Airedale Terrier nutrition: portions, joints and itchy skin

An adult Airedale weighs about 23 to 32 kg (50 to 70 lb), and by the standard formula most neutered pet Airedales in that range start at roughly 1,200 to 1,500 kcal a day. Keeping the dog lean is the single most useful thing food can do for this breed. It may help protect the hips and elbows that UK breeders are advised to screen, and in a long feeding trial in another large breed it went with a longer life.

Size, history and energy

The Airedale is the largest of the terriers. The Kennel Club's breed profile traces it to Yorkshire, where it was known as the Waterside Terrier for working riverbanks to keep down vermin. It served with the armed forces in both World Wars, including as a messenger dog in the trenches, and its scenting ability made it a useful tracking dog. The Kennel Club lists its exercise need as up to an hour a day, and the American Kennel Club gives a height of about 23 inches (58 cm), a weight of 50 to 70 pounds and a life expectancy of 11 to 14 years.

That working background does not mean every Airedale burns a lot of energy. A dog that hikes or does agility several times a week needs more food than one that gets an hour of walking and spends the rest of the day in the house. Portions should follow the dog in front of you, not the breed's reputation.

How much to feed

The Merck Veterinary Manual's standard estimate starts with resting energy requirement (RER), in kcal a day: 70 multiplied by body weight in kilograms raised to the power 0.75. Adult dogs are then fed about 1.6 times RER if neutered, 1.8 times if intact, and 1.4 times if prone to obesity. For an Airedale at its ideal weight, rounded to the nearest 10 kcal:

These are starting points. Dogs doing sustained hard work need more, and quiet older dogs often need less. Check body condition every few weeks and change the portion by about 10% at a time. The ribs should be easy to feel with light pressure under a thin layer of fat, and there should be a visible waist from above. The Airedale's wiry coat can hide both a thickening middle and a dog that has become too thin, so use your hands.

Choosing a food

Any complete and balanced food made for the dog's life stage will meet an Airedale's nutrient needs; the breed has no special requirements that we could find evidence for. What differs between foods is energy density. A calorie-dense performance food suits a dog in regular hard work and puts weight on a house dog quickly. Check the kcal per cup or per 100 g on the label and set portions from that, not from the feeding guide's broad weight bands. Treats and chews count toward the day's calories.

Puppies, hips and elbows

The Kennel Club advises Airedale breeders to hip score and elbow grade their dogs through the BVA/KC schemes before breeding. Ask to see both parents' results. Genes play a large part in hip and elbow dysplasia, but growth rate and adult weight are the parts an owner controls.

• Feed a puppy food suited to a large breed. Merck gives puppy energy needs as about 3 times RER under 4 months of age and 2 times RER after that. It warns that very high calcium intake (above 3% of dry matter) causes more severe osteochondrosis in young, fast-growing large-breed dogs. Do not add calcium or bone supplements to a complete puppy food.
• Aim for steady growth, not maximum size. Measure meals, weigh the puppy every couple of weeks, and keep it lean. A plump puppy is not a healthier one.
• Feed three meals a day while young, moving to two meals as growth slows.

The case for keeping dogs lean for life comes from a lifetime feeding study of 48 Labrador Retrievers. One dog in each pair received 25% less food than its littermate from 8 weeks of age. The leaner dogs had a longer median life span, and the onset of signs of chronic disease was generally delayed. Airedales were not studied, so applying the result to them is a reasonable inference rather than a tested finding.

Joint supplements for adult dogs

Supplements are popular for active breeds, and the evidence is uneven. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of diets and nutraceuticals for osteoarthritis in dogs and cats found clear pain-relieving benefit for omega-3-enriched diets and omega-3 supplements, a weaker effect for cannabidiol, weak evidence for collagen, and a marked lack of effect for glucosamine with chondroitin. The authors recommended that glucosamine-chondroitin products should no longer be recommended for pain in osteoarthritis. These trials were in dogs that already had arthritis, so none of this shows that a supplement prevents joint disease in a young, healthy Airedale. A dog that is stiff after rest, slow on stairs or reluctant to jump into the car needs an examination, since effective pain relief is available.

Bloat and how to feed around it

Gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is an emergency in which the stomach fills with gas and can twist, cutting off its blood supply. Without treatment it can kill a dog within hours. We found no study that measures GDV risk in Airedales specifically. The best-known risk-factor study, a prospective study of 1,637 dogs from 11 large and giant breeds, found higher risk with increasing age, a first-degree relative that had had GDV, faster eating, and a raised food bowl. About 20% of cases in the large breeds and 52% in the giant breeds were attributed to the raised bowl.

• Feed from a bowl on the floor.
• Use a slow-feeder bowl or puzzle feeder for a dog that gulps.
• Split the ration into two or more meals and keep hard exercise away from big meals. Both are standard advice, but neither was among the risk factors that study identified.

Retching that brings nothing up, a swelling or tight belly, drooling, restlessness or collapse need an emergency vet at once. Do not wait to see whether it settles.

Skin, coat and itching

The Airedale's hard, wiry coat needs regular brushing and periodic hand-stripping or clipping, and dead coat left in place can hide skin problems. Diet matters here mainly when a dog is itchy. Persistent scratching, paw licking or repeated ear infections have many causes, including parasites, environmental allergy and food allergy, and a vet needs to work through them. If food allergy is suspected, the test is a strict elimination diet using a hydrolyzed or novel-protein food. A critically appraised review of elimination diet trials found that more than 90% of dogs and cats with food-related skin disease reached complete remission by 8 weeks, and recommended trials of at least that long. Treats, flavored medicines and table scraps all have to stop for the trial to mean anything.

Weight gain that portions do not explain

If an Airedale gains weight on the same food, becomes dull and slow, or loses coat, hypothyroidism is one cause a vet will consider. The Merck Veterinary Manual lists the Airedale Terrier among the breeds reported to be predisposed, and notes that the disease is most common in dogs 4 to 10 years old. A large UK study neither confirms nor rules that out. Its primary-care records of more than 900,000 dogs analysed a breed on its own only if it had at least 3,000 dogs or 10 cases, and Airedales were not among the breeds reported. Across all those dogs, 0.23% had a recorded diagnosis of hypothyroidism in 2016. It was more common in purebred dogs, in heavier dogs, in neutered dogs and with rising age, which describes many middle-aged pet Airedales. Blood tests are used to diagnose it, and treatment is lifelong thyroid hormone tablets. Supplements marketed for thyroid or heart support are no substitute for that test.

Sources

1. Airedale Terrier. The Kennel Club.
2. Airedale Terrier dog breed information. American Kennel Club.
3. Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals. Merck Veterinary Manual.
4. Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2002.
5. A 2022 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Enriched Therapeutic Diets and Nutraceuticals in Canine and Feline Osteoarthritis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2022.
6. Non-dietary risk factors for gastric dilatation-volvulus in large and giant breed dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2000.
7. Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (1): duration of elimination diets. BMC Veterinary Research, 2015.
8. Frequency, breed predispositions and other demographic risk factors for diagnosis of hypothyroidism in dogs under primary veterinary care in the UK. Canine Medicine and Genetics, 2022.
9. Hypothyroidism in Animals. Merck Veterinary Manual.