Lori and her husband, Ron Swisher, are owned by two Airedales, Forge and Reese.  Forge was nine on May 2 and Reese was two on May 25.  Ron has been training Forge for hunting grouse and doing hunt tests since Forge was 8 weeks old.  At the 2008 Airedale Field Nationals in Ohio, Ron and Forge achieved the top hunting title, Master Hunter Versatile (MHV).  Forge is the only living Airedale with the MHV title and only the fourth Airedale in the history of the breed.  Reese and Lori have been enjoying participating in Rally O classes and agility classes.  In January 2008, Reese became certified as a therapy dog.  Lori and Reese visit a couple local nursing homes each month.  At Ron’s urging and with his training assistance, Lori and Reese also entered a couple junior-level fur hunt tests in 2008.  While Lori and Reese both are in need of continued training with Ron and Forge, they all have had a great time doing the tracking training on the state game lands. 

When Reese was a younger puppy, Ron would often leave his work boots on the floor in the bedroom at the end of the day.  It didn’t take Reese very long to discover those delicious foam insoles in the boots and she started to routinely steal one whenever the opportunity presented itself.  After having several insoles destroyed, Ron finally started to remember to put the boots away behind the closed closet door.  But Reese had a lot of fun for awhile, stealing the insoles and quickly shredding them.  My block depicts Reese’s theft of one of Ron’s work boot insoles.  

Block drawn by Lori Taylor with help from Christie Williams.