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Dogs & Drones - Search and Rescue support in the Snake River region
The Airedale Terrier is probably the result of breeding Otter-hounds and an old Black and Tan Terrier in the first half of the 19th Century. The purpose was to breed a general purpose hunting dog with water capability. I am sure DNA will one day tell a more complete story. Airedale is a valley of the river Aire that runs through Western England. It has been a major travel & trade route between the west and east. They were possibly bred in the upper reaches of the area because the area lower was heavily industrialized and the river was dead in the lower reaches even during the first half of the 19th Century.
During the second half of the 19th Century the Airedale Terrier spread throughout the British Empire and to America as a general purpose hunting dog that also provided protection to the family. They were used in Africa, India and the Americas to hunt big game and gained a reputation for loyalty and courage. Roald Dahl mentions an Airedale killed by a Green Mamba in Africa protecting it's family in one of his stories (‘The Green Mamba', from Going Solo. )
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At the end of the 19th Century and up to the First World War the Airedale was chosen for development as a military service dog by several countries. Most notably Britain and Germany. Germany created a Military War Dog School at Lechernich in 1884 led by Herr von Bungartz. In the early 1890s they began training Sanitatshunde to search for wounded on the battlefield and at the same time they began using Airedales. Colonel Richardson created a service dog training school in Britain in 1900 after seeing the effective use that the Germans were making of dogs, and his first dog was obtained from Herr von Bungartz. I recommend Colonel Richardson's Airedales by Bryan D. Cummins as an excellent source on the use of Airedales in service.
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It is an interesting side note that the Germans may have become interested in using dogs based on observations they made during the American Civil War. Many European nations had military observers on both the Union and Confederate sides during the war to report on weapons and tactics. There appears to be little written by Americans on the use of dogs during the Civil War.
Olivia Dehaveland
