If you contact any of these Rescue/Re-homing Centres, please say Planet Airedale sent you!

Planet Airedale donations made before we started our own Rescue Service

Planet Airedale runs its own rescue/re-homing service in The UK:

Are you looking to rehome/find a home for your Airedale Terrier (in The UK)?

Tell us here and we will do our utmost to help.  We do not charge for this service.

 

Are you looking to give a home to a rescue Airedale (in The UK)?

We offer an UK Airedale Terrier rehoming service and have rehomed many Airedales over the years.

Unlike many other rescue societies, we do not ask for a "minimum donation" for this

service ~ all we ask is you become a Planet Airedale Member.

Click here to join us.

 

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Australia

 

ADT Club of Queensland  Queensland ADT rescue

 

  If you know of any other rescues, please let us know!

How Airedale Rescue Works

by

Ruth Millar

Airedale Rescue is not a major problem as it is in some breeds but never the less it is necessary. Even with all the information out there, people are still unable to treat their dogs with understanding and respect. An Airedale has feelings and brains and they are willing pupils if treated the right way. There are fun loving dogs and to take one to agility class is a joy, they love every minute of it and their grins are from ear to ear! So, I do Airedale Rescue for the poor unfortunate ones who don’t have the lives they deserve, chained up or confined to a yard, barn, garage, even no shelter at all.

It is hard to believe, but about a year ago I received a telephone call from a lady wanting to know if I could rehomed an Airedale that was chained up in a garden for almost four years, without shelter, summer and winter and only fed and watered when the owners remembered.  With my help she would approach the owners and say she was going to take the little bitch and rehomed her.  If she was refused we would report them to the RSPCA and the Police.  The owners said ‘help yourself’ and closed the door.  This lovely lady wouldn’t have the bitch herself because she lived in the same village and was worried the owners would change their minds, and take her away.

The story behind this sorry tale was they had bought the bitch at eight weeks of age and everything was fine until they bought a new suite of lounge furniture and guess what, instead of training the puppy not to sit on the settee and armchairs, she was banished to the garden where she was on a long lead attached to clothes line, with no where to go in the rain, snow or sun, fed sometimes and the occasional bowl of water.  You can imagine what a state she was in when rescued. Was there really an Airedale underneath all that mess of hair?

Rehomed to the right people she is a normal happy girl, with no hang-ups or grudges to bear for the life she had led. Thoughtless or uncaring it’s hard to say. It would have been so easy to pick up the phone and speak to someone who could help.

One day I received a call from my vet. He had done a routine visit to a local boarding kennel where an Airedale had been brought in two days previously, would I go and ‘sort it out’. It was a ten-year-old bitch taken to the kennel by a relative of a lady who had just died. This poor bitch had been living with the lady in the house without access to the garden, using a littler tray for a toilet and only the owner and the occasional visitor for company. The owner loved her so much that she thought harm would come to her if she were let outside.

It is hard to believe, but the lady really thought she was being kind. This would have been quite a re-homing problem but I had the person on my list that would be just right. The poor bitch had difficulty walking as she only had been able to move in the confined space of a bungalow and she was horrified at the outside world with all that space, noise and movement. It took a long time to adjust but she got there in the end.

I always tell people who rehome that it takes at least a month on both sides to adjust to each other and it’s true. The dog has had several months/years learning a routine in one house, so of course it will take time. For the people also, it will be hard not to compare the new one with an Airedale they might have just lost.

It takes a special person to take on an Airedale of any age. They are Terriers with bright curious minds who want to investigate anything that moves. They are stubborn but will do as they are told if they can see a reason to do it or to please you. So the iron fist in the velvet glove is the best approach. If you only want a status symbol and think an Airedale is like the one in the picture or the one you saw at Crufts, then think again!

If you’ve got a new baby and think the Airedale will spread gems or harm the baby, also think again! Airedales are good guards and good family dogs, so the growl you hear from your dog when a stranger bends over the pram is no reason to banish it to the back yard for life or put it into rescue.

I have had Airedales brought to me that have been picked up after wandering the street, some of them well fed, some half starved, some with health problems or injures.  When advertising in all the appropriate places doesn’t bring forth the owners then I rehome them, the new owner has to think of a name and the dog adjusts very well to a new life.

My advice to anyone thinking of having an Airedale for the first time, either from a rescue or purchasing a puppy or an adult is to do plenty of research first. Talk to breeders who have a reputation for breeding good sound stock, see litters of puppies with their mother. You will know a healthy puppy when you see one. Spend time with a group of Airedales in their homes with owners who will talk about their dogs.

Above all make sure that this type of dog is the right one for you and your life style. Please don’t be out at work all day and expect a puppy not to have made a puddle on the floor or have chewed the table leg.

In the twenty plus years I’ve done Airedale rescue, I’ve had all ages from seven weeks to twelve years and everything in between and the reasons given for rehoming you would not believe! All breed rescues work under the umbrella of the kennel club and have done so for 18 years.  They issue a booklet with names, addresses and telephone number of all rescue societies. These booklets are sent to all these societies also to vets, pet shops, boarding kennels etc., So really there is no need for dogs to be tied up, shut up or thrown our of cars or dumped by the roadside. If you don’t want that faithful friend somebody else does.

I get telephone calls at all hours, even 10.30pm at night… ‘We are thinking of getting a dog and like the look of an Airedale, can you tell me what they are like’… It is difficult to put them off without being rude or unkind, but that’s not they way to get an Airedale. The chances are the poor puppy or adult will be in rescue in a few months time.

It is sad to hear from people who have had an Airedale for many years and it has died and I haven’t got one to replace it or to fill the empty space. There is one out there to suit everyone but sometimes it takes a while but it does happen!

They are a very special breed.

Ruth.

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