LOL Mali, that would have been just!
Humphrey is also un JRT like in the fact that he has made it very clear he wants to be an only child.
OP, If you are already a dog person and plan to do agility , you will be fine!!!
I love, love, love my JRT to pieces. he is my first, (but my wife’s second…) and will be my first of many (if I can still keep up with them!). He has been a challenging dog to own, but soooo worth it.
PLEASE get a JRT from a JRTCA breeder, they are so committed to the breed and have a very high standard for breeding and screening for the few genetic issues in the breed. ww.therealjackrussell.com/jrtca/jrtca.php
post back here if you do get one, I bet you will have alot of fun!
I have a cattle dog cross JRT and he’s the best dog, hands down, I have ever owned, and possibly ever will own. Smart as a whip, freakishly obedient, and lives and dies for me and only me. He systematically and deliberately chose me as his person and wouldn’t take no for an answer (manipulative!) and in the end I “absorbed” him from a boyfriend. As a result, I’ll never have a another type of dog, he is the bomb and I absolutely love him to pieces.
But I think you have to be a terrier person to click with them. They are the ultimate terrier on steroids and if you like that type of dog, you will love them. If you’re neutral about terriers, don’t get a JRT. They’re over the top.
I love Jack Russells and have two that are the sweetest dogs I have ever met. They have huge personalities and are extremely smart, it truly is like having two extra family members they are so part of the household. Both dogs were in my wedding and have been all over the US with me. I have cried on the plane missing them at the start of a vacation. They are fantastic with my 2 yr old and when inside the house are generally asleep on my lap. I can’t fall asleep without them next to me. I can’t say enough how much I love my Jack Russell’s!
That being said, they have a huge prey drive and I have had to take apart my deck to retrieve one that got stuck going after a rabbit. They will find or make any hole in the fence if they see said rabbit in the neighborhood. One once killed a litter of kittens. I have to be extremely careful that they don’t chase horses. They are not always good with other dogs. I can’t have a tennis ball in the house or I see the neurotic side people talk about! My 2 yr old has lost several beloved stuffed animals to their jaws. Sometimes they bark obsessively at a tree they saw a squirrel run up 1/2 hr ago.
So I think Jacks are the best dogs ever if you are looking for a dog that is more like a child. They will be more work and more reward than other breeds. Not all JR’s are the same, but that is my experience! My last dog was a Border Collie and while I love all dogs, I do find the average Joe dog totally boring now.
They are every bit of smart as a standard poodle, but they’re WAY more stubborn. They’re a terrier. They’re bred to hunt and kill things - generally in its own home. They’re meant to dig out and kill vermin. Poodles were bred to retrieve things from a field that the human kills. Poodles are bred to work off the direction of its humans. Terriers are bred to largely work with minimal direction from its humans.
If you do something like agility with them, you’d be fine. Most people don’t do anything with them though and they’re little terrorists. They’re easily bored and are incredibly destructive if you don’t give them a job. They are, generally speaking, a terrible dog for the average person. However, you do agility and know how to train a dog…so go for it if you want one. They’re definitely a dog that needs a fairly strict set of boundaries. It sounds like you can provide that though.
[QUOTE=keepthelegend;7396732]
I do find the average Joe dog totally boring now.[/QUOTE]
Yes, boring!
My farrier likes to say that jack russells are shaped ike footballs for a reason… And with the one we have at the barn, i tend to agree! Now, he belongs to the owners’ daughter, and is DEVOTED to her. He runs around with her all day, jumps whatever she wants him to, etc. He CAN be sweet. But. He terrorizes the guys who work for us and guys at the horse shows. We used to say he was racist, but he’s snapped at all sorts of people. If his girl is in the barn, he barks and jumps at the horses and tries to bite them on the nose. If she isn’t around, he’s much more well behaved. I like him and all, but still just don’t quite trust him.
Conversly, I have known some very sweet Jack Russells. Our braider breeds them, and the ones she brings to the shows are wonderful.
So i really had nothing to add to the conversation that no one else has said! Just sharing a story.
The first Jacks that I saw in Northern Virginia about 20 years ago were very dog aggressive, you do have to be careful of that. They were supposed to be dogs bred to hunt in packs so that temperament flaw was clearly a problem. My sister had one that came from a small pack that killed one of it’s own members, she neutered him and kept him as a only dog and he lived with a cat to the advanced age of 20 years! My vet also had a line of dogs who killed their pack members. Just a cautionary note. I love my Jack but he has a strong prey drive and is an a-hole with strange dogs.
Quick correction to Calamber’s post. Jack Russells were NOT bred to hunt in a pack. They were bred to live and sometimes run with a pack of foxhounds, but they have always been entered to ground alone. Jacks running in a pack can be dangerous to themselves and other creatures.
