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I have been asked to write an article about Airedale Terriers I have
known in the last sixty-five years.
When I was ten years old I lived in Hollywood, California on a street
called Holly Drive. We had a next door neighbor, a man by the name
of Mr. Bell, who was in his 80s.
Mr. Bell had a one year-old Airedale Terrier he called Ben. I would
go into Mr. Bell’s backyard and play with Ben almost daily. Mr.
Bell asked me if I would take Ben on walks for him and he would pay
me twenty-five cents for every time I walked him. This was in 1941
and I would have done it for nothing but he insisted on paying me.
Holly Drive, the street we lived on, is the street that leads up to
the Hollywood Dam. From our house you walked up the street approximately
three blocks and it came to a dead end at the Hollywood Hills. Off
to the right was a narrow dirt path that went up the hills about a
third of a mile and ended up at the Hollywood dam. You could walk across
the dam in those days. It was great fun to do with Ben, the Airedale
from next door.
Our four most strenuous walks or hikes was to hike up the mountains,
where there was no path, to the Hollywood sign that you see on television
and in pictures of Hollywood. This was a tough climb for both me and
Ben, and when we got done, we were so tired.
I did not have a dog of my own and my dad had a chance to get a ten
week-old pup from a friend of his and this was also an Airedale. We
moved from Hollywood to Los Angeles. I really missed Ben and I know
he missed me, but now I had my own Airedale pup. In the late 30s and
early 40s Airedales were a very popular breed. I called my pup Lucky
and when he was old enough to get a haircut I took him to a man that
trimmed dogs and showed Sealyham Terriers by the name of Ralph Friedman.
Mr. Friedman trimmed him and when I picked him up I didn’t recognize
him, he was so beautiful. Mr. Friedman told me he was a very nice dog
and I should think about showing him. He told me there was a Los Angeles
Kennel Club show coming up at the old Gilmore Stadium at the corner
of Fairfax and Beverly Blvd. This stadium is not there anymore. It
was used for midget auto races and many outdoor events. My mother drove
me to this show as I was too young to drive. When I walked into the
dog show, my eyes got as big as saucers. I never knew that anything
like this existed. I saw a Wire Fox Terrier standing on a table all
choked up and ready for the ring and I never thought a dog could look
so beautiful. I believe it was at this moment that I fell in love with
dog shows. When I was twelve years-old and Lucky was a year-and-a-half,
I took Lucky to Mr. Friedman and told him I would like to show him.
I asked if he would show me how to trim him, which he did. There was
a show coming up in Pasadena, California right next to the Rose Bowl
and Mr. Friedman showed me how to enter him. I took Lucky to the show
and got a blue ribbon by beating one other dog in the novice class.
That one blue ribbon hooked me for life.
The second World War started on December 7, 1941 when
the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and President Franklin Roosevelt gave
his famous speech about the dastardly attack. I have never heard a
President of this country speak as well as President Roosevelt. This
country was just coming out of the Great Depression at the time the
war started. When the war started, everyone went to work. Before that,
jobs were hard to come by but the war changed all that. My dad got
a second job at Lockheed Aircraft building P-38 fighter airplanes at
night. These were the twin tailed fighter planes that were one of the
mainstays of our Air Force. This country was in a war mode and dog
shows were pretty much closed down. People didn’t have the gas
to go to them. Gas was rationed to just the amount it would take you
to get to work and back. You could not buy tires or parts for your
car if it broke down. Food was rationed, shoes were rationed and everything
that was used for the war effort was almost impossible to buy. There
was no wasting food or anything else.
There was a man who was a top breeder of Airedales in Santa Monica,
California. His name was Lou Holliday. His kennel name was Lionheart.
Mr. Holliday bred some of the best Airedales in our part of the country.
Another was a man who put up a lot of money to buy a dog from the East
Coast–his name was Roy Latham. This dog turned out to be a great
stud dog. His name was Ch. Roy-El Hot Rock. This was an absolutely
beautiful dog. We had never seen an Airedale in California with such
class and style. This was a supreme show dog. Unfortunately Hot Rock
had a fault that plagued the breed at that time. This was a front movement
that had side action instead of a straight movement from the elbows
down. This fault plagues the breed to this day but there has been much
improvement. For years we here in the United States went to England
to buy the best Airedales. A man who we know by the name of Tom Gately
bought some very good dogs from England. Tom owned the breed at Westminster
in the 40s and into the 50s. Every year I would go to Westminster and
try to beat Mr. Gately and every year there would be a guy in the seats
at the garden yelling while were were in the ring “attaboy Tom,
attaboy Tom” and Tom would win the breed. It took me years to
beat him, but I finally did one year in the 50s with a dog bred by
the Lionheart kennels; and it was a good feeling.
A dog recommended to me by Peter Green by the name of Ch. Bengal Turith
Lionheart aka Skipper, his call name, was purchased by two good clients
of mine for a very good price and proved to be a very successful stud
dog on the West Coast. This dog was a good-sized dog that looked and
carried himself as the King of Terriers.
I was asked to go to England to judge the finals of
the world’s
children's handling class. I put up an Irish girl. Then I went to the
ring where Airedales were to be shown. The open dog class entered and
in came a dog called Ch. Bengal Turith Comet. I took one look at this
dog and watched him move and right then I decided to try to purchase
him for a client I had in California. After some haggling over the
price, which was very high for the time, Comet was sent to me. It so
happened that my best bitch was in season when I got here and close
to going out of season. On a very stormy night here in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, with a terrific lightning and thunderstorm, I got the two
bred with a good tie. I could not get a second breeding because she
was too far out. Two days after we got the breeding to Comet, my kennel
girl found him dead in his crate in the morning. Talk about being devastated,
I certainly was. All I could do now was to hope and pray that the breeding
took. After about five weeks, I was sure that the breeding took and
nine weeks later she had nine puppies. This litter was all that I had
hoped it would be.
After all these years, I found out what happened to Comet. The young
man who was showing him in England had a bad neighbor. This young man
was tranquilizing Comet so he would not bark. Cliff Hallmark bought
a dog from the same lady and the dog died suddenly just like Comet.
I found out that with the tranquilizer he was being given, you could
not take them off suddenly or the dog would die.
Out of the Comet-sired litter came Ch. Bravo True Grit
and his brother that I had sold to Clay Coady for a client of his in
California. These two dogs became prolific sires and are responsible
for some of the best Airedales we have today. These two dogs and some
other exceptionally good sires throughout the country have made Airedales
the best I have ever seen in my sixty-five years of observing the breed.
True Grit sired a great bitch by the name of Ch. Finlair’s Isis,
bred by a lady named Kathy Finley. She was shown by Bob LaRouche in
and around the Chicago area.
I believe that she is the best Airedale bitch I have seen. These two
Airedales, True Grit and Isis, both won the breed at Montgomery County
and many Best In Shows.
I would be breeding Airedales today but I sold my kennel when I started
to judge. I now live in a residential area. Airedale puppies from the
age of ten weeks on will tear your house down board by board. They
are extremely rambunctious.
The dogs that I have mentioned are only dogs that I had anything to
do with during my life. My first Best In Show was with a terrific dog
called Ch. The Sheik of Ran Aire. This was in 1948. My own bitch, Ch.
Roy El Tiger Lily, winner of two Airedale specialties with close to
seventy entries are two of the many of my favorites. I was about 17
years old at the time.
Airedales are truly the king of Terriers. I have seen so many I liked
but there is not room to talk about them all. They are magnificent,
majestic, and beautiful to watch. I could go on and on about this breed
but I will close it down for now.
Till next time,
Ric Chashoudian
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