The REAL Jack Russell Terrier & those 2 other breeds
Okay, to set the record straight. I am a long time JRTCA member and well remember what happened with the AKC.
There are now three breeds using all or part of the Reverend John Russell’s name. Here’s a (believe it or not) short history of the breeding and politics of these game little white dogs:
In the beginning, the Rev. John Russell bred what HE called a fox terrier. Ideally it was the size of a vixen fox (13") and had the same kind of flexible chest to go where the fox went underground. It was bred to bay and flush the fox out so that the hunt could continue. He bred to many different breeds and types of dogs not so much caring about its pedigree if it looked right and the puppies worked.
The dogs he bred became known as the Fox Terrier and if you see pictures of the early champions they ARE IDENTICAL to the over 12.5" JRTCA terriers and the AKC Parson Russell Terriers. Note: Rev Russell was a founding member of the British Kennel Club, but never showed his dogs believing their ability to work was more important than being pretty. Then the show fanciers took over and began grooming and styling their terriers and stopped working them so they became the straight shouldered deep keel chested dogs you see (both smooth and wire) in the AKC ring today.
After his death, many tried to take up his breeding program. Some wanted a dog to hunt badger (very fierce) so heavier terriers, ie. the bull terrier were added. Foxhunters added leg and topline with the working Lakeland terriers. Smaller terriers were added but those tended to get barrel chested with long muzzles and short legs who were better suited to ratting in the stable. Those that were “correct” and square but with legs too short to keep up with the hounds were carried in bags by the terriermen.
Flash forward to the USA circa 1970. Although there were many fox terriers in the US the “Jack Russell Terrier” began to be imported from the UK mostly from hunt kennels that had kept pedigrees just as thorough as their hounds. These varied in size from 12" - 15" mostly. As people bred them as they did for pets and stable companions the short legged, longer backed “puds” evolved in addition to the square terriers. Puds also tend to have the bowed front legs which is a trait of dwarfism.
When the JRTCA was created, they DID (and still do) have a breed standard. Because there is different quarry in the US than the UK (ie ground hogs) they created two sizes 10"-12.5" and 12.5"-15". BOTH sizes are supposed to be square.
After a number of years the Club’s Breeders Committee began to lobby for AKC recognition because they felt that AKC affiliation would allow them to get more money for their puppies (remember they were the Breeders Committee). Since the JRTCA Founder Ailsa Crawford thought that the AKC and its litter registration and showing just for conformation would be the kiss of death for this jolly working terrier, the JRTCA fought AKC recognition tooth and nail.
Eventually some members of the Breeders Committee and other like minded members split off from the JRTCA and formed the Jack Russell Terrier of America Association. They actively sought and eventually got their dogs accepted into the UKC, and fought to have their dogs admitted into the Foundation Stock Service the precursor to AKC registration. They used the name Jack Russell Terrier and they only wanted to admit terriers 13"-15" citing the Reverend Russell’s original breeding program. They defended vociferously the need to have long legs so they could run with the hounds (remember that, it’s important).
The JRTCA fought their use of the name Jack Russell Terrier claiming the JRT was a type NOT a breed. Of course the JRTAA insisted their dogs were a BREED not to be confused with the ‘bred to anything that hunted’ JRTCA dogs. Of course what was so ridiculously ironic is that ALL the dogs taken into the FSS to create this new “breed” were ALL JRTCA REGISTERED ‘over’ terriers, some whom it was well known had white lakeland terriers in their bloodlines. After a lengthy court battle the judge decided that if the JRTCA wanted to be a ‘type’ then JRTCA dogs WERE a type, and that the JRTAA dogs were a breed. That done, the JRTCA wanted to be known and have sole use of the name Jack Russell Terrier. To facilitate this, the Club sold the trademark “Parson Russell Terrier” to the JRTAA. A Club member had had the foresight to register it nearly 20 years before specifically to prevent AKC registration as the taller terriers in England at the time had begun calling themselves The Parson Jack Russell Terrier.
So now there were two little white terriers in the USA: the 10"-15" JRTCA Jack Russell and the 13"-15" AKC Parson Russell Terrier. We (the JRTCA) were all pretty much fine with that. For a few years afterwards, puppies whose parents were dual registered with both the JRTCA and AKC could be registered with the JRTCA but that was not riciprocal; if a puppy’s parents were not AKC registered, then their offspring could not be. Now the JRTCA registration is also closed as there are no longer any living dual registered breeding stock.
Then the breeders of the ‘shortie’ and ‘puddin’ dogs wanted a registry. You see although many had JRTCA registered dogs in their pedigrees it is incredibly difficult to breed a correct ie square terrier under 12". Mostly what happened was as the legs stayed or got shorter, the length of back increased, so these dogs never did well in JRTCA conformation divisions. No prizes made for alot of sad breeders who realized if they wanted to win ribbons they’d have to have their own club. Nothing wrong with that.
Around the world people had discovered the Jack Russell Terrier. They were quite popular in Australia, but their ratting instincts got them into trouble with the deadly Aussie snakes. So gradually, the hunting instincts were bred out or at least drastically decreased. What happened then was easily forseeable. Without the aggression necessary to hunt efficiently you got a happier, more mellow terrier that got along well with others (JRTs are notorious for being dog aggressive). So in Oz, they already had Parson terriers, and there was no JRTCA to argue against it, so the breed was developed as the Jack Russell Terrier and across Europe the breed proliferated under that name.
But the breeders in the USA were thwarted by the JRTCA’s previous lawsuit. They had to come up with another name. After toying with the English Russell Terrier, they settled on the Russell Terrier when they applied to the AKC to open the FSS as a precursor to becoming an AKC recognized breed.
So now there are three the JRTCA Jack Russell Terrier, the AKC Parson Russell Terrier, and the AKC 10"-12" Russell Terrier.
THEY ARE THREE SEPARATE BREEDS (personally, I think now that the JRTCA books are closed - we are only supposed to breed to JRTCA registered dogs- we can call our dogs a breed, not a type.). If a Russell goes over 12" it does not become a Parson (as a pony can overgrow into a horse), it is simply a dog that would be disqualified in the show ring. Same with a Parson that doesn’t make 13" or grows over 15". Either will get you disqualified from the AKC show ring. Also, since the FCI JRTs were developed in Oz and Europe where docking tails is not allowed, their breed standard allows for undocked tails. Since many of the Russells showing are Aussie imports, you will see alot of undocked tails flopping over their long backs.
HOWEVER, part of what makes the JRTCA’s registration system unique is that you cannot register a dog until it is a year old, has a 5 generation pedigree, it has to pass a health check, and the vet has to sign pictures of the dog they examine. Each dog is admitted (or refused) on its merits. Dogs that do not meet the qualifications for registration can be recorded if they are spayed or neutered. So any Russells that overgrow can be altered and get recorded with the JRTCA and compete in all our performance events (they’re still not going to win in the conformation ring). Parsons that don’t make 13" are also welcome in the JRTCA IF you deny the dog’s pedigree (rescue dogs don’t come with pedigrees anyway) and they aren’t too tall as the JRTCA doesn’t register or record dogs under 10" or over 15".
I have no problem with the Russell Terrier as a breed. What I object to is their breeders asserting any claim to the Reverend Russell. With their little stubby legs there is NO way they could’ve run with the hounds as the Parson people insist their breed was meant to do. The Hunt Terriers that were carried in bags were short square dogs. Not long backed colored Sealyhams. I’ll even allow that the Russell has a softer temperament and may be better with children. But when former JRTCA breeders WHO LEFT THE CLUB over political and personality clashes and are now breeding Russell terriers INSIST on calling their dogs FCI (Federacion Canine Internationale) Jack Russells, that just galls me because these same people SWORE FOR YEARS THEY BRED SQUARE terriers and were proud to say they bred scrappy Jack Russell Terriers that worked underground. So they KNOW they don’t have Jack Russells anymore but since “Jack Russell Terriers” has a recognition factor with the public, they want to use that name to justify the very healthy prices they charge for their dogs. Which confuses me because if you want to claim your dogs are calmer, friendlier and not as hyper as a Jack Russell Terrier, wouldn’t you want to differentiate your dogs from that??.
