We are often asked how Planet Airedale came to be and how we got involved with Airedale Terriers.  The answer is: by accident!

Both of us have always had dogs in our lives and during 2001 we were living in The Cotswolds, UK.  As we were living (and working from home) in a country cottage, with a large garden and surrounded by open countryside, we decided the time was right to give a home to a needy dog.  We discussed what sort of dog we wanted to give a home to and we decided he or she could be any sort, as long as he or she was a rescue and a big dog (we didn't want a small dog).

We went to a number of different dog shelters but just could not find a large dog needing a home.  On our third trip to a shelter in Cheltenham, we came across a big 14 month old bitch called Belle.  She had been locked up in a flat by someone who worked all day and had finally ended up at the shelter.  She was big and smelly and it was doubtful she had ever been washed or groomed.  The shelter told us she was an Airedale Terrier.  We knew nothing about these Airedale Terriers, other than they were ‘just’ another breed of dog we had heard about.  We found out later it was almost unheard of to find Airedales in regular shelters.

We took Belle into the shelter’s enclosed field and let her off the lead.  This is where we first experienced the joy all Airedale owners’ experience – your Airedale not coming back. After 15 minutes of running around the field after her, we did finally catch her, whilst muttering about who would ever want a dog who wouldn’t come back.  It started to rain (this was mid-winter) and we retreated to the shelters ‘getting to know you room’ – somewhere where you could go inside to spend time with your dog.  This was a smelly old caravan where a muddy Belle proceeded to jump over everything, including us.

It wasn’t really a hard decision though – we knew we wanted to give her a home. She’d been spayed the day before so we had to wait a number of days until we could pick her up.  In the meantime, we decided ‘Belle’ didn’t suit her and tried to think of a new name for her.  After days of thought, we chose Molly – and it suits her so well.  We also started to research the breed, Airedale Terriers.  There was quite a lot of information on the web and in books but it was all on breeding and showing and nothing on the day to day stuff of sharing your house with an Airedale.

Molly came to join us at the end of January 2002 and over the coming months, we experienced I’m-not-coming-back, escaping from an escape-proof garden, digging, mouthing, nose pokes and the joys of grooming the worlds largest terrier to name a few.

The day after she came home, our families and friends wanted to know what she looked like (“an Airedale Terrier, what's one of those then?”).  We took a few pictures of her and put them onto some web space we had – nothing fancy, just a few snapshots.

Over the coming weeks, we kept adding to the pictures (new holes in the garden, muddy noses, cute upside-down pictures).  We started to add a bit of text about Molly and, for fun, we wrote everything from Molly’s point of view.  We were experimenting with web design and so The Airedale Appreciation Society was born.  The web site had about five pages, and most of them were pictures of Molly being Molly The Airedale!

It was about this time we started to receive emails from other Airedale owners around the world who had found our small web site:  Barbara with Conner, now sadly missed, & Cutter, Sue with Justice and Cindy with Clancy (and now joined by Chloe).  The emails said, amongst other things, how there were no Airedale web sites available for owners to visit, for help, friendship and fun!  All the existing web sites were all about breed standards and showing, as we had found.

We increased the size of The Airedale Appreciation Society with extra pages of pictures but we soon ran out of space.  We discussed what we should do next and decided to build a new web site and to try out a forum, so other Airedale owners could meet up and share experiences. 

We struggled to choose a name for the site. Finally 'Planet Airedale' just came to us and it seemed to sum up ‘everything Airedale’.  We registered the domain and started working on the site.  It took about a month of intensive work to build the first version and Planet Airedale was officially launched on February 1^st 2003. As the site has grown it has evolved and, we hope, improved!  We are so proud of the growth of the web site, we have a fantastic growing worldwide membership and a busy friendly forum where we can all exchange our Airedale stories and tails, share our favourite Airedale photos, take part in competitions run by Members, give your opinions in surveys, enrol in the worldwide present exchange and compete for the famous Airedale Idol trophy.  When you start to make a list it is amazing how much content we have on Planet Airedale now and we haven't even listed it all!

We are now based in Scotland and as we are sure you know, Planet Airedale has grown and is updated on an almost daily basis.  We have increased our Airedale family with two more Airedales, Harry and Dylan, as a direct result of the website.  Harry’s previous owners asked us to give him a home as they could see how much fun Molly was having and they wanted Harry to have the same life.  When Harry met Molly it was double Airedale fun all round!  Dylan needed rehoming as his owner became very ill.  When Dylan met Molly and Harry they all got on very well and are now inseparable.  We wish we could take in more Airedales personally but if we were to take in every Airedale who was offered to us, we would have wall-to-wall Airedales!

We are very proud of Planet Airedale and particularly of the work we do in the UK to rehome needy Airedales.   We have made so many great friends all around the world and our door will always be open to fellow Planet Airedalers!  Our love and enthusiasm for Airedales has never faltered and we will always stop you in the street for a chat if we see you with an Airedale!