Not only has the Patterdale inherited the strength and courage of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier but has also inherited some the undesirable faults such as the excessive panting and breathing which seems uncontrollable when working, another fault inherited from the Stafford or Staffordshire Bull Terrier not that it has any problems with the dogs performance but rather cosmetic and not really nice to look at is the Chinese type shaped eyes with the white skin bald eye lids, I'm sure many patterdale breeders have wondered where this has all come from and after being around the Staffordshire Bull Terrier breed both in field and show for 40+ years I can tell you where they come from, in fact don't take my word for it but ask any Staffordshire Bull Terrier enthusiast and they will tell you very the same thing.

The Patterdale is so strong with the influences of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, many of the stronger and bigger Patterdale could be mistaken for the old type gamebred stafford or just look at Staffordshire Bull Terrier crosses and you will the strong resemblance that of the Patterdale Terrier.

As I was saying, in the north of England, hunting is a way of life and we use whatever breed of dogs that are available to us and one such dog that gets little or no credit is the Lancashire Heeler, a little black and tan dog that is so popular in the north of England and used quite a bit on other dogs, in fact I had a great Jack Russell bitch who could work rats what I thought like no other until I came across a lad working rats with a Lancashire Heeler X Jack Russell , me been ignorant at the time thought it was a black and tan docked Russell which I thought the colour was unusual but when I asked what it was, the lad told me that it was a Heeler X Russell and what a game little rat dog he was.... even though my Jack Russell bitch was good on rats, this little heeler jack dog worked rings around her, later that years I ran into others using the same cross but yet you don't hear anything about this little dog and he's probably one of the most popular little house dogs in the north of England.