Though often used for quarry that dens underground, especially badger, fox, and raccoon, Jagdterriers are also used to drive wild boar and rabbits out of thickets, and to blood track wounded animals, such as deer.

Due to their intelligence and adaptability, Jagdterriers can make good pets, but it should be remembered that they are primarily a hunting dog with a strong prey drive.

One of the pioneers of this peculiar quest was Lutz Heck, the curator of the Berlin Zoo, who went on to "back breed" primitive cattle and horses to "recreate" the extinct aurochs (the kind of wild cattle seen in the cave paintings at Lascaux, France) and the tarpan (a kind of primitive forest pony).

A fascination with terriers, fervent nationalism, and a propensity towards genetic engineering were braided together when Lutz Heck presented four black-and-tan Fell terriers—similar to what we now would call a Patterdale Terrier—to Carl Eric Gruenewald and Walter Zangenbert.

Gruenewald and Zangenbert added to their team Chief Forester R. Fiess and Dr. Herbert Lackner, men with land for a kennel, and the financial means to support it over a decade-long quest.

An early problem was that the Black and Tan Terriers selected as the core breeding stock and deemed "ideal hunters" based on colour alone were, in fact, not all that great at hunting.

After only 10 years time the dogs were breeding more-or-less true, with a Patterdale-like appearance, albeit with more red on the undercarriage.

The German Hunting Terrier Club (Deutscher Jagdterrier-Club) was founded in 1926, and the dog was warmly embraced in part because it fit well with the rising nationalistic sentiment within Germany at the time.

Many of the newer/later imports to the US are within the true FCI breed standard (correct size) and are being used successfully both above and below ground, with many reports of their offspring making exceptional hunting, flush and retrieval dogs both on land and in water.