Chicks With Beards Rock

I got a new do a few days ago and mom says I'm beautiful. Do you like chicks with beards? The pretty ladies at Indogneeto in Oshawa always give me this cute beard! I like those ladies. They give me cookies and make me smell great. I have tons of energy so I talk fast....

What does immature mean? Dad says I'm immature. I don't know what that word means. For some reason mom and dad don't want me to jump up on them anymore. Learning not to do that is a real drag.

I ate mom's new thingy today. Mom said it was a working compass pendant. Mom is angry. Mom says she ordered the thingy by mailorder. What is etsy? Anyway mom told dad she was going to make a steampunk necklace called "Finding My Way". Oh well! That thingy was tasty. I always smile for mom after I've eaten her stuff. Then mom gets even madder. Why is mom so angry these days?

I also chewed a strand of crunchies today too. I just love those little crunchies. I get yelled at for pulling stuff down off mom's desk. All the items on mom's desk smell great! Dad calls the crunchies "gemstone beads". He says I'm living on borrowed time. I don't know what that means either.

Mom says "some day" I will grow into a great friend for her. I think we're great friends right now. I just love mom and all her stuff. Well, gotta go! If I sit in my window I can watch the traffic...

adding photos to flickr

Amy's First 'AireCut'

Well Amy just got her first airecut on Saturday and I have to admit that she is finally beginning to look like an airedale. She's such a pretty girl!

We took a chance on a new groomer, Indogneeto, located on King Street in downtown Oshawa, and we're very pleased with the job!

Daddy just couldn't wait to take Amy out for a photo shoot after her visit at the spa. Oh I forgot to mention that Daddy just got a new camera... so he's into pics again, big time...

If you're looking for a decent airdale terrier groomer in Durham Region, why not try Indogneeto?

This job runs circles around the work from PetsMart at the Whitby power mall and costs considerably less.
For Indogneeto appointments telephone: 905-710-0719

Email Indogneeto:

Grooming Airedale Puppies - "Starting to Look Like a Real Airedale!"

Here's Amy at about four months. This wasn't really her first 'airecut'. I had hand stripped her coat. Hand stripping the old outer coat isn't painful to the dog, but Amy was very young and her stripping & grooming sessions were quite short at first and gradually extended as her patience and tolerance grew.

We invested in a folding grooming table from Pet Supply House (next day delivery!) complete with noose and this baby took to it remarkable well. In addition to a toolkit of stripping knives, I also like the stripping stones for removing dead fluff. And David is fond of a few stripping "gloves" that work really well especially for puppies because you can gently incorporate grooming into play sessions. Whoopee!

Notice the great gooming on a mature bitch in this wonderful airedale pic borrowed from http://www.breederretriever.com. One thing is certain, if you want to showcase the features of your airedale puppy, you'll have to groom it. Hopefully someday Amy's airecut will resemble this fine example.... sigh!

Airedale Puppies and Chew, Chew, Chewing!

Chewing mommy's stuff up is Amy's raison d'etre. Puppy toys and wholesome chew treats are a necessity with our Airedale, who seems bored out of her skull most of the time when left on her own. Her energy level is off the map. I've never owned a dog with this soaring level of energy. I joke that all three of our male giant schnauzers put together don't have Amy's energy level. I'm still trying to find a 'day job' for this little working dog. She needs a full time job.

Left to her own devices, Amy paces through the house looking for items to play with. This means an unusual preoccupation with anything mommy touches and especially the irresistible desire to chew up the beautiful things mommy creates. So far, Amy has only destroyed a few of my precious gemstone creations, so I've somehow managed to keep the majority of my artistic mess out of her reach.


At the vet Amy and I met a lady who said Amy was "full of beans and bologna" read baloney like phony baloney. This puppy LOVES the whole world. She simply adores every living being and true to the terrier monaker our Amy is a holy terror, just a hellion.

This means that your new airedale terrier puppy may seem a bit airheaded at times. She'll hear your commands and totally understand them, but whether she complies is another matter entirely. At times, this breed requires a good deal of patience on the part of the handler.

An optimal environment for my airedale puppy is a busy, active household. A household with lots going on - lots of visitors, lots of chatter, lots of opportunities for play, good long walks outside, and of course plenty of catch, fetch and tugging games! Our airedale is a star retriever!!! Just wait until we introduce a frisbee....

House Training etc.

I'm absolutely blown away by how weird purebred baby airedales look. Amy is our first airedale and I had no idea that these funny canine babies invariably look so strange. Here she is with daddy and mommy. She loved to crawl up on us and perch behind our necks for a snooze whenever possible. I grabbed these aweful pics with my camera phone, but you get the idea how small she was at seven weeks and how funny she looked!!! Our little bear cub.

At this age our airedale puppy slept pretty much all the time - and anywhere that the urge overtook her! I started outdoor house training immediately. I don't believe in newspaper training or other forms of indoor house training since you'll have to transition to the great outdoors at some point anyhow, so why not get the ball rolling early?

Every 15 minutes if this baby girl was awake, I ran her out the door for a pee. Eventually as her tiny bladder got bigger the pee breaks extended to 20 minutes then 25 minutes apart etc. By the time Amy was 12 weeks old she was totally house trained. But it took a great deal of effort on my part. Caring for such a young dog is a full time job, and fortunately I have a home office so I could devote tons of time to working with this puppy.

Here's our daughter Kate with Amy at around 9 weeks. I found it to be fact that airedale puppies love to chew. This puppy was extremely tactile and absolutely everything went in her mouth. Electrical cords can be a true source of danger for these puppies. This airedale is very curious and pokes her head into everything. Today, Amy is a year old and as she is now getting very tall, we're still Amy proofing the house.

New Baby

Here's our baby the day we brought her home. As this was my first airedale, I felt perhaps we'd been sold a bear cub not a puppy. I think it's silly that baby airedale terriers look so ridiculous. Unfortunately they grow up all too quickly...

Amy was only seven weeks old in this pic. Her canine mommy's milk had been drying up since this litter was four weeks old. So Amy and her litter mates really needed new homes. My David was certain he needed another dog and I too was eager to make room for a new baby. So we welcomed Amy with open arms! Amy was Daddy's Happy Father's Day gift 2007 and she's been filling our hearts with joy every day since.

On day two I took Amy to visit our daughter Kate at her nursing home in Pickering. Kate said Amy was just too adorable and fell in love with her too!!! Even in her wheelchair, Kate found it easy to hold Amy -- of course the puppy mostly slept all the time at that point.