I do like my rescues but the first one defiantly has had some issues we work on. He was beaten, malnourished, his eyelids grew into his eyes, and the people tried to dock his tail at home. We we first got him i spent hours training him and gaining his trust. Gaining that trust and loyalty took a while compared to every other dog i have ever had, and even still gets really scared with loud noises(but runs to me instead of away, even if its my gun that made the loud noise). He has come to be the most loyal dog i have ever had and that is worth allot to my wife and i.
The new little guy, Came from up in bothell, the family was keeping him locked up in a spare room after the pup bit his kid. The people said he was aggressive, in reality the pup was being a puppy and played a bit to ruff while unsupervised. He has been great so far taking to his training quickly and he is getting up to speed quickly.
I would add that getting a rescue you never know what you are getting i feel like i got pretty lucky with both of em and the new one i think will work out fine for what i want. I know some guys want a dog just to hunt but like i have said before mine are house pets first and then hunting dogs second. So a rescue was fine but if you plan on hunting them hard and thats there main goal in life i would recommend getting a pup straight from the breeders so you know what your getting when you get them.
One last plug though, if you can find a pup i mean a real pup like under 4 months in a rescue or off craigslist and they haven't been really messed up and you have a bunch of time (when i got my older one i worked nights so we had all day everyday for training.) i think you can train an airedale for almost anything. The training can just be extremely hard when they aren't interested and sometimes you cant break them of some things like the loud noises with the older. In fairness though i haven't worked really hard to try and break him of it. I think when it comes down to it it will depend on how serious of a hunting dog you want, and the amount of time you have to spend training them.
