Airedale’s and crosses

I would breed to a leggy Pitbull of good size from a family of leggy good sized pits...
I used to hunt Airedale’s many years ago...my favorite were those crossed with standard type with large type...

Back then there were two kennels of large type Airedale’s...one was in Mena, Arkansas and his kennel name was Quachita Airedales...he had raised them from the 1940s until he passed away...

The other large type kennel was in Sparta, Tennessee, Mooreland Airedale’s...
The best I thought were standard Airedale’s crossed with the large type...

My brother and I had some pretty good ones back then...

Keeping them clipped was a pain...
Our conclusion was that they aren’t the best catch dogs and not the best hunting dogs...
Back then we swapped to the large type mountain cur and it was by far the best move we made...
Nowadays it’s hard to find that type of mtn cur...
The APBT’s of today are not the same as back then...there are a higher percentage of culls these days...the large type Airedale’s have about disappeared...

Back in those days I bought a standard Airedale from a working kennel and we hunted him alone...if he had a large boar he bayed it until we shot...if a sow or smaller hog he caught an ear when we showed up...

One thing I learned about the Airedale’s that are built like the show type Airedale’s...their bodies are not square...they are taller than they are long...this makes them prance...the front foot comes up before the rear foot touches the ground so that the rear foot doesn’t hit the front foot...makes the dog look flashy in the show ring but not practical for a hunting dog...
I had read about this...and when I took one of these type of dogs for a run at the beach I found out something else...this type of dog seems to run ok until he reaches a certain speed then he starts hopping like a leopard frog...it seems they do this to prevent the rear feet from hitting the back of the front feet...they wear out pretty quick after they start running that way...show dog people many times breed for certain looks and not for better functioning...