Our post title may provoke a head scratching “huh?” from readers who wonder why an Airedale Terrier would be anything but a terrier.  The answer is that an Airedale Terrier is what some might refer to as a “crossover,” a breed that is allowed to participate in a performance event even though its breed isn’t typically associated with it. Hunt tests, for example, are typically limited to sporting breeds, but in 2007, the AKC allowed Airedale Terriers to participate in spaniel hunting tests (and to great success).

It’s something Airedale owners have always known. The breed, after all, was created to be a versatile dog for people living in the Aire Valley of Yorkshire, England. The dogs went after vermin, of course, but their owners thought nothing of using them as retrievers and bird dogs (especially when a little poaching was done on the sly). Let’s not forget, too, that Otterhounds are part of the breed ancestry. Instinct and a good nose remain in the breed’s DNA.

The May 1909 issue of Country Life in America included an article,   “A Brief for the Airedale Terrier,” in which the author wrote, “The hunting instinct is very strong in the Airedale…The writer has found few dogs better equipped for shooting in covert or in the open.  The Airedale’s speed, endurance and imperviousness to climatic conditions fit him for bird hunting. He loves the water and can stay in it by the hour on the coldest winter day without suffering any ill effects from it so he makes an ideal dog for snipe or to retrieve ducks and geese.”

A few years later, Warren Miller wrote in The American Hunting Dog “in 1916: “On the borderline between the bird dog and the fur dog stands the Airedale, the dog that can hunt both.” A few years after that in the March 1921 issue of “Outing,” the Airedale Terrier was discussed as “being an excellent retriever, particularly from water.”

For years, the Airedale Terrier Club of America’s Hunting and Working Committee stubbornly insisted that their breed was a wonderful bird dog. The United Kennel Club didn’t need strong persuasion. From the start, its Hunting Retriever Club always made Airedales eligible to run in HRC hunt tests – and if we’re not mistaken (if we are, please let us know!),  Airedales were eligible to compete in the Canadian Kennel Club’s Working Certificate program for retrievers in 2010.

At one time, the AKC considered the Airedale to be a sporting breed, but when it moved the breed into the terrier group, it hurt general understanding of the breed. In fact, at one Airedale Field Nationals, there were 191 entries, and 21 dogs earned qualifying scores.  Judges, who happened to be AKC retriever and spaniel hunt test judges, had good things to say about the dogs they evaluated, and in 2005 at a national hunt test in 2005,  the judges, who happened to be AKC hunt judges, said that one of the Airedales they tested would turn heads at any spaniel event.

Airedales do have terrier quirks that must be considered during training. They can be stubborn thinkers not inclined to carry out an order unless it makes sense to them. That said, the answer to the question posed in our title is that hunting Airedale Terriers can act as all three!

The Airedale Terrier Club of America and Hunting Working Airedales, Inc., understands this about their breed, and works to promote the Airedale’s place in the sporting dog community.  In fact, the HWA will be holding the 34th Airedale Field Nationals on September 20, 21, & 22, 2019

Image appeared as the cover for Outdoor Life in 1916