t was time to get another dog, and Bill, my other half, wanted an Airedale. In days gone by when he was a small boy he had a push along dog on wheels which just happened to be an Airedale. My daughter Katie and I just wanted a dog. Ever since I’ve known Bill he has always said that the only dog he would ever have would be an Airedale, not that he knew anything about owning one (or being owned by one).

Well, I began surfing the internet for Airedale Terrier sites and came across Janet Huxley’s website. As soon as I saw the pictures of the adorable puppies I fell in love with them instantaneously, but I thought I’d better do some research on the breed. There wasn’t much information on the various sites I visited (before I found Planet Airedale) so I bought Janet Huxleys book ‘Pet Owners Guide to the Airedale Terrier’ which gave me some very sound advice.

I emailed Janet, asking if she knew of any breeders nearer to home, and she very helpfully put me in touch with Lesley Lee. Luckily one of her dogs was due to have pups in 6 weeks. So the date went into the calendar and we counted down the days, getting more excited with every day that passed leading to the birth of the puppies.

I phoned Lesley two days after the arrival of the pups, we wanted a bitch, and it just so happened there were six bitches and two dogs in the litter. At four weeks we went to see them.  Katie said that they looked like Rottweiler puppies, they were so cute.  Lesley said we wouldn’t be able to choose one then as they all looked the same and they would change so much in the next 4 weeks.  When we went back at eight weeks (to choose and collect our Candy) they were different sizes and different shades.  Candy was one of the larger ones and had a very dark saddle.

She was so good all the way home, but unfortunately was sick in the last hundred yards (poor thing).  When she got home her cage was ready, bowls, blankets, toys etc, the perfect start for what I thought would be the perfect dog for us.

At first, being small, the puppy bites didn’t worry us too much, but by the end of the first week these bites were getting very painful and the reprimanding didn’t work.  Someone suggested a tap on the nose, getting harder if the biting persisted, squirting water, tins with stones in them, rolled up paper banged on the floor, but Candy seemed to react quite aggressively towards this, - it seemed there was no stopping what most people called mouthing.  If anybody walked into the room Candy would make a dive for their legs and then, if you put a toy down in the way, it would be their arms.

Candy wouldn’t accept any petting, in fact the only place you could touch her was on her tummy when she was half asleep, but even then she would get a bit of a wild look in her eyes and snap at your hand.  My arms and legs were bruised, scabby and sore all the time.

What were we doing wrong?  We’d paid all this money for what I thought would be the perfect dog, so it must be us.  I wasn’t very happy at this point and arranged for a dog behaviourist to come and see what he thought.  I won’t go into great detail about this, some of his advice was very good, but the rest was bullying.  That night I heard Candy crying and so I went down to her, she wasn’t happy either and she would not even look at me.  What had we done to the poor little thing?  I picked her up to give her cuddle and she seemed to liven up, and then bit me, but at least she was happy again.

I was getting worried about my daughter by this time; she would come in from school and disappear into the lounge not spending any time with me or Candy. It was about this point where I really had second thoughts about keeping Candy.  I felt I was failing Katie and failing Candy, I cried several times a day.

We were doing all the right things, feeding us first, not leaving food down too long, always going through the doors first.  The training was working very well, she is a very intelligent dog, so why all the biting?  Well, as the weeks went by I managed, at this stage, to pet Candy on her back, and so I kept that up for as long as I could get away with, but the head was still out of bounds.  In the summer I used to spend a lot of time in the garden with Candy, we’d play, she’d sleep, I would read a book and then we’d play some more.  Things were slowly getting better.  Then came her first season - wow what a change!  She became a gentle, loving, soppy dog.  Her temperament improves every season.

The biting has now turned into mouthing with endless pleas "be gentle Candy, no bites" but now her sense of humour shines through in everything she does.  When we took Candy into our home we took her into our family.  It has not been easy but by being consistent gentle and patient, she has finally matured into a really nice Airedale.  Candy is and always will be a dominant dog and constantly needs reminding who’s boss, but we love her to bits.

I think, with Candy, we had to earn her respect and love and it took what I thought was a long time, but now we’ve got over that hurdle.  I know I’d go through all of that again as hindsight is a wonderful thing.