THE AIEEDALE TEEEIEE. 235 



THE AIEEDALE TEEEIEE. 



Most visitors to North of England shows must have been struck by the 

 appearance of the large rough-coated dogs which it is now the fashion to style 

 Airedale terriers. The animal itself is simply the old Yorkshire waterside terrier, a 

 little improved in looks by careful breeding, rechristened, and brought before the 

 public as the " coming breed." Many ideas are prevalent as regards the origin of 

 the variety, but as it has for years and years been in the hands of a class of men 

 whose pockets are not deep, and whose ideas of breeding up to a standard are 

 somewhat vague, the Airedale ancestry is decidedly mixed, and all hopes of 

 disentangling the ramifications of its family tree are positively futile. In fact, a 

 north-country authority on the breed writes as follows : 



" They (the Airedales) are the produce of sires and dams put together without 

 any idea of breeding to a standard of excellence, but simply to produce a dog useful 

 for the semi-rural sports suited to the tastes and pockets of the somewhat impecunious 

 class to which their admirers mostly belong. It is almost impossible to trace the 

 origin of the breed to any particular source. Some districts claim to have a breed 

 with forty years' pedigree, but in several attempts that have been made to trace one 

 of these strains it has invariably happened that, beyond a generation or two, all 

 trace of individual dogs gets merged into So-and-so's breed, which were descended 

 from a bitch from So-and-so, which was put to a dog from such a place, and so on." 



In my opinion, both the otter hound and Irish terrier are largely responsible for 

 the existence of the so-called Airedale terrier, and no doubt the aid of some or other 

 of the various breeds of terrier was enlisted from time to time. Many authorities 

 aver that bull blood was used ; others maintain that it was Scotch or Dandie blood 

 that was resorted to ; whilst others still declare that the animal is made up of an olla 

 podrida of Scotch, Dandie, Bedlington, and bull terrier, mixed up with otterhound. 



So far, I am aware that my endeavours to supply information about the origin 

 of the Airedale have not been attended with success, but upon the merits of the 

 breed I can speak with more authority, having had the benefit of the experience of a 

 gentleman who took it up some short time back from the glowing accounts he had 

 heard of its gameness and bottom. The result was most mortifying. He could make 

 nothing of the dogs, and was heartily glad to get rid of them. From what he tells 

 me concerning Airedales, I have no doubt that they potter about the banks of a 

 river, and take water well, and that they will kill rats, which, as they scale from 

 401b. to 501b., is not much in their favour. I will even go further, and admit that 

 specimens may be produced which will tackle a badger under protest; but not 

 another step will I go in favour of the Airedales as a game, hard-bitten race. 



In support of my views, I shall quote from a letter just received from a gentle- 

 man who has owned Airedales, and whose opinions are identical with what I have 

 stated above. He writes : 



" Airedale terriers are a failure. The result of my experiences of them is that 

 I find them to have good noses, they will beat a hedgerow, will find and kill 



