von plott

[Hermit]

von plott owed and hunted an airedale along with his pack of plott hounds when he was hunting bear ,would anyone know what it was that he believed the airedale added to his pack as both breeds seem the same to me when they get on big game

[rich h]

Hermit,

My friend Bud Lyon was closely associated with Von Plott going way back...he told me those two Airdales were good bay dogs, but eventually encountered a bear that changed their thinking and they were not much good after that.

Some of us old dude's crossed Airdale blood with hound blood to get grit. We could argue the value of that all day long, but some of the offspring made effective bear dogs.
My personal experience with Plott dogs is...they're not all born with courage.

[Hermit]

rich
this is all i know that was on another site and i was just interested in what he felt working the two breeds together added two each this is what was on the other board


It may come as surprise to some that Von Plott owned and hunted an Airedale along with his Plott hounds on Bear. Plott of course was a later generation Bear hunter from the family that brought here from Germany the foundation stock and developed the Plott breed as superb hunters of big game. The Plott breed itself is well known for being gritty and tenacious fighters of dangerous game. Eyebrows were raised a bit when it was known that Von thought enough of his Airedale and believed he indeed added something to his Bear pack.
The Airedale eventually met his demise from a Bear as the story goes told by Jim Laws. His father, Uncle Jimmy Laws once served as guide at the Hazel Creek bear ca

[Dan Edwards]

The Airedale of today and the Airedale of yesterday are two entirely different dogs for the most part so its almost impossible for us to discuss this unless we are "old timers" like the other gentlemen said. Any terrier blood that is added to anything is usually added for grit and tenacity whether you add it directily to a line of dogs or just run it with a pack of dogs. In my opinion a little shot of grit here and there in these hounds wont hurt a damn thing. Grit and heart goes a long long ways sometimes. Some of these lines may not need anything added at all to suit some but I will bet that most of them do to suit some. You got guys that would rather add bloodhound to an already extremely houndy lookin breed. If that suits em, let em have at it. You got other guys that rather add greyhound or better yet staghound to an already existing breed. If that suits em, let em have at it. You got guys that run mixed packs of dogs. Whatever they "think" works for them the best then I say let er rip.

There is a line of thought in this country that says you cant add cause you will lose this or lose that. It maybe so but I know from my experiences that losing a little of this and a little of that may damn well be worth it if you gain 10 fold what that line was already lacking. I say hunt what works for you or at least what you think works for you and tell the rest of the world to piss off. They dont know anyhow cause they aint in your shoes and most of em probably just promoting some garbage ass line of dogs anyhow that you would cull.

[rich h]

Dan, I sure liked what you had to say.

Hermit, I'll bet it does come as a surprise to a lot of folks that Von Plott had a couple Airdales. As you noted, the breed standard claims the Plott breed to be courageous and a vicious fighter on game, but over the past 40 years or so I experienced enough setbacks to be of the strong opinion there are only certain strains within the breed that are fairly consistant in the grit/courage department. You can't have big time breeders back during the early days producing and selling stud fee pups out of females they know nothing about...and then maintain the breed standard. Just my humble opinion

[Hermit]

thank you guys for your reply's it was interesting to me to hear what your veiws on it were ,when i first looked at this it made me ask myself why use these two breeds i could see that there would be a difference in the way they would get to the tree but could not see that this would be the reason to run the two breeds and when at the tree i would have believed the two breeds would have the same work attitude and could only think that he saw somethink in one that he felt could or would make a difference in the end result , i suppose what he saw i will never no but it must have worked for him
take care
hermit

[Hermit]

Dan
i agree with what you said about airedales but thought i add a little more to it, i agree the airedale is not the dog it was but i don't think any working dog is the same as they were because of bad breeding pratised over the years , the airedale was never meant to be anythink other than an alround hunter if somebody was to buy one to replace a hound they would get a dog that would do it put never as good as a hound and i think thats the reason bad things have been said about them , i run airedales with and with out hounds and on the game they have been on they have did a very good job but i have looked at them as being part of a team , i got my dogs out of bear hunters that worked they dogs hard , may be thats why mine have all worked well for me ,i did say on another post that i thought that a picture of one of my dogs was going to be in this months full cry but i just got mine today and see its not in there may be it will be next month so i will post a pic of it here


please do not think i am trying to make this about post about the airedale as i don't i just wanted to add to what Dan had said
take care
hermit

[Dan Edwards]

I figure there are some Airedales out there still today that may pack the gear and serve but the numbers have diminished thats all. There are still Jack Russells out there that are doin their thing but for every one that is find, fitting, and staying there are a thousand that are crooked legged, long backed, jacked up toothed idiots that couldnt stay in the ground with a chipmunk. I know where there is one Jack Russel that is as hard as any other earth dog breed but that dont make em all that way, not anymore anyhow.

[Hermit]

i agree with you i wish more would search out the good hunters and breed to the right females ,proven workers all
take care
hermit

[rich h]

Hermit,

My Airdale was actually an Airdale/hound cross. I got him when he was a pup...from John Neta. Some of the Plott guy's on here might remember Tom Neta. John was his Dad. Some of us are convinced you can cross an Airdale with a hound and a good percentage of the offspring will carry the Airdale grit. Old John told me you could breed down to 1/4 Airdale and still pass on the grit. Don't know about that, but he bred enough of them to be of that opinion.

It occurred to me, grit is a trait. It is well established in the Airdale as a breed. It is not well established in any tree hound breed...its hit-and-miss in the breed, but a few strains maintain it. For it to be consistant you got to be willing to cull for it and breed for it as a priority. I am not meaning to preach on the subject, just express my belief. Guess I got off topic a little...

The Oorang strain of Airdale is reported to be well known for hunting ability. Don't know much about it and believe the Oorang's are rare these days.

Anyhow, Hermit...it's great to see somebody still hunting the big fuzzy dogs, I have lots of good memories of mine and like the breed a lot.

[Hermit]

rich
i know that the airedale has been used for that and also in other breed crossings as well one was in australia where i was told it was a airedale x pitbull x greyhound the airedale was used to give strong legs ,head grit and scenting the pitbull for head and grit and the greyhound for speed ,the dog is used on boar in a bush area over there and i have been told it works very well , the dogs are sent to hunt in the bush and are expected to scent and run down the boar , i believe that some time in the future they will be doing that cross in the US as i understand the bull x airedale breeding has already been done and one from the breeding is working well now, i dont know the person thats doing it or if he will use a greyhound or staghound but i will keep looking out to see when its done and how it gets on in the field just out of interest
take care
hermit

[rich h]

Who needs a gun with dog power like that!

A little off subject but....we have had a single lone wolf come through our yard near my dog lot in broad daylight a couple times. I know several solutions to that concern. Although, just thinking out of the box I got to wondering what one or two Argentine Dogo's (Argentine Mastiff) would do should they be kept as yard dogs to deal with unwanted guests. Found a Dogo breeder in southern Wisconsin who is raising the genuine critter straight from Argentina. She tell's me her males mature to 120 lbs. The price was $1,500 for a male pup without papers. Still thinking about it....

[wiblueboy]

A buddy of mine runs 3/4 bluetick and 1/4 airadale. They are AWESOME on bear. And the can easily catch and kill a coyote by its self

[killemallboy]

some one once told me that von plott was still alive is that true because i was under the impression that he passed away some many yrs ago ?

[Arkansas Frog]

Rich H got to Texas boars .com they are alot of Dogo in Texas cheaper than that ,they use them for catch dogs see Long shot on this Forum.
Back in the 50's my uncle in N.C. and friends ran bear in the Smokeys they had a Airdale and plotts but one kelp the plotts and one kelp the Airdales and one jumped on my gyp and I took a shovel to him [him] I am like Bruce Kenndey about Airdales but that is to every body liken.