| About The History
Of The Jack Russell Terrier
The Jack Russell Terrier
was first bred in the south of England in the mid-1800's to hunt European
red fox, both over and underground, for the sport of kings. The Jack Russell
Terrier ran with horse and hound as the hunt trailed the fox across the
fields and along the hedgerows of the Devon countryside. When the hounds
drove a fox to ground the Jack Russell Terrier followed, baying to bolt
his quarry so that the chase could continue.
Everything about the Jack
Russell Terrier says fox hunting; his conformation, character, attitude,
and intelligence. The Jack Russell Terrier is of balanced and flexible
build with straight legs and a narrow chest. He measures ideally between
10-15" in height. Coats are broken, dense, straight, harsh, and tight so
as to give a smooth appearance from a distance. His height gives him the
length of leg to follow the fox over ground, and the narrow chest, flexible
frame and tenacity lets him follow a fox into the den. He is bold though
cautious in temperament; an independent, thinking terrier accustomed to
working alone with only his instincts to guide him. Indeed, many a tale
has been told of a Jack Russell Terrier finding the fox before the hounds
could!
The Jack Russell Terrier
is named for the most renowned of British huntsman, Reverend John Russell,
"The Sporting Parson" (1795-1883), whose passion for fox hunting, hounds,
and working terriers is legendary. John Russell and his compatriots bred
with care uniform terriers measuring 14" in height with 14" to 16" in chest
circumference and 14-16 LB in weight. Parson Russell's own terriers were
known to be of a distinct type; white or predominantly white with tan or
black and tan markings confined to the head and base of tail.
John Russell was a founding
member of England's Kennel Club in 1873, and in 1874 he judged fox terriers
for the KC. In his day John Russell was called 'The Father of the WireHaired
Fox Terrier', at a time when it was thought that wire coats were a passing
fad. John Russell's bloodlines are found in the pedigrees of early Smooth
Fox Terriers, for as a breeder of broken coats he often bred to smooth-coated
fox terriers to improve coat quality. His bloodlines are also found on
both sides of the wire-coated bitch, L'il Foiler, dam of the well
known wire champion, Carlisle Tack. Many Jack Russell Terrier breeders
today regard Carlisle Tack as the ideal Russell type. The Jack Russell
Terrier is the original white fox terrier and is the foundation stock from
which today's modern Fox Terrier was developed.
Fox hunting in the southern
parts of Great Britain was and is today comprised primarily of mounted
hunts riding over the fields of the countryside. Terriers working these
hunts were required to be baying dogs. Parson Russell demanded that his
terriers be "steady from riot", for the hunt ended if the fox was attacked
underground. If the fox did not bolt, the terrier man, listening to his
Russell bay down in the tunnel, dug to the spot and released the fox. In
the south, hard Russells who tried to kill the fox underground were suspected
of carrying undesirable bull terrier blood (hence the brindle disqualification
in the standard). In the northwest of England, near the Scottish border,
fox hunts are not mounted, and man and dog follow the fox on foot over
rocky terrain. Northern terriers are often expected to be hard dogs who
can latch onto their quarry and drag it from the earth, as the rocks and
hills make it difficult to dig. In the north, hard Russells were suspected
of carrying Lakeland or fell terrier blood (hence the faulting in the standard
of a curly or wavy coat that does not lie flat).
The Jack Russell Terrier
was, and should remain, a baying terrier whose job was to bolt, not kill,
his quarry. This part of the breed's history affects both its correct type
and its attitude in the show ring today.
After John Russell's death,
the name "Jack Russell" was misused to describe all mix and manner of working
and hunt terriers, many of which bore little, if any, similarity to Russell's
own terriers. The mounted style of fox hunting in southern England had
been hampered by expanding agricultural practices and the sport became
expensive. Those without sufficient land or resource took to fox and badger
digging for terrier sport. Terriers were carried to known sets and released
down an earth to attack whatever they found, no horses or hounds required.
These terriers were more aggressive than intelligent, and needed not the
leg, stamina, nor common sense of the early Jack Russell Terrier. The public
came to know a "Jack Russell Terrier" only as a game working terrier, regardless
of shape or size. Unfortunately, it was this kind of terrier; bull-headed,
long-backed, short-legged, prick- eared, frequently achrondroplastic and
of questionable temperament, that was imported to America incorrectly bearing
the name "Jack Russell Terrier" and who can be found all over the media
today. Parson John Russell and his compatriots would not have recognized
these terriers, not as a Jack Russell Terrier or a Fox Terrier, nor as
suitable for fox hunting, for indeed they are not.
In England in the early 1970's,
a 10-15" height standard was devised to encompass the myriad of commonly
popular post-war breed distortions. The 10"-15" standard calls for a 'balanced'
Jack Russell Terrier. |
