I saw the Airedale Rescue ad in the newspaper. We had to put our senior Bouvier des Flandes to sleep 6 months earlier and were still grieving from the loss. I called and emailed my application to SWAT. Dorothy Dunn Duff called us and set up a home visit. We were living in town at the time. Apparantly we passed her and her Airedale Maddie's strict standards. We waited about 2 months before Dorothy called and told us about 2 female Airedales needing a home in Silver City. The owners had to move and take care of elderly parents and could no longer keep their dogs. She sent us a picture. The 3 year old all-black Airedale was a little more independent, house-trained, loved the great outdoors, (we had a huge fenced yard), and was very sweet. Dorothy didn't have a foster home for them, so we agreed to foster Sadie. The older Airedale Holly was very dependent and wouldn't be good for a working couple.

Sadie was house-trained and had excellent house manners, except she pulled like a sled dog on leash and hated to be groomed. When she arrived her coat was unclipped and was all one length. You really couldn't tell what breed she was. Dorothy showed us how to clip an Airedale. We were not afraid of the grooming required after 10 years of owning a Bouvier. By comparison, getting dirt and goatheads out of Sadie's coat is a cakewalk.

I entered Sadie in obedience class and she did well. She knows sit, stay, down, wait, and beg. She's better on leash, but she is still very eager when she sees me a) touch the leash b) pull keys outta my purse c) put the cell-phone on my hip, or d) put on a jacket, she leaps straight in the air for joy. She no longer leaps on me after training. She now tolerates grooming and clipping but she's still a wiggle-worm. During the cool to cold weather, I have her bathed and brushed at PetSmart. After her feet have soaked in a tub for a few minutes she doesn't scream when we clip her nails. The neighbors must have thought we were into animal torture!

She is quite the athlete and we go for long walks around the trails by our home. We moved to Placitas a few months ago. Sadie still has a big yard and chases rabbits and barks at coyotes. She sleeps on a bed right next to me or lies right by me when I'm reading or watching television. She's quite the clown and grabs her toys and plays keep away with herself in the yard or in the livingroom. She also pretends. I saw her chasing something around the yard, then burrow after it. I thought it got away since she didn't have it in her mouth when she stopped digging. Then she ran around the yard again in the same pattern chasing that critter and then dug after it in the same hole. She did this numerous times and never caught it. No critter would run the same pattern or jump in the same hole with a big smart Airedale chasing it, so Sadie must have been pretending.

She would counter-surf and beg if we let her, but she must sit and wait to be told it's OK to eat. I review her training and she is much easier to handle at the Doggie Dash and Dawdle. We dawdle, although Sadie could easily do both the walk and the run and still have a 10 mile hike in her. Although she's all black she is all Airedale. She can go all day without slowing down and is incredibly strong for a 55 pound dog. She's a clown-at-heart and wants to be with us 7x24. We have adopted other dogs of different breeds, but I think Sadie's my favorite. We have become Airedale fans and this will be her forever home.

Janice and Johnny Vaughan
Placitas, NM