Never Too Small A Chest
In "The Real Jack Russell Terrier," Eddie Chapman writes:"Don't think that a deep chested dog can get in just because he is narrow. Don't be taken in by the saying that 'a dog needs a good sized chest so that he has plenty of heart and lung room.' It is impossible to breed a working terrier with too small a chest. They will run as far and as long as any deep chested terrier, and will never suffer from a shortage of breath underground. In fact, quite the contrary, as they will have the advantage of having more room to manoeuver because of the smaller chest, so will be less restricted."
In "The Real Jack Russell Terrier," Eddie Chapman writes:
I'm reminded of a Jack Russell I once knew. I am guessing from memory that her chest was less tha 10 inches across. She was about 11 or 12 inches at the shoulder. This dog was a tricolor smooth coated, out of JRTCA registered stock. Her name was Cabbage, and she was murder on all things that took to the ground. This dog could go down the narrowest burrows. She was wiry and lithe like a black and white killing machine. She lived to work the groundhog/woodchuck burrows.
ReplyDeleteAs someone more used to the Feist type terriers, which tree squirrels and generally get along with other dogs and aren't as game, she really exposed me to how an earth terrier should behave. It's also why I've stuck with retrievers. She was just too game for me, but I do know she was far less inbred than any of the other dogs I've had that were of a definite breed/type.
My little terrier Sticks has a tiny chest. She can perform 180 degree turns in tunnells that you would think a terrier would have to back out of in reverse and she can hit a den opening at full sprint.That small chest contains a giant heart as when she goes, she doesn't stop till the job is done. A real "bunker buster"
ReplyDeleteJonathan cape Town