A Complete Price Guide for the Airedale Terrier

Source © Shutterstock

The Airedale Terrier resembles other British terriers in a lot of respects. However, it stands out when it comes to its size. For those who are unfamiliar, Airedale Terriers are expected to have a height of 22 to 24 inches as well as a weight of 35 to 50 pounds, meaning that they are very much medium-sized dogs rather than small-sized dogs. As such, this terrier is sometimes called the King of Terriers because of its size.

Size and Information

Said size is a product of the Airedale Terrier’s original role. Like their name says, these dogs came into existence in the valley of the River Aire where it was common for people to compete by having their terriers kill the large river rats that could be found in the region. Ferrets would be used to drive these rats from their holes. After which, terriers would be sent out to chase these rats through the water. As such, Airedale Terriers could increase in size because they were never expected to enter the holes of their prey in the same fashion as their smaller cousins. In exchange, that increase in size made these dogs more suitable for a wide range of other hunting-related tasks. For example, it was a more formidable fighter. Likewise, it was a more capable retriever. On top of that, it should come as no surprise to learn that Airedale Terriers excelled in the water. Besides these things, these dogs’ excellence also enabled them to take on non-hunting-related roles. This can be seen in how they saw use as guardians of the home. Similarly, this can be seen in how they saw extensive use as both rescue dogs and messenger dogs during the First World War.

Chances are good that interested individuals can guess that Airedale Terriers are intelligent but independent animals that possess plenty of courage. However, it is interesting to note that they can be quite playful, particularly since they enjoy the company of their humans. Airedale Terriers do have their fair share of potential issues. For instance, they are terriers, meaning that they have the usual terrier fondness for barking, chasing, and digging. Furthermore, Airedale Terriers are energetic dogs that need regular exercise as well as other forms of stimulation, thus making them a poor choice for people who are either unable or unwilling to provide them with that. Still, for those who don’t mind these quirks, these dogs can be just as good at being pets as they are at being workers.

What Price Can You Expect to Pay For an Airedale Terrier?

The price of a dog can see enormous variation. This makes sense because there is a wide range of dog breeders producing a wide range of dogs, which makes it reasonable for there to be a wide range of prices. Still, purebred dogs are consistently on the more expensive end of things in this regard. This can be seen in how the price of an Airedale Terrier should be around $800 to $1,500. By the standards of purebred dogs, this isn’t too bad. Still, Airedale Terriers aren’t exactly what anyone would consider to be cheap either.

Having said this, it is important to note that there is a wide range of factors that can influence the price of an Airedale Terrier one way or the other. For starters, there is the matter of competition. There are some industries that are very concentrated in the sense that a small number of companies are responsible for providing most of the products and services. However, dog breeders can’t be considered one of them. As such, if people don’t like the prices being offered by one dog breeder, there is a decent chance of them being able to get better prices from a different dog breeder. Still, interested individuals may or may not be able to benefit from this. If they insist on buying an Airedale Terrier from a local dog breeder, they are going to be short on options if they live in an area with a small number of dog breeders. In contrast, if they are willing to get a dog from a dog breeder from somewhere else, they might be able to get a better deal than otherwise possible provided that the transportation costs aren’t too high.

Moving on, businesses need to make a profit. As a result, their prices are based on the costs of their products and services. There are businesses that will take a loss on a particularly appealing product or service in the expectation that they will be more than capable of making up for that through the sales of their other products and services. Even so, there are serious limits to what they can and can’t do in this regard. Dog breeders are businesses, meaning that they need to sell their dogs for more than what they are spending on their dogs. Thanks to this, the price of an Airedale Terrier should be a reflection of the training, the healthcare, and the living environment that have been provided to them, meaning that more expensive dogs should be more cared-for dogs and less expensive dogs should be less cared-for dogs.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that a less expensive Airedale Terrier is worse than a more expensive Airedale Terrier, though interested individuals should still adjust their expectations based on this. Be warned that people should be very careful about seeking out the lowest prices possible. Like other businesses, dog breeders can do a great deal to make their operations more efficient; like other businesses, dog breeders have a limit to how far they can take this before they start making sacrifices in regards to the quality of their products. Something that can mean very bad things when those products happen to be living beings. Ethics aside, interested individuals have plenty of pragmatic reasons to avoid getting their Airedale Terrier from such sources. Both poor breeding and poor treatment increase the chances of dogs getting issues of one kind or another, all of which will prove to be expensive and otherwise frustrating for people to deal with.

Besides this, dog breeders might not sell every single one of their dogs for the same price even when those dogs belong to the same dog breed. Most people have a preference for puppies, so it is very common to see older dogs being sold at lower prices in order to increase the chances of them being sold. Similarly, Airedale Terriers are one of the dog breeds that have strict rules for what they are supposed to look like. Both a black saddle and a dark grizzle saddle with tan coloring elsewhere are considered to be the ideal. Meanwhile, redline Airedale Terriers are considered to be a throwback to their earlier look, though these are still considered to be acceptable. Other colors are not accepted by the American Kennel Club but can show up anyway. As such, it is possible that a dog breeder will sell these puppies at a lower price, which can be very beneficial for people who don’t care about their dog conforming perfectly to dog breed standards. In any case, some of these factors can cause an individual dog to become more expensive rather than less expensive. This can be seen in how an Airedale Terrier with a prestigious background can sell for $2,500.

Those who are feeling less than enthused about paying such prices for an Airedale Terrier should check out animal rescues and animal shelters. Dog owners can send their dogs to these organizations for a wide range of reasons. Often-times, they have become incapable of taking care of their dog, meaning that they have no choice but to send their dog to either an animal rescue or an animal shelter. Other times, they have become unwilling to continue taking care of their dog for one reason or another. Whatever the case, this can be a very good thing for people who want to become dog owners because animal rescues and animal shelters aren’t run to make money but rather to look after the well-being of their animal charges. As such, they don’t charge a lot of money for an adoption. At most, interested individuals might have to spend a few hundred dollars, which is still lower than even the lowest-priced Airedale Terrier puppies from a reputable dog breeder. Having said that, adopting a dog does come with some things that interested individuals should keep in mind.

For instance, they have a much more limited range of options. In fact, interested individuals might be able to find suitable candidates for adoption at all if they stick to checking out animal rescues and animal shelters on their own rather than making use of online resources that are meant to connect suitable dogs with suitable dog owners. Besides that, getting a dog that has already been owned by someone else can have both its upsides and its downsides. On the one hand, they might be well-trained and well-socialized; on the other hand, well, it is very common for dogs to wind up with animal rescues and animal shelters because of some kind of issue. Said organizations will do their best to inform would-be dog owners about potential problems so that said individuals can prepare for them. Even so, that means an extra burden that will have to be managed in some way. Other than this, interested individuals can also keep a watchful eye out for Airedale Terrier owners who are planning to give out one of these dogs. Essentially, this means looking for people who can’t take care of these animals but haven’t resorted to sending them to either an animal rescue or an animal shelter yet. As such, this option comes with a lot of the same problems, with an excellent example being the relatively limited number of options that are available to them. This means that this isn’t an option that interested individuals should use on its own unless they are willing to potentially wait for a long time for a suitable candidate for adoption.

What Other Costs Should You Expect From Owning an Airedale Terrier?

Once interested individuals have gotten their hands on an Airedale Terrier, they are going to need to pay for all of the things that their new dog needs to live a happy, healthy life. This can be rather expensive, as shown by the one estimate of the one-time costs adding up to somewhere between $775 and $1,300. The cost of a dog bed, a dog crate, and similar items can add up to a few hundred dollars. However, most of this cost will come from a number of high-cost items that people may or may not go for depending on exactly what they have in mind. For example, spaying or neutering a dog can cost $100 to $200. Similarly, obedience training can cost $180 to $360. In some cases, it is possible that these things will have already been provided to the Airedale Terrier in question, meaning that interested individuals will have already paid for them through the initial purchase price. If so, they should check the documentation because they will want to make sure. These things might not seem particularly pressing, but often-times, they are very important.

Once the start-up costs have been paid, the monthly costs should be much more manageable at around $200 to $475. Thankfully, while Airedale Terriers are bigger than other terriers, they aren’t particularly huge by the standards of dogs as a whole. Food shouldn’t cost more than $75 to $100. Similarly, grooming shouldn’t cost more than $25 to $75 and entertainment shouldn’t cost more than $35 to $75. Instead, much of the monthly cost is going to come from the preventative healthcare for the dog, which can reach more than a hundred dollars with relative ease. Interested individuals can be lax in this regard, but if they do, they should know that the cost of actual treatment can be much higher at hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That is the reason that a lot of Airedale Terrier owners will choose to buy pet insurance at around $50 to $75 to make sure that those costs will be covered. These dogs aren’t particularly infamous for being unhealthy but even so, it is still smart and sensible to be prepared in case something bad happens to them.