Bred first and foremost to be a working dog, the Lakeland is one of the oldest of the true working terriers. These are dogs whose original purpose was not ratting, but going to ground for large game such as fox, badger, otter and other fur bearing animals. Although somewhat similar in appearance to other terriers, the Lakeland is distinctly different in character due to the job he was bred to perform. A sound knowledge of his history is essential in determining his suitability as a pet. Understanding his job and how he performed it provides a fascinating insight into his basic instincts and the qualities that set him apart from all other terrier breeds.

The Lakeland's origins date back to the early 1800's to the northernmost part of England near the Scottish border. This was the Lake District, a land twisted and disfigured for hundreds of millions of years by the forces of nature. Despite Wordsworth's romantic depiction of its primitive beauty, it was a cruel and unforgiving place, more accurately described by Daniel Dafoe as "the wildest, most barren and frightful" of any region he had ever seen in England. It was in this brutal setting that the Lakeland was created and his every characteristic was designed to help him cope with the perils of the land.

Composed of treacherous rock and deadly waters, the Lake District was made up of a variety of landscapes. It's most well known feature, the fells, were England's highest mountains. Carved out of hardened volcanic rock, they were laced with narrow crevices and abandoned mining tunnels that were home to the region's fox and badger. Their jagged peaks hovered menacingly over steep-sided valleys that were covered with razor sharp, shattered rock (scree) and lined with gigantic piles of boulders. These formations, known as the borrans, provided another refuge for predators and, within their confines, many a terrier, too exhausted to climb out over the smoothly polished rocks, met a grisly end. Equally as formidable were the parts of the region forged out of limestone where swift flowing streams disappeared underground into deep, freezing cold lakes and small fissures gave way to black, bottomless pits or swallow holes.

The dangers of the land were far more life threatening than any the Lakeland faced from his foe but the more adverse the conditions, the stronger his resolve. Scaling the face of the fells and weaving through mazes of cramped tunnels or plunging into the darkest recesses of the earth, the Lakeland hunted his prey alone and with unwavering tenacity, earning himself a reputation for unequaled courage.

Although the Lakeland was used in controlling a number of predators, such as the badger, otter, martin and wildcat, his primary purpose was to destroy the fox that preyed on the farmer's sheep and poultry. Some accounts describe this fox as being of average size but other histories of the Lake District show pictures of a huge animal, often over 18 pounds and sometimes called the 'dog' fox because of its size. Unlike the smaller plains fox, who burrowed in the soft earth, the fell fox made his home high up in the fells or deep within the rocky borrans. Prior to the Lakeland's development, the huntsmen tracked the fox with hounds and various terrier types but once it reached the safety of the fells or took refuge down a borran, neither man or dog could follow. The fox not only lived to hunt again but to multiply in great numbers. Desperate to protect their livestock, the farmers set about to develop a dog that could negotiate the fells and follow the fox into its narrow hiding places. The result was the early ancestor of the Lakeland, the Fell Terrier.

This was a swift, long-legged dog, able to cover great distances over terrain that was covered in rock scree or deep in snow. He was agile and sure footed with extraordinary jumping and climbing ability. A proficient swimmer, his waterproof coat protected him from both the freezing cold streams and the harshest weather conditions in all of England. His acute sense of smell enabled him to search out the fox in the dark while his powerful jaw and large teeth provided him with a lethal bite. Using his head as a radar device, he was able to squeeze his narrow body through any opening where his head would fit. Small enough to follow the fox into the tightest of spaces, he possessed enormous strength for his size.

Equally as vital as his gameness and tenacity, was the Lakeland's stable temperament. Traveling to digs alongside the hounds, pairs of Lakelands were often shackled together to prevent them from going off on their own in search of prey. The huntsmen could ill afford dogs that wasted their energies fighting with one another. Their fierceness had to be well directed and 'a fight to the death' mentality was not a desirable trait. Above all else, the Lakeland was prized for his courage and endurance. While other Terriers needed only to bolt their prey or mark its location by barking, the Lakeland, working independently of the huntsmen, was required to follow the fox deep into dark unknown and to destroy it or anything else he encountered. Often becoming trapped underground, for days, the Lakeland was so valued that the huntsmen would resort to any means, including the use of dynamite, to free a dog from what could, and countless times did become an underground grave.