Jaffa & Sunshade - Loc Aire Airedales

Hi everybody, this is going to be a long post because I (Sunshade's mum) tend to ramble a lot. A coffee or drink in hand is recommended.

I had been contemplating for a while about whether or not I should introduce you to a pup who is only going to be with us for a little while. Well, I have decided there is no other way; this great little fella must be introduced. Yes, Jaffa is only going to stay with us until he is old enough to have his rabies vaccine and make the 12 hour flight to Taiwan followed by the 21 days in quarantine. My dad was never an animal person, we never had a dog in the family. However, everything changed seven years ago when we got our first ever dog - an Airedale pup named "Sunshade". My dad has since fallen in love with Sunshade, and he has been wanting an Airedale pup who is related to Sunshade for a long time. Little Jaffa is his dog.

Jaffa will probably stay with me until he is at least 6 months old, depending on his training and when he receives his rabies vaccination. I'm sure most of you know by now, I'm very holistic minded with Sunshade, and now Jaffa. Neither my vet nor I like to vaccinate a dog for rabies under the age of one (rabies is not prevalent in our area). Needless to say, Taiwan is a rabies free country, and to vaccinate a dog who we know is not rabid really bothers me. I know I know, the law is the law, and Jaffa will have his rabies shot. The question is when.

*************************************************

I had a great trip back to the place where my heart dog, Sunshade, was born. The last time I was there, I was 16. A young girl who knew nothing about dogs, nevermind Airedales. The fact that Sunshade worked out so well for me is truly a miracle. As we all know, terriers in general are not suitable for first time dog owners.

This time, I had a lot more time chatting with my wonderful breeder, Jan Mell, and learning about the lineage of Loc Aire Airedales. I met all of her kennel dogs (they get to run around on her 4.5 acre land), and surprisingly, they all seem to have similar temperament to my Sunshade. They barked when I first went into the kennel, but calmed down soon after. They didn't come up to me barking, nor did their tails wag. After I was carefully sniffed out and okayed, the tails started wagging and ready to play. People have always told me Sunshade is very calm for an Airedale, and now I know why. Even tho those were kennel dogs, they were well mannered, didn't jump up on me. They were confident, yet calm dogs. That is exactly what my Sunshade is like.

I saw pictures of Loc Aire's foundation dogs hanging on a wall in the house and took pictures of them. Both Sunshade and Jaffa are related to all the dogs shown below:

Loc Aire's foundation bitch



Loc Aire's big guns:



1. Ch. Loc Aire's Maestro (Sunshade's great grand sire)
2. Ch. Loc Aire's Virtuoso at Westminster (Sunshade's great grand sire)
3. Ch. Loc Aire's Bolero (Sunshade's grand sire)
4. Ch. Loc Aire's Avaz aka. "Slick" (Jaffa's grand sire, Sunshade's uncle)

Here is another picture of Slick at Montgomery with Woody the handler



Slick is Jaffa's grand sire, and he is also Kimi (The Chronicles of Kimi)'s grand sire. Kimi's breeder used Slick and got beautiful pups and grand pups. I was able to meet Slick, and even at 12, he stood and presented himself beautifully. A very elegant dog with beautiful temperament.


This is Sunshade's grand sire - Ch. Loc Aire's Blazing Comet aka. "Ritz"



This is Sunshade's other grand sire - Ch. Loc Aire's Bolero aka. "Bo"



This is Sunshade and Harry's sire - Loc Aire's Magic Maker aka. "Comet"



He hated the show ring (lol, now I see why Sunshade did what she did at the Sanction Match).


This is Jaffa's grand dam - Int/Am Ch. Loc Aire's Good As Gold



This is Sunshade's brother, Jaffa's sire - Ch. Loc Aire's Vivace aka. Harry



Sunshade's sister from the same litter



The second picture with the dog's head looked to the side looks exactly like Sunshade, except this girl has a better coat than Sunshade.

Lastly, a Loc Aire dog in the the theatre production of Annie

************************************************

Then it was puppy time!! There were 7 in this litter, 3 girls and 4 boys. Two boys and one girl had already gone home when I got there.


Jan was keeping two females and one male from this litter because apparently, it was a very nice litter. She couldn't decide which male she wanted to keep. One male had the perfect, wiry coat, and very showy. The other male, now known as Jaffa, had better shoulders and is shorter backed, but didn't have the best coat (fluffier, which means more undercoat, less top wiry coat)and was more laid back.


Jan had initially decided to keep the shorter backed, fluffier male (Jaffa), but after seeing how much I liked him, she decided to let me have him.

Jaffa reminded me a lot of Sunshade because of his coat. While he won't have a true sheepcoat (with black ears, and black down the thighs) like Sunshade, he will have more undercoat, hence softer, and fluffier looking. I can already see the tan coming in from his ears. If I were to strip his coat, his top wire coat will come in nicely; whereas if I were to strip Sunshade, not only would it hurt her a lot (since she is ALL undercoat), it would do almost nothing at bringing in wire hair. The standard calls for the wiry coat, a sheepcoat is considered a bad coat according to the standard. But I LOVE it!!



I watched the pups play, and I noticed Jaffa was a very "composed" pup. He was not shy by any mean, but will sit and observe before diving into any situation head first.

One of his sisters on the other hand was very pushy, and refused to be ignored. She loved my fingers.



As long as Jan and I were paying attention to her, she was fine. As soon as we started talking, she started complaining. She demanded to be heard!!


The male with the good coat was very out going, and he loved my fingers as well.


One thing I did notice was, none of the pups from this litter seemed more dominant than the others, whereas Miss Sunshade's litter, she and another big male were clearly the two dominant ones.

Jan not only gave me the pick male, she also refused to take the full payment for the pup. She charged me half of what she normally charges because she saw how much I loved Sunshade, and this was all she ever wanted for her dogs. Jan breeds for the love and betterment of the breed, not for money.

***************************************************

Jaffa is already showing a lot of similar traits that Sunshade showed as a pup. He is very aware, observant of his surroundings. He will sit and watch crows, leaves falling, snow falling off trees, etc. Sunshade was the same way.

He is playful, but calm, just like Sunshade when she was young. He will just sit by me and play with his toys, or fall asleep beside me.

He is very bonded. I never had a problem with Sunshade not following me. She always followed me (no lead) since day one. Jaffa is doing the same. He is probably not as independent or self assured as Sunshade because he seems to want to be touching me all the time. Mind you, Sunshade could have been "made" into being more independent since I was in grade 11, and was away at school all day. She was alone by herself all day, so she had no choice but to be independent.

This is a perfect example, I was washing dishes, Jaffa just HAD to be between my legs. I move, he move - that's the idea in his mind I think.



Both he and Sunshade had A LOT to say about crate training. He ignored all the treats I put in the crate and just cried and cried. Sunshade did the EXACT same thing. I didn't want to let him get away with it by letting him out everytime he screamed for help, so I laid on the floor next to the crate where he could see me and hear me. I stuck my fingers through the grids, and he calmed down eventually.

He is now a lot better about crating. He will actually go in the crate on his own if the door was left open. However, he always has something to say when I shut the door, but stops after a minute or so.

He is very mouthy, but not into chewing on things he isn't suppose to chew, he prefers human parts, ie. fingers. Sunshade almost never chewed on things she wasn't supposed to, only her toys or people...

As you can see from the video above, Jaffa is very attentive to what I say. Sunshade, even 'til this day, will look me straight in the eye, and "listen" to me talk. I almost always get a couple of those famous terrier head tilts in there. Jaffa the same? I think so.


Sunshade is an excellent retriever. It was noted in her puppy testing result. The Retrieve test was to test the degree of willingness to work with a human, concentration, desire to please. From a scale of 1-6, 1 being - Chases object, picks up object and runs away, and 6 being - Does not chase object. Sunshade scored a 3 - Chases object and returns with object to tester. There was a side note, "readily", beside the number three. So I think Sunshade readily retrieved the object and returned to to the tester.

I saw Jaffa's test result, but can't seem to recall exactly what he scored. I think it was either a 3 or 4. I will get his puppy result along with his registration papers later on. However, this video has me convinced that he scored a 3, just like Sunshade did.

When I receive Jaffa's puppy testing results, I will compare his to Sunshade's.


Jaffa is also a thinker. I have been carrying him down my patio stairs to go potty, and this morning, he surprised me by figuring out if he went down the ramp, he could get to me. He still can't go "down" stairs yet (which I don't want him to do anyway), and I had expected him to cry and whine at the top of the stairs when he couldn't get down. Instead, he figured out to use the ramp. This is an 8 week old puppy.

Sunshade too is a thinker. If she and I were walking on either side of a see through fence (ie, wire fence) and the opening was at the opposite end of where I was walking towards. Sunshade would stop following me along the fence, turn back, and run all the way back to the opening so she could get to my side and catch up. I have seen dogs who just kept walking along side their owners, and whined and cried when they couldn't find ways to get over. Some even tried to jump (which was impossible) or eat through the fence.


One thing Jaffa is doing a lot better than Sunshade is house breaking. We came home on the 8th, and we've had a total of three accidents at home and that's it (ok, I'm sure I've just jinxed myself). He will walk towards the back door or whine to let me know he needs to go.

Jaffa started having diarrhea after we got home on the 8th. Possibly due to the stress of having his ears glued, a bath before leaving, and the long trip home. His poop was solid before we left breeder's house, he had a treat, and then the diarrhea started. I didn't change his food yet, he was still eating his kibble. Anyway, the night of the 8th, he cried almost every hour to let me know he needed to go poo poo. Never once did he poop in his crate, and he always went right away in the yard. The three accidents all happened that night when I thought he was just being a cry baby and ignored him when he cried.

His diarrhea never went away while he was on kibbles, so I decided to switch him to Sunshade's raw diet. From my past experience, raw meaty bones tend to firm up stools. I gave him probiotics since he was having diarrhea, canned pumpkin, and digestive enzyme with each meal.



That stopped the diarrhea, and his stool is formed. It is still not a normal raw fed stool yet, but it might just take him sometime to get there.

I should also mention that the weather we've been having is simply a nightmare. Strong wind (you saw the tree), icy rain, snow, and the -6 temperature for the past two days. And yet, Jaffa has been doing his business in this kind of weather like a real trooper. He always goes "right away".

When I first got Sunshade, I was a brand new dog owner and not very knowledgeable to boot. So I had a little bit of a rough time house breaking Sunshade mainly because I didn't know what I was doing, and no one else was able to let her out when I was at school. Sunshade was a November baby too, so the weather was relatively the same minus the snow. It was a struggle house training her up until she was 4 months old when all of a sudden, she just decided she wasn't peeing and pooping inside anymore. I swear it clicked over night, as I really wasn't anymore knowledgeable then still. So just like that, Sunshade was house trained at 4 months.

Jaffa doesn't seem to be as persistent as Sunshade, and he certainly isn't as dominant as she was. They are so similar and yet so different. I can't wait to see how he will turn out.

******************************************************

What does Miss Sunshade think of Jaffa??

Well, I think she made it pretty clear on her blog that she really doesn't like him. Sunshade doesn't like "other" dogs' smell on her things, or in her house. She refused to touch anything that Jaffa has touched, and she walks around the house as if she was trying to avoid land mines.

Sunshade never played with pups her age when she was a pup. This was one of the many mistakes I made raising her. She played with adult dogs who were rough, dominant, and bullied her. So now she thinks that's how puppies should be treated.

Outside on neutral territories, she is much better with puppies, mind you I still have to keep an eye and avoid hyper pups that like to jump all over dogs. Indoors on the other hand, she can be very possessive and dominant of what she considers to be hers. I have to really watch her and Jaffa at home because if Jaffa moves one step too close to her toys, beds, etc, Sunshade will be "on" him in no time. She doesn't bite, but she makes these awful noises, and pushes him to the ground and pins him.

This is Sunshade and Jaffa's first video together - it was taken on Jan. 8th just before our long drive home. Can you see the dismay in Sunshade's eyes when she saw him pawing my pant leg?

Jaffa on the other hand is a very sensible pup. He doesn't go jumping all over strange adult dogs. He is respectful, so he himself is actually helping with the situation. I know he will earn Sunshade's respect in time and become part of her pack, it will just take time. Meanwhile, I will continue to keep a close eye on the two of them; respecting Sunshade's space, and not pushing either of them.

I am thinking of setting up puppy play dates for Jaffa to play with puppies his age, and maybe even a couple of gentle adult dogs so he is not traumatized by Sunshade's dominant behaviour.

**************************************************

Anyway, I think this is probably the longest first post ever, so I should probably end it here. I love my Airedales, and I am so thankful to have found such a wonderful, responsible breeder who truly loves the breed and breeds for betterment of the breed. She gave me my Sunshade, my one and only heart dog.

Jaffa will make his first post the day he learns how to do a "sit" - which I have a feeling won't be very long. This blog will mainly feature Jaffa as he matures, but Miss Sunshade and I will be putting our insights from time to time. You can visit Miss Sunshade's blog HERE!

If you would like to share your life with a Loc Aire Airedale, please contact:

Bonni Fisler (Mell)
locaireairedales@gmail.com
(360) 452-1099