Weddingbee boards

So we're thinking about getting a second dog and this little (?) guy caught my eye.  In the first picture he looks smallish compared to the chainlink: 

Maybe 25 lbs or so?

But in this picture look how big he looks compared to the person behind him!

Our 65 lb bully dog isn't that big! 

So!  State fair style, how big do you think this dog is?  Pounds, inches, height relative to body?  Any guess goes!

(@ Ottawa - Is it just me or does he remind you of a Welshie?)

Found here.

@Gerbera - I was wondering that too.  Especially since he doesn't have that orange collar on in the first picture.  Petfinder isn't particularly helpful.  They just say "medium" and "young" without any qualifications as to what that means! 

In the first pic he does look like he could be part Airedale. I grew up with Airedales, and they always weighed under 65 pounds. I always thought of them as a "medium" sized dog.

He's very cute!!! Looks like he has a good personality :)

I'd imagine I'll be calling them soon...  J's interested in going down to see him too. 

@Ottawa - You're probably right about more Airedale than Welsh.  I always looked at the first picture so I got it into my head that he's a bit smaller than he probably actually is. 

@gabrielleelise - I assume you like Airedales?  How were they with kids?  We don't have any ourselves yet but a number of our friends and family have little ones.  And what about with other dogs?  What height of fence did you have? 

I've never owned a terrier except for our APBT.  Actually, I take that back.  One of our farm dogs was an Airdale/Lab mix but she didn't look or act like either breed!  I'm very confident in our obedience training abilities and while we don't go for a ton of walks we now have a big house and a big yard with a lonely dog that would love to play all day. 

I think I'm a little gun shy because my last dog was a 3.5 year old rescue and had some issues that were big enough we had to put him down when he was 8 years old.  Bones is a rescue too although he was only 6 months or so when J got him so his aren't nearly as bad - just dog aggressive with unaltered males and with new dogs in confined spaces.  I was thinking I wanted a puppy so that I could be sure that no bad things had happened to him but I don't know...  Who can resist that face?

I LOVE Airedales. Ours were amazing with me, my brother and all little kids – the female especially loved loved loved kids. She only got out of the yard once or twice, but each time, my mom found her at the playground up the street from our house (I kid you not LOL), just playing with the kids. Our female was fine with cats and dogs, but would chase small animals outside like squirrels/rodents, but, that’s in their nature. The male was fine with other animals, until he was “jumped” by a husky at about a year and a half old, after that he was very animal aggressive – but I think that was due to the fight, as he was fine with other dogs before. He was never people aggressive though (including toddlers, little kids).

I’ve known several other Airedales and Airedales mixes, and they all seemed to be fine with other animals.

They are very smart, and willful, so I would definitely do obedience training, and establish yourself/FH as the pack leader. I think they are great dogs though. Very loyal. FH and I think we want a smaller dog to start with, but if we wanted something larger, I would get an Airedale. They also hardly shed at all, which is nice.

Here's a pic of our female, Lacey (I named her when I was 5 years old lol), she was only 8 weeks old when this picture was taken - meeting the resident grumpy old man cat for the first time. As you can probably guess from the cat paw in the picture, right after my dad snapped this shot, poor Lacey got popped in the nose by the cat! That cat made sure the puppy knew who was boss haha ;)

@Gabrielle - Ha ha!  Yeah, I fully expect any terrier to go nuts over a cat or other small animal.  That's just the way they are!  And J and I are all about being pack leaders so I'm not worried about that.  That's so cute about how she went across to the playground and what a cute picture!  I think they're gorgeous dogs and minimal shedding!  Hells yes!  I've seen it mentioned that they need to have their coats "plucked" twice a year and that if you keep it "stripped" it will minimize shedding.  I'm not familiar with either of those terms!  Does stripped = using a Furminator? 

I think the only thing that worries me is that I have this tendancy to train very loyal animals.  Both my horse and my late dog would listen to me fairly consistantly but anyone else?  Not unless you really knew what you were talking about or if you spent a lot of time working with them.  Unfortunately, I don't know how I'm doing it so I can't stop!  Makes me wonder if I shouldn't just stick to loves-everything-and-everyone, eager to please breeds/dogs. 

@Melissa, thanks!

@Ottawa - Welshies are on our short list! I love terriers, and would love a "mini-Airedale". how is your puppy doing? :)

@Ottawa - Well done!  I think I was just reading about how they can be hard to housetrain and was wondering how that was going for you.  You're going to continue to shower us with pictures of him, right?  He's too cute!

For coat care, my mom groomed the dogs herself. I don't know if it was the "right" way, but they looked good teehee. Its not hard – she used a regular electric barber type clippers (like you can use on people's hair), and used different length blades so they looked professionally done. With their front legs and chest, usually I think she just trimmed their fur with scissors, then “buzzed” the rest of their body. I’m not sure exactly which blades she used, but if you would like to know, PM me and I’ll call and ask her. She would trim them about twice a year, and then brush them whenever they needed it, which wasn’t that often, but they didn’t real go “outdoors”, except to the backyard, so didn’t often get real muddy or get things stuck in their fur.

@gabrielle - Thanks!  It doesn't look like this guy's coat would get too unruly.  Hopefully the Furminator would do the trick for the most part. 

Thanks so much for your help and I'll let you know if anything comes of it!  (And of course feel free to continue to guess or chime in if you have any advice.  I can always use it!)

I'd guess about 50-60 lbs. It looks about the size of my Daisy...she's about to my knees, perhaps a little taller. I forgot her measurements. I'd say 50-60lbs.

@Ottawa - Too cute!  Hijacking due to puppy pictures is always welcome!  Actually, I don't really mind if threads get hijacked (in a productive way) period.  So there you go.  Post away.  Those little teeth are too much!