| About The History
Of The Jack Russell Terriers
Jack Russell Terriers were
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. Jack Russell Terriers
ran with horses and hounds as the hunted 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 Terriers followed, baying to bolt his
quarry so that the chase could continue.
Everything about Jack Russell
Terriers says fox hunting; their conformation, character, attitude, and
intelligence. Jack Russell Terriers are 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 Terriers finding the fox before the hounds could!
Jack Russell Terriers are
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. Jack Russell
Terriers are 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).
Jack Russell Terriers were,
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 Terriers. The
public came to know "Jack Russell Terriers" 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 Terriers" and who can be found all over
the media today. Parson John Russell and his compatriots would not have
recognized these terriers, not as Jack Russell Terriers or Fox Terriers,
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 'balanced'
Jack Russell Terriers.
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