and to anyone who loves a truly formed dog, and who knows
what a truly formed dog can do, it is an extremely difficult thing
to put the little above the larger. All big dogs with properly placed
shoulders and sound formation are better terriers for work of any
sort than dogs half their size, short on the leg, but bad in these
points. It is in reality impossible to make an inexorable rule about
this question of size; each class must be judged on its own merits.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE AIREDALE TERRIER

There is perhaps no breed of dog that in so short a time has been
improved so much as the Airedale. He is now a very beautiful animal,
whereas but a few years back, although maybe there were a few fairly
nice specimens, by far the greater number were certainly the reverse
of this.

In place of the shaggy, soft-coated, ugly-coloured brute with large
hound ears and big full eyes, we have now a very handsome creature,
possessing all the points that go to make a really first-class terrier
of taking colour, symmetrical build, full of character and "go," amply
justifying--in looks, at any rate--its existence as a terrier.

Whether it is common sense to call a dog weighing 40 lb. to 50 lb.
a terrier is a question that one often hears discussed. The fact
remains the dog is a terrier--a sort of glorified edition of what
we understand by the word, it is true, but in points, looks, and
character, a terrier nevertheless, and it is impossible otherwise
to classify him.

People will ask: "How can he be a terrier? Why he is an outrage on
the very word, which can only mean a dog to go to ground; and to what
animal in the country of his birth can an Airedale go to ground?"
Above ground and in water, however, an Airedale can, and does, perform
in a very excellent manner everything that any other terrier can do.
As a water dog he is, of course, in his element; for work on land
requiring a hard, strong, fast and resolute terrier he is, needless
to say, of great value; and he is said to be also, when trained--as
can easily be imagined when one considers his power of scent, his
strength, sagacity, and speed--a most excellent gun-dog. He is, in
fact, a general utility dog, for add to the above-mentioned qualities
those of probably an incomparable guard and a most excellent
companion, faithful and true, and ask yourself what do you want more,
and what breed of dog, taken all round, can beat him?

The Airedale is not of ancient origin