Finding the Right Dog

I wrote this post in August 2005, and it's still true today.

Jack Russells come in all sorts of strange shapes and sizes. Some have ears that are erect, some down, some are longer than they are tall, some are pure white, some are as colored as a beagle.

There are smooth coats, broken coats and dogs hairier that a Wookie straight out of Star Wars.

A Jack Russell's legs may be straight as sticks or as ornately curved as those of a Queen Anne bench. Its chest may be as small around as a lady's bracelet, or as big around as a bowling ball.

How do you sort it out?

Simple: Get a dog registered with the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America, and accept no substitutes.

I do not breed dogs, I do not show dogs, and I do not judge dogs. My reason for recommending the JRTCA gene pool is solely practical: The JRTCA records the size of dogs and also offers working certificates. The result is a documented track record of work and size that can be tracked across a five-generation pedigree.

When you are looking for a working terrier, nothing is more valuable.

Buyer beware, of course. Most JRTCA dogs are show dogs or pets, and only about 5% hunt. That said, a disproportionate number of the dogs being bred have hunted, and most terriers you are going to to be interested in have solid workers in their immediate past.

The good news is that with a JRTCA dog you can look through a pedigree and see whether there is a track record of work and what the size of that dog's dam, sire, grand-dam and grand-sire were. With hundreds of well-documented working JRTCA dogs in America, the chance of finding an acceptable working terrier is higher in the JRTCA gene pool than anywhere else.
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