The Lakeland Terrier – Bred to Navigate Rocky Fells

The Lakeland Terrier – Bred to Navigate Rocky Fells

Part mountain goat, part tunnel rat, and a big chunk of terrier… Lakeland Terriers originated in the Lake District of England. They were bred from the area’s long-legged terriers that also were used to create the Welsh Terrier and Wire Fox Terrier. They have some similar traits, but they are also distinctly different.

The Lakeland was bred to navigate rocky fells and mountains to keep up with a pack of hounds in an attempt to control the fell fox. They typically hunted November through spring, ending the hunting season when the Herdwick sheep had lambed. This was vital to the farmers because the fox would prey on young lambs, and so the fox needed to be controlled. Farmers would form a co-op and hire a houndsman to manage a kennel of hounds with a few terriers. The houndsman’s job was to answer calls from farmers who had suffered loss to fox, and to preemptively hunt them.

The hounds and the terriers were true working dogs and bred by people who made their living off the dogs’ ability to control the fox. A Lakeland must get along with the pack. A quarrelsome dog was not tolerated; the Lakeland lived with the hounds. A Lakeland must have a dense, weather-resistant jacket to keep them warm in the rainy, damp, cold of the fells that time of year. A Lakeland must be agile, capable of navigating mountains and keeping up with hounds; this requires them to be up on leg. A Lakeland must be flexible enough to get to the fox once the hounds put the fox to ground—in caves, ravines, rocky crevices, or a scree bed. Once they got to the fox, they were expected to kill it. They did not have the luxury of harassing the fox a little bit in the hopes it would bolt; they had to instead, kill it. They needed a full and punishing muzzle to get the job done.

Their job was do or die. Once they entered a den, digging likely wasn’t easy, so help from the houndsman was slow to come and stories of dynamite and 24-hour digs are not uncommon. Everyone preferred the Lakeland to kill the fox and leave it dead in the hole while the Lakeland emerged victorious on its own.

What makes a Lakeland different from a Welsh Terrier? The Welsh Breed Standard says that they were bred to do battle with badgers and otters. They carry more bulk, and badgers and otters have earth dens, not rocky dens. Welsh could get away with more bulk (being a little bit less agile and flexible). Welsh also weren’t required to work in packs. They have a different personality when it comes to getting along with other dogs than a Lakeland has.

How do they compare to Wire Fox Terriers? Wires hunted with a pack of hounds, and the houndsman was frequently on horseback because the terrain they traversed was accessible on horseback. The ground they hunted was flatter and did not require the agility necessary to navigate the mountains. Frequently, the hunts were filled with the wealthy who enjoyed the chase, more than because it was necessary to control the fox for the sake of maintaining the security of the sheep. A Wire Fox Terrier was tasked with bolting the fox, often so that the chase could continue.

A Lakeland should be able to move easily. There should be nothing wasted in movement; clean, straight-forward, and most of all, efficient. With nothing more than a thought, they can go from an easy trot to a giant vertical leap. Many a Lakeland has been known to leap up on a dining room table to steal a meal or gaze out a window.

They have “clean” heads: they should be rectangular, and the muzzle should be full. They do not have bulky cheeks. The backskull should be clean, and the top of the skull should not have bony protrusions. Their stop is barely perceptible. Their ears break above the skull and point towards the outside corner of the eye. One saying is: “Where their head goes, their body follows.” There should be no signs of bulk, but they absolutely need enough bone to deliver a punishing and decisive defeat to a fox, with a typical adult size of 9 to 17 pounds. Since the Lakeland Standard calls for a 17-pound adult male weight, one can imagine the importance of giving the Lakeland the tools to have the punishing bite capable of giving the Lakeland the upper hand in the battle.