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Those whose
purpose is the application of a romantic egg wash to the Jack
Russell legend emphasize the parson's skill as a purveyor
of bloodstock, but he also displayed considerable talent as
a preacher of bromides; and even though he may have been "a
confirmed rebel," the Jacksons explain, "[he was] still a
staunch supporter of the establishment."
Wild
West Country
Russell
was born in Devon, England, on December 12, 1795. He inherited
a love for hunting, through not for classical learning, from
his clergyman father. Indeed, the younger Russell was nearly
expelled from Oxford for keeping a small pack of foxhounds
with a neighboring blacksmith. (Previously, he had nearly
been expelled from the Tiverton school for a similar offense.)
He eventually earned bachelors and masters degrees from Oxford,
where he won notice for his proficiency in elocution and boxing,
then returned to Devon, where he spent the remainder of his
88 years.
Magnificent
Obsession
According
to D. Brian Plummer, author of The Complete Jack Russell
Terrier, Russell was "an almost obsessional hunter [whose]
predatory menagerie of ferrets, terriers and hounds were his
lifelong pets and companions." Russell made the most celebrated
addition to that menagerie while he was still at Oxford. In
May of 1819, as most accounts have it, he acquired his first
"Jack Russell" terrier, a bitch named Trump, whom he bought
from a milkman. Russell was so taken with Trump, it has been
said, that he bought her on the spot the first time he saw
her. The spiritual if not the linear mother of today's Jack
Russell, Trump was a type of fox terrier. She stood approximately
14 inches at the shoulder, was predominately white and had
a rough coat. Most observers contend that the parson's strain
of terriers were all descended from Trump.
Ministers
and Monkey Shines
John Russell,
then 24, was ordained in 1819. Soon afterward he became curate
of the small parish of George Nympton near South Moulton in
Devon. One of his first tasks was the assembly of a pack of
hounds that he used to hunt otter. He also found time during
the winter to assist the Reverend Jack Froude, another hunting
parson, in the pursuit of fox. Plummer reports that Froude,
who apparently believed that the Lord giveth and the parson
taketh away, "ran a gang of disreputables who terrorized the
villages near his parish, burning, stealing and looting according
to whatever took their fancies." Another of Russell's associates,
Templer of Stowe, rode to hounds with a monkey strapped to
the saddle of a horse. Thus, Plummer argues, despite the tendency
of some writers to romanticize Russell, a "sporting, hunting,
shooting, fishing parson was by no means an exception in the
Devonshire of the Victorian era."
Hunting
Packs and Parishes
In 1826
Russell married Penelope Bury, who shared his love of country
life and hunting. Russell was fortunate that she did, for
in later years she was able to take over as master of his
pack of hounds when the Bishop of Exeter, Russell's superior,
demanded that he give up that stewardship.
About
the time he was married, Russell became curate to his father
at the parish at Iddesleigh. He received his final appointment
- perpetual curate at Swymbridge and Landkey - in 1833. During
the 45 years he spent in that capacity, he is said to have
improved his parish and church "out of all recognition." He
also became during that tenure one of the leading fox terrier
breeder-dealers in the West Country. He produced a strain
of rough-coated fox terriers that were distinctive enough
to be regarded as a separate breed that eventually became
his namesake. He also helped to set standards for dogs by
serving as a judge at agricultural and hound shows. Moreover,
he was one of the founding members of the Kennel Club of Great
Britain.
Judgement
Day
Russell
died on April 28, 1883, in his 88th year. A widower the last
eight years of his life, he continued his ministry and his
hunting until shortly before his death. More than a thousand
mourners attended his funeral and accompanied his body to
its final resting place. They wept as they walked and, in
a final tribute to the hard-riding parson, filled his grave
with the wildflowers that he loved.
The
Great Jack Russell Debate
The Jack
Russell terrier is not so much a breed as it is a type of
dog - one that was developed to go to ground in pursuit of
game such as fox and badgers. Going to ground is a many splendored
affair that involves following quarry into a tunnel or a hold
without hesitation, then pursing said quarry until it bolts
out the other end of the tunnel or is trapped underground.
In the former event a pack of hounds with which the Jack Russell
is in collusion usually take up the chase. In the latter event
the Jack Russell terrier is expected to bark energetically
to indicate the location of its quarry and to stay at the
task until the hunter comes along to unearth the dog and whatever
it has cornered. This procedure sometimes requires the assistance
of earth-moving machinery.
Motley
Ancestors
Although
the Jack Russell terrier was named after the hunting parson
who developed the original strain, the parson's stock "had
little or no influence on the evolution of the modern Jack
Russell," says D. Brian Plummer in The Complete Jack Russell
Terrier. After Parson Russell's death in 1883 "his kennels
were dispersed," reports Plummer. Some of the Russell's dogs
reputedly went to Squire Nicholas Snow of Oare, and these
became the foundation stock of Arthur Heinemann, who is often
credited with being the last breeder of the "true" Jack Russell
terriers. Be that as it may, other breeders certainly put
their spin - and whatever stock they found appropriate or
convenient - on the Jack Russell. Thus, says Plummer, "any
white-bodied working terrier of dubious ancestry simply came
to be known as a Jack Russell;" and by the middle of this
century hunt terrier shows "were indeed extraordinary sights,
with the most amazingly variable types of dog being proudly
shown as genuine Jack Russells; some of the displayed hints
of collie, or, not infrequently, dachshund, in their lineage."
One thing these dogs did have in common was the fact that
they were not recognized by the organizations that register
dogs and license dogs shows. This situation prevailed because
most of their owners liked it that way, an ironic development
as the Parson himself was one of the founding members of the
Kennel Club in Great Britain.
Who
Speaks for the Jack Russell?
The Jack
Russell's size, impishness and undeniable cuteness, however
- not to mention its frequent appearances in movies, advertisements
and television shows, have conspired to ensure it a high profile
about the general public. Search any newspaper or magazine
database and you are sure to find at regular intervals someone
somewhere writing an article that anoints the Jack Russell
as the latest "in" dog.
This popularity
breeds contempt on the part of some persons who fear that
favor is the path to perdition for dog breeds. Worse yet,
say the defenders of the Jack Russell faith, recognition by
the various associations would be tantamount to the post-coital
embrace of certain female spiders.
Nevertheless,
the Jack Russell terrier, under the sobriquet the Parson Jack
Russell terrier, has been recognized by the Kennel Club in
Britain. Moreover, a variety of the Jack Russell has been
recognized by the United Kennel Club in this country. Thus
far, the American Kennel Club recognition has not been secured,
though the Jack Russell Terrier Breeders Association in the
United States is dedicated to that objective.
Persons
who seek recognition for the Jack Russell believe, as Jean
and Frank Jackson wrote in Parson Jack Russell Terriers,
that "official recognition provides a framework of authority,
access to reliable services, a means to national and international
influence, and opportunity to become involved as equals with
other recognized breeds, which can only be of benefit."
Other
Jack Russell fanciers disagree. The Jack Russell Terrier Club
of America (JRTCA), founded in 1976, believes that the breed's
future "can be greatly endangered by attempts to standardize
this terrier into yet another show breed, encouraging breed
for form rather than function, with little to no concern to
the true nature of the dog."
The JRTCA
registers terriers that meet its breed standard, have been
examined by a veterinarian and certified free of genetic defects
and are not the result of any inbreeding (parent-offspring
or brother-sister matings). The club also sponsors Jack Russell
competitions designed to simulate the kinds of tasks that
working Jack Russells perform and operates a breed-rescue
service. Through all this activity the JRCTA's overriding
mission is to preserve the working qualities of the breed.
This mission
is questioned by some people who own working Jack Russells.
The assumption that Kennel Club recognition will ruin the
working qualities of the Jack Russell "is a little ludicrous,"
scoffs Plummer, "if one examines it closely with a modicum
of thought and common sense (sadly rare commodities in dog
breeders, I'm afraid). For the Kennel Club has little or no
influence" over what it's members do with their dogs. "It
remains the duty of breeders and exhibitors to ensure that
the dog is kept as a working breed."
The notion
of preserving the working qualities of the Jack Russell -
or of any dog - in an increasingly suburbanized society is
problematic. The Jack Russell was originally bred to assist
the foxhound in its work, but how many people in this country
ride to hounds any more? The Jack Russell has also been used
to hunt badgers and rats, the latter in the decidedly incorrect
sport of competitive rat killing; but how many people in this
country engage in organized, count-and-weigh-the-kill rat
slaughter? (For the record, Plummer's Jack Russells took three
tons of rats in 1977.)
The JRTCA's
various Jack Russell competitions - terrier races, go-to-ground
trials, etc. - are attended by a small percentage of Jack
Russell owners. One suspects that the club's greatest services
to the breed might lie in warning off unsuitable owners and
in placing rescued Jack Russells in more suitable homes than
those in which it was their misfortune to have been sent originally.
One further
suspects that the Jacksons may have a point when they write,
"What appear to be growing threats to the existence of field
sports... introduce the possibility that at some time in the
future it may no longer be possible for many of these breeds
to follow their traditional occupation. Recognition might,
therefore, by offering alternative activities be regarded
as an insurance against the possibility that these breeds
might disappear along with their traditional activities."
John
Russell's Standard
The kind
of terrier Parson John Russell admired is similar to the kind
specified in the standard of the Jack Russell Terrier Club
of America (JRTCA) today. The ideal terrier, said Russell
126 years ago, is "a small, energetic terrier of from 14/16
lb. in weight, standing about 14 inches at the wither [shoulder]."
The JRTCA's
standard is a little more flexible, calling as it does for
a height of 10 to 15 inches. In addition, whereas the parson
said the Jack Russell's coat should be "good, rough, weather-resisting
[and] a trifle wiry," the JRTCA standard accommodates three
kids of coats: smooth, rough and broken.
Like his
foundation bitch, Trump - whom Russell described as "white
with just a patch of dark over each eye and ear, with a similar,
but not much larger than a penny, piece at the root of the
tail" - the modern-day Jack Russell is predominately white,
at least 51 percent white. Most significantly, the JRTCA's
observation that the Jack Russell should "present a lively,
active and alert appearance [and] should impress with its
fearless and happy disposition," is entirely in keeping with
Russell's notion of what the ideal terrier should be.
The
Die Hard Dog
Seven
years ago a Jack Russell terrier named Mugsy, who belonged
to Viola Tiszi of Severna Park, Maryland, was hit by a car.
Tiszi's boyfriend, Glenn Maloney, rushed out of the house
to help Mugsy, but it was too late. "I picked Mugsy up," Maloney
told People magazine, "but he died in my arms."
Maloney
buried Mugsy in a hole about three feet deep in a wooded corner
of the property. The next morning at 5:30, Tiszi and Maloney
were awakened by a scratching at the door. When Maloney went
to investigate, there stood Mugsy, covered with dirt and a
little red-eyed but very much alive. "I couldn't believe it,"
said Maloney. "His tail was wagging 90 miles and hour."
Tiszi
credited Mugsy's heritage for his survival. "Jack Russells
are bred to burrow after foxes," she said. "I guess when he
woke up, he just thought it was another old hole and he dug
his way out, not knowing it was supposed to be his grave."
Warning
Label
It any
dog would not know when it was supposed to be dead, the Jack
Russell terrier is it, yet this same tenaciousness that accounts
for the Jack Russell's success in the field can lead to its
failure as a house pet. "I have owned dogs most of my life,"
says one Jack Russell owner, "but this little JRT is unlike
any dog I have ever come across. The word no does not
seem to exist in his vocabulary, nor does the word rest.
I have never had any problems training previous pets, but
I think I will need some help with this one."
Not surprisingly,
the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America (JRTCA) suggests
that prospective owners consider "the unique needs and character"
of the breed. These are dogs that love to dig and to bark,
are ceaselessly aggressive and follow a scent with a single-minded
passion. If Jack Russells do not have an outlet for these
natural instincts, there is likely to be hell to pay. They
will chase cars, dig tunnels in (and sometimes out of) the
yard, jump all over anyone who will tolerate their attentions,
take off after a squirrel in the middle of an otherwise peaceful
walk and chase down the family cat. In fact, wards the JRTCA,
"raising a puppy with a cat does not guarantee the cat's lifelong
safety."
Nor can
anyone guarantee that a Jack Russell will put up with mistreatment,
unintentional or not, at the hands of a child. Thus, Jack
Russells are not recommended for anyone with children younger
than six unless that person has had previous, non-catastrophic
experience with the breed.
In addition
to needing a lot of exercise, Jack Russells need a lot of
watching. They are, says the JRTCA, often aggressive with
other dogs, particularly dogs of the same sex, regardless
of breed. Therefore, "it is strongly recommended that no more
than two Jack Russells (of opposite sex only) ever be permitted
to stay together unattended."
The Jack
Russell terrier is not a suitable tenant for an apartment
of a condominium, no matter how cozy life appears on "Frasier."
Jack Russells are ordinarily too boisterous for close-quarters
living. They need considerable exercise and a brisk walk on
a leash will not serve to discharge their considerable energy.
To be sure, says the JRTCA, Jack Russells are country dogs.
"Unless your schedule permits many hours at home and a lot
of outdoor activity, with a safe place your terrier can run,
this is not the dog for you."
Jack Russell
terriers "require a long-term commitment to obedience, activity,
exercise and entertainment. Their unique character, intelligence
and high energy level can frustrate you, will undoubtedly
entertain you and can bring you great joy (when they're happy)
or great grief (when they're not)."
The Jack
Russell owner quoted above corroborates that statement, "As
much as this little dog is trying my patience, I have to say
not a day goes by that he does not make me laugh."
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