The breeds · terrier
AKC Terrier · UKC Terrier · FCI standard 70
Lakeland Terrier.
AKC standard: bred to hunt vermin in the rugged shale mountains of the Lake District; deep, relatively narrow body to squeeze into rocky dens, enough length of leg to cover rough ground. UKC: same history and den-entering body. RKC: developed to run with packs of hounds and their foot followers over the steep rocky fells, needing stamina, agility and courage to bolt or kill fox or badger. FCI 70: Group 3 Section 1, without working trial. Wikipedia: original service was going to ground on the farm hunting vermin..
Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
The AKC standard gives the bitch as up to 1 in under the dog (13 to 14 in against the 14 to 15 in dog range); the high end spans FCI's 37 cm cap.
Weight
UKC and FCI agree.
All four print 17 lb.
Coat
Shedding
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Heat tolerance
Derived from the standard's coat (double, wiry, weather-resisting, moderate length = 3). No measured data.
How long they live, and what they cost
Measured on real dogs, with the sample and the spread. Never a guess.
Median lifespan
McMillan et al. 2024 / Dogs Trust table. UK population; median across dogs that had died plus censored dogs per the paper's method.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Exercise need
RKC is a UK registry band, not a study; mapped by the library rule.
Energy
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming load
RKC is a UK registry band, not a study; mapped by the library rule. A professional stripping or clipping schedule is not stated by RKC or AKC.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
AKC standard, UKC, RKC, FCI agree; Wikipedia is editorial.
Primary game
RKC names the quarry; AKC and UKC say vermin.
Also used on
Group-level RKC line plus Wikipedia (editorial); the kill-in-the-lair claim is Wikipedia's alone.
Search pattern
Pack work with foot followers; RKC wording. Wikipedia is editorial.
Field trial standard
AKC eligibility page and FCI classification.
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
How to read this page
Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.
Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 6 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Lakeland
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour lakeland terrier, on the record.
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