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SUMMARY Background: A number of infective and non-infective causes may be responsible for the inflammation of the upper and lower airways. Bacterial airway infections can be identified by microbiologic and cytologic findings, but the definitive diagnosis is complicated by the contaminating flora of the airways which are in direct contact with the environment. Objectives: The aim of our retrospective study was to evaluate the bacteriological results and antibiotic susceptibility of the cultured bacteria strains of airway samples of 367 dogs that was referred to University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, Hungary between 2008 and 2013 with respiratory problems. Materials and methods: Samples were collected from 367 dogs (223 male, 144 female, age 2 months-17 years, mean age 6.5 years). Nasal swabs (120) were taken from the nasal cavity, while lavage samples were taken from the trachea (55) and bronchi (192) under general anaesthesia by flexible or rigid endoscope. The samples underwent bacteriologic testing and antibiotic susceptibility examination. Results and discussion: From the nasal cavity the most common isolate was Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (29.17%) followed by ß-haemolytic Streptococcus (16.67%), and Staphylococcus aureus (15.82%). From the trachea lavage the results were Coliforms (23.64%), Bordetella bronchiseptica (16.36%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.09%) in order of frequency. In bronchoalveolar samples Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found in the biggest number (15.10%), which was followed by Coliform bacteria (13.01%), and Bordetella bronchiseptica (11.98%). The study highlights the difficulties of the microbiological evaluation of respiratory samples, the significance of professional experience and clinical considerations, and the pitfalls of automatic evaluation of microbiological results. To our knowledge the present study is the first microbiological evaluation of canine airway samples in Hungary along with the antimicrobial susceptibility data.