MORE AIREDALE COATS!!

I also want to mention that outside of the sheepcoat, it doesn't matter what coat your Airedale was born with, unless you strip the coat, you will most probably end up with a soft coated dale with somewhat faded colouring. However, a lot of the times you can still get the wire/colour to come in if you stripped the soft coat. Nothing will come in if you stripped the sheepcoat, and you probably wouldn't even be able to pull the haire out! I know if I were to clip my boy Jaffa, he would become a soft coat and his colours would fade. I witnessed it with his sister who was born with an even wirier coat than him. She was stripped at first which allowed her to maintained the gorgeous colouring and texture. Then we began clipping her, and she went soft and faded. There has been the rare exception where the dale was born with an extremely wiry coat where the leg/facial furnishing take forever to come in. Some of them never get full furnishing because the haire breaks off due to its extreme wiriness. Those dogs you could probably get away with clipping and still maintaining colour and texture.

My experience from grooming the dales has been that some have very little undercoat and is extremely wiry (20% undercoat, 80% wire coat etc.) while others have more soft undercoat and less wiry (60% undercoat, 40% wire coat etc.). The more undercoat a dog has, the softer and lighter colour the dog is. Undercoat also grows faster than the top coat, that's why a clipped dog needs grooming every 2-3 months and a stripped dog only needs a strip every 5-6 months. Of course, the sheepcoats, being all undercoat, grow coat in a blink of an eye. They require grooming every 4-5 weeks.
 ANOTHER INTERESTING POST FROM ELAINE HU 

Interesting Article!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150842333714543&set=a.10150842330429543.410170.513304542&type=1

 

This is a post written by Elaine Hu

The sheepcoat is a very rare, very special coat type. They have charcoal grey ears instead of the usual black and tan, and legs are blonde, almost like a Wheaten. This special coat is ALL undercoat, and is very dense and curly. It's hard to explain unless you've touched one. Their coat has almost the exact same density and texture as a poodle's coat. It soaks in water like no other. This is a very rare coat because breeders don't like the coat. Most try as best as they could to breed it out of the line. However, it still crops up from time to time. Some believe it is a throwback from their Otterhound ancestry as the sheepcoats are only observed in Airedales, not Welshes or other terriers. There are several reasons why breeders don't like the coat; one, it doesn't conform to the breed standard, two, it traps heat (horribly), mud, dirt, burrs, sand, water, you name it, and three, it doesn't come out nearly as easily (or at all!!!) as the normal coated Airedales, thus making escape from vermin more difficult. You CANNOT strip a sheepcoated Airedale, it would be a torture for them.

I had a conversation with Jane Harvey, an Australian Airedale breeder of over 80 champions and a well respected International Judge. This was what she had to say about the sheepcoats:

"These seem to crop up from time to time and are not the desired coat for the breed. In fact, these coats completely lack the top coat. An Airedale's coat was originally designed to come out in the claws of the digging animals he was bred to chase. So, an extension of a non-moulting coat was selected for, where the coat had to be 'tugged' before it came out. So, this feature became the Airedale's natural defence against the predators he was used to hunt. That is why it is recommended that the coat be hand stripped. The hardness of the coat was selected for as a feature of the breed. But along with the best of coats, breeders found these sheep coats cropped up from time to time. Sheep coated puppies are the prettiest and most appealing of them all! But their grooming is always time consuming and a headache.

It is a mystery where these sheepcoats come from. I believe it is from a genetic mutation of come sort. Because a sheepcoated Airedale's coat is quite unlike any other breed's coat. I have observed that sheepcoated puppies occur in litters where the hardest of coats also appear. Airedales are not the only breed that has this type of problem -German Shepherds can produce incorrect coats - a long coated version as can Welsh Corgi's both Cardigan and Pembroke. And these breeds are certainly unrelated to Airedales!"

So who knows? Mutation, Otterhound, etc.

The best way to tell if an Airedale is a true sheepcoat is to look at the ears. A true sheepcoated Airedale will retain the dark/charcoal colouring in the ears throughout his/her lifetime. Sunshade is 12.5, and yup, we still have charcoal ears :-)

The picture here features 6 different sheepcoated Airedales. We have Camilla Murphy's Rogue @ 6 months, Maureen Scott's Courtney aka LL pictured @ 10 yrs. Sue Forrester's handsome Aerem pictured @ 10 yrs old at a dog show where he won Best Veteran (how cool that you can show a sheepie in Oz?), Denise Keith's Noah @ 10 years, my Sunshade girl pictured @ 12 yrs old, and her brother Winston pictured @ 10 yrs old. Sunshade and Winston were the two sheepcoated pups out of a litter of 8. Sunshade was supposedly the pick female that the breeder was hoping to keep. FORTUNATELY, she had to be let go due to her "bad" coat. Notice how they all have dark/charcoal ears?

One observation that I have made on the sheepcoats is that they hide age VERY well. All the dogs in the picture, with the exception of baby Rogue (you're lucky you're in Oz, or he would be in danger of being dognapped by me!!), were pictured at 10 yrs and over. Yet they look no more than 5 yrs old!

Showing in Canada

 My friend took these shots today.  

The airedale is Indus Razzle Dazzle being shown by Lydia in the group.  She is just a year and won the breed and beat
two others.  She is a daughter of Can Ch. Indus Ready or Not who is currently bred to Harry Potter.   

I am very pleased with her showing as she is just a year and this was her first show.
Joanne Helm

"Star"

 This is mom Indus Ready or Not (Red) just a little stoned from the meds!!!

 Introducing Indus Lone Star (Star)

 A gorgeous little girl with beautiful dark coat, who we are hoping that will live up to her name....

Just to cute for words!!

thoughts on a cold sunday in jozi!!

So the wind in howling and the hairydales are wrapped up in coats and running around the garden, normally this would be accompanied by a pic, but it's just to damn cold!!!! I am most excited because i have just been through my first AI experience with Georgina (letamo gingersnap of peluche), and we are pretty sure that it has taken!!  Thanks to Liezel for the use of her amazing "Clyde" and to my great friends Linny and Celia for their support and advice.......here starts the "peluche" line of airedales!!
For those of you wondering "Peluche" is spanish for TeddyBear.
But back to Georgina and the puppies:having never had a litter of pups i am most excited by the prospect of what's to come, and i am sure that georgina will be the best mom.....
We will be going for a scan in 30days to see what cooking in the oven!!!

Teegan van Eeden

This is Teegan, we have yet to meet this young lady, she belongs to Pierre van Eeden and will be joining the "gang" at the next Airedale Social Club!(ain't she cute)