Jack Russell Terrier: An Owner’s Guide

We know that breeds of dog were bred for specific purposes even in ancient times and were respected in many early civilizations in the Middle East, ancient Egypt and China. An enormous number of ancient artefacts depicting dogs have been found in what are now Iraq and Iran as well as the Egyptian pyramids. It is not easy to recognize which breeds are portrayed in these ancient sites, mainly because they were not as sharply defined as they are today. Canophilists can find aspects in early statues and frescos of heavy war dogs, slim hunting dogs and small companion animals, but they seldom identify terriers because they probably did not exist in any way as we know them nowadays.

The spread of dogs

There is no mystery as to how breeds of dogs were distributed around Europe. Armies, moving on foot for thousands of miles, were usually accompanied by their own dogs and captured indigenous dogs as they travelled. They needed war dogs, watch dogs and herding dogs to control the herds of animals they took with them. During campaigns, invasions and occupations, they left behind and sold some of these dogs. Another mode of distribution was by coastal sea traders, notably the Phoenicians who sailed the Mediterranean and reached the coast of the British Isles. Dogs were probably sold and even survived shipwrecks, later mixing and breeding with the local canine population. Sheep traders from Europe also brought dogs to Britain, which they would have left behind or perhaps traded with the locals.

Advent of the Terrier

The Terrier was most likely a late addition to the British Isles. Early man saw rats as a food source but later, when he had discovered how to keep the crops he had grown, they became a nuisance and he needed smaller wolf-like dogs to catch and kill them. For reasons not understood, every breed of Terrier emanates from the British Isles, and even though a few new breeds have been developed, they came from British breeds originally. The German Hunt Terrier (Jagdterrier) and the Czech Cesky Terrier are two examples. For millennia, small, feisty dogs of no particular type were kept around British homesteads to control rats and other small mammals considered vermin. These dogs doubled as farm guards. We can only assume that it was from an amalgam of many breeds that the first Terrier types evolved.

History of Terriers

Very little was written on Terriers in ancient times, although Oppian wrote in the third century of small dogs used by the rough natives of Britain to scent and hunt game. Later, in 1486, Dame Juliana Berners mentioned ‘terours’ among other breeds of ‘dogges’ in her Boke of St Albans. Dr Johannes Caius presented terriers as we would recognize them today in his book on dogs, De Canibus Britannicis (1570). In 1686, Richard Blome described the working Terrier, which was indicative of a change in the attitude of huntsmen and the development of Terriers.

It is a Jack Russell’s instinct to hunt and to dig. Like most other Terrier breeds, these dogs were developed to keep down vermin.

In pre-medieval and medieval times, the aristocracy hunted deer for pleasure and the larder, so the development of hounds was their priority. Terriers were for the peasantry and interested the nobility only when they were engaged in dog fights, bull baiting and badger hunting. Medieval laws even forbade peasants from owning hunting dogs and disabled any suspect dogs to prevent them being used for deer hunting. Gundogs became a necessity when guns were introduced – Setters were used to indicate where the birds were, and Retrievers to bring back the dead.

Fox hunting

This sport started to be popular in the fifteenth century when hunters discovered the pleasure of a long run on horseback in pursuit of the fox. They divided their time between stag hunting for food and fox hunting for pleasure and used the same staghounds for both. They soon realized, however, that the staghounds were too heavy and slow for hunting the fox and replaced them with lighter, faster animals.

Because foxes were adept at hiding, the lowly Terrier came into his own. Hitherto the peasant’s yard dog, he was now valued by the aristocracy. He was small with a wonderful sense of smell, feisty and courageous enough to go to earth and either mark where the fox was lying by barking or force him to leave the safety of his lair. If the former was the case and the Terrier was marking the fox, he was expected to keep barking, so the huntsmen could dig out the fox, release it, give it a head start and then pursue it again.

Parson Jack Russell did not want his Terriers to kill foxes, although most were quite capable of doing so; they needed to defend themselves against a fox that was desperately trying to escape. Therefore a Terrier had to be brave and sufficiently skilled to take on a fox fighting for its life in darkness in an unfamiliar, small underground chamber.

Many huntsmen began to develop their own strain of Terriers. In the early days, they favoured the ubiquitous Black and Tan Terrier, which although now extinct is still present genetically in many familiar breeds. The colour white was introduced, because in bad light and heavy undergrowth the hounds could easily mistake a dark-coloured dog for the fox, and many a fine Terrier was killed in that way.

John Russell

Only with knowledge of the Reverend John (Jack) Russell, his life and times can we have a better understanding of the breed that carries his name and has done so for more than 150 years. The rural society in which he was born and lived was one of poverty, with many livelihoods dependent on the whims of land owners. Work was long and arduous and there was little to do in the way of entertainment. Hunting was a way of life, and the very existence of a hunt could sustain whole communities.

Early life

John Russell was born in 1795 in Devonshire, and from boyhood showed an exceptional interest in the countryside and animals. His father, a well-known hunting parson, who, at one time, kept a pack of hounds, encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps. At that time it was not unusual for men of the cloth to be keen on hunting. Indeed, many had their own packs, and they were often admired by their parishioners and overlooked by the church hierarchy.

Young John Russell was a tough, strong country lad, who was not easily put down and was always ready to fight his corner, which was just as well for his second school, Blundell’s, a public school in Tiverto, Devon, had a harsh regime, and bullying was rife. He kept ferrets and in his spare time would go ratting for local farmers, who were amused by the boy’s keenness and agreed to keep four-and-a-half couple of hounds (nine hounds) on his behalf.

Today’s Jack Russells are all descended from the original Terriers owned by the Reverend John Russell in the nineteenth century. Feisty and fun-loving, these dogs make great family pets as well as being superb workers.

At Oxford University, Russell was not interested in cock fighting and heavy drinking like the other young gentlemen undergraduates. Instead, he used every opportunity to hunt with the best packs. Foxhunting became the story of his life, and he was obsessed with hunting until his eighties, riding phenomenal distances to join a famous hunt.

The Jack Russell Terrier

The tale of how Russell found his first Terrier is well known, but it will lose nothing in re-telling. He was taking an early morning walk in Oxford when he saw the local milkman delivering milk with a white Terrier at his heel. Russell fell for the dog and could not rest until he had bought her. Her name was Trump and she became the foundation bitch of his kennel.

A famous Terrier man

In 1873, Russell became one of the founder members of the Kennel Club, but although he showed dogs for a short period he believed that dogs bred for the show ring would lose their working characteristics and he was only interested in function. Writing about him in 1904, H. Compton stated, ‘For where shall you find any Terrier strain, or for that matter any strain of dogs, as honoured and renowned as that of the Devonshire Parson whose distaste for show dogs was almost as profound as his admiration for working ones’.

Although he was said to be ‘the father of Fox Terriers’, which he kept within his own stud, there were some people who claimed he would buy up any likely looking Terrier and breed him or her. Unfortunately, we will never know the full truth because few of his records have survived, but, to use a stockman’s expression, ‘he had an eye for a dog’ and by a process of selective breeding became the most famous Terrier man in Britain. His fame extended far and wide, not only for his hunting prowess but also for his knowledge of country matters.

The Reverend John (Jack) Russell died on 28th April 1883, and, to illustrate how greatly he was esteemed and loved, over 1,000 people attended his funeral, including 24 clergymen, the mayor of Barnstaple and many hunting celebrities. Even the Prince of Wales sent a wreath of wild flowers celebrating Parson Jack’s love of the countryside.

Supporters of the breed

Two other men who should be named because of their support of Parson Jack and his strain of Terriers are Arthur Heinemann and Squire Nicholas Snow of Oare. Heinemann acquired his original stock of Jack Russell Terriers from the squire, and his kennel woman, Annie Rawle, was the granddaughter of the Parson’s kennel manager, Will Rawle. It was Annie who managed Heinemann’s kennels when the master was serving in World War I. Heinemann was also an obsessive huntsman and a student of Parson Jack’s breeding methods. He wrote the original Standard for the breed, which has been preserved virtually intact to modern times. He also built up a strong kennel of Terriers, and on his death in 1930 his stock passed to Annie Rawle, thereby ensuring the continuation of the type.

Using the Parson’s dogs as their patterns, the early show enthusiasts began to ‘improve’ on the originals. They developed their dogs to win in the show ring, but, in the view of many hunting people, they changed the priorities, making perceived beauty the most important criteria instead of function. They thought that the show Terrier would never be called upon to prove his metal in the field and therefore was not worthy of consideration.

Today’s working Jack Russell Terrier is a game little dog with all the instincts of his ancestors. He loves to dig and hunt.

Fox Terrier Club

At the time the generic name for terriers bred to run with Fox Hounds was ‘Fox Terrier’, and even the Parson’s dogs were alluded to as Fox Terriers. Indeed, to some he was the father of the breed. However, other gentlemen, wishing to stabilize the breed, created the Fox Terrier Club and sought recognition from the Kennel Club, which they achieved in 1872. Parson Jack Russell would have none of it and would not register his strain of Terriers with the Kennel Club, believing that it would dilute their hunting qualities. Many enthusiasts followed him, continuing to breed their working terriers in the time-honoured way – only from dogs that showed prowess in the hunting field – and called them Jack Russell Terriers.

However, in 1894, Heinemann formed the Devon & Somerset Badger Club, which later changed its name to the Parson Jack Russell Club and became one of the 28 clubs affiliated to the Fox Terrier Club in the 1930s. Sadly, they folded just before World War II.

By the turn of the century, dog shows were becoming very popular, and at the same time the Kennel Club’s registered Smooth Fox Terriers became the most popular Terrier exhibits. In some litters of Smooths, Wire-haired puppies appeared, which, although they were not favoured at the time, overtook the Smooths in popularity several years later. From photographs of the time it is easy to see that the Fox Terriers were not so very different to those of today.

Popularity of the breed

The one major problem that has haunted the breed, since its superb working qualities were recognized, is the spread of what can only be described as ‘counterfeit’ Jack Russells, because few people adhered to a Standard. During Word War II, food was scarce and it was difficult to feed kennels of dogs, so many were forced to close down and numerous dogs did not survive.

After the war, when the servicemen started returning home, there was a renewed demand for puppies, and many dog breeders, who were quick to seize the opportunity, began their operations again, producing so-called Jack Russell Terriers, which were acvtually a mishmash of types.

Puppy farmers and backyard breeders, seeking only to make money, would mate any Terriers together and call the resultant progeny Jack Russells. Farmers bred Terriers with small sheepdogs and described the puppies as Jack Russells. Although some of these dogs could work foxes or rats with varying degrees of efficacy, in reality they bore little or no resemblance to the real thing, and their puppies would not reproduce the Jack Russell Terrier’s characteristic type. Anyone with a scant knowledge of the breed could recognize major type faults, such as heads that were too wide, weak jaws, too big around the chest, long coupled, short front legs (Queen Ann legs) with turned out stifles, together with a lack of balance and symmetry. Other faults might include protuberant eyes, incorrect coat texture and colour, big pricked ears and roached backs.

Jack Russell Terrier Club

In 1974 a group of Terrier enthusiasts gathered together to form the Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain (JRTC of GB) and to write a Standard in an attempt to stabilize the breed. A constitution was drawn up, with rule No. 1 being ‘To promote and preserve the working Terrier known as the Jack Russell’. To maintain the perceived difference between the working dog and the Kennel Club registered dog, Rule 2f of their constitution reads: ‘History has shown that Kennel Club recognition to be detrimental to the physical structure and working capabilities of a variety of working breeds, therefore this club is opposed to the Kennel Club recognition of the Jack Russell Terrier’.

Parson Russell Club

Other enthusiasts, who wanted to show their dogs, followed a different path to their eventual recognition by the Kennel Club. In 1894, Heinemann formed the Devon & Somerset Badger Club, which later changed its name to the Parson Jack Russell Club and became one of the 28 clubs affiliated to the Fox Terrier Club in the 1930s. Sadly, they folded just before World War II but some breeders still clung to the old ideals of a terrier whose legs were long enough to allow him to run with the hounds, whose chest could be spanned and who was courageous and strong enough to face an angry fox in his lair. They thought, rightly or wrongly, that the only way to preserve the real Jack Russell was to gain recognition from the Kennel Club and to have an official Standard for the breed.

Late in 1983 there was a rumour that supporters of a short-legged variety were to apply for recognition to the Kennel Club, so the enthusiasts for the show dogs, who believed their version was closer to the original, hurriedly formed the Parson Jack Russell Club and applied for recognition, which was refused. In 1990, after much controversy and several attempts, the new club received Kennel Club recognition and its eventual name was The Parson Russell Club.

The Parson Russell Terrier has slightly longer legs than the working-type Jack Russell, making it easier for him to run with hounds.

The Breed Standards

These are detailed descriptions of ideal dogs within the breed. A Standard is not a blueprint because, as a living creature, no dog can replicate another. Instead, it is a guide to perfection. The perfect dog does not exist, which is why we strive to breed better dogs that are as close to the Standard as possible.

If you want a puppy for showing or breeding, you should immerse yourself in the breed and make a study of the Standard to familiarize yourself with its every nuance. A real insight into a breed is not gained overnight, nor does it matter how much theoretical knowledge you have – instead, it demands ‘hands on’ experience.

Note that the word ‘type’, as applied to dogs, can be confusing. If a dog is said to lack type it means that he lacks some of the characteristics that typify the breed. The precise meaning of the word is ‘the hundreds of points which when put together makes one breed distinguishable from all others’. Type is contained within the Standard.

The Jack Russell Terrier (The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain)