Page 21 - ShowSight Presents - The Airedale Terrier

“WHEN LOOKING AT THE AIREDALE’S HEAD, FROM THE SIDE OR DIRECTLY DOWN FROM ABOVE,
YOU SHOULD SEE STRAIGHT LINES.”
has a “hardly visible stop”, a muzzle that follows the planes of the skull and that has “little apparent difference in length” from the skull. Often aptly described as a brick. Looking down from above, his skull and flat cheeks flow evenly into his muz- zle—a brick from on top, too! If the Aire- dale is “down faced” with his nose point- ing more at an angle to the ground or is “cheeky” with prominent cheek muscles, curves have replaced straight lines and the hallmark head disappears. It should be noted that the Airedale’s teeth should be large—he is a predator. When you cup his jaw in your hand it should feel solid and
strong and should easily fill your hand. His bite has to be crushing to the prey he hunts. There should be no lightness in his jaw, small canines or missing teeth. We do not have a disqualification in our standard for any reason but obviously a dog that hunts for a living should ideally have full dentition and those teeth should be large enough to mean business!
A bit about expression. The Airedale has a “small dark eye full of Terrier expres- sion” and his ears should be “carried rather to the side of the head, not pointing to the eyes, small but not out of proportion to the head... the topline of the folded ear should
be above the level of the skull”. These ears should not look like Fox Terrier ears which are set higher on the head with tips point- ing more to the center of the eye. Ear sets of this type make for a very foreign and incorrect expression on an Airedale. His ears shouldn’t be large and houndy either.
The next straight line, seen in pro- file, is on the front of the dog. Starting where the underside of his jaw meets the front of the neck and runs down to his toes. You should not see a prominent keel or fore chest on the Airedale. If you do, once again a curve has replaced a straight line and is incorrect, ruining the
180 • SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JULY 2015