of the summer.

May 16, 2006

I went to open class tonight and there was a sign that said congratulations to Razzle and Michael. So I said what is that about. I was handed a copy of Front and Finish and under Airedales I saw that in Novice that Razzle was number three in the country and number six with all terriers <2005>. I have no idea how they figure this out. We went to just two shows for a total of four trials and had a title after three trials.
I really do wish that you could see him in person. He looks so very good with a staight back, ski jump curve from the neck and very powerful rear end.


Dr. Michael B.

Puppy pics of Razzle at some of his first shows; Is that a wink?