Keeping the Jack Russell a Working Terrier

Some years back, I collected a list of 400 American working terriers and the quarry they had worked. I did not care what breed the dog was, and I did not ask for paper; it was enough that someone said their dog had worked at least three types of quarry in a natural earth. Word alone would do for my purposes, as the table would be put up on the internet, and such exposure tends to discourage liars and pretenders. In the end, the list contained a few Borders and a few Patterdales, but the rest were all Jack Russells.

The purpose of the list was pure science -- an effort to get a handle on the average size of American working terriers, and to see if the size of the dog varied based on the type of quarry worked. It did not. What the list did reveal was a fairly significant bias towards working bitches -- a fact that I think is attributable to their smaller size.

If a new list of working terriers was collected today, would the results be any different? I don't think so. There would be a few more Patterdales, perhaps, but not too many from what I can see. There would be a few cross-bred dogs, I think, but the number would not slide into double digits. A few more working borders might pop up, but they are still a very rare dog to find in the field.

When push come to shove, the Jack Russell remains the dog that is most likely to be dug to in the United States. It's no suprise why that is so; no other pool of dogs is as well documented in terms of size and working ability as the dogs of the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. While other registries have tried to put together a working program and registry, such things have proven harder to do in practice than in theory.

The list below are the 2006 Bronze Medallion dogs -- a nice little list of 26 dogs that have worked at least three different kinds of quarry in the field before a JRTCA working judge. Most of these dogs have multiple Bronze Medallion winners in their five-generation pedigrees, and the heights of all of the dogs in the pedigree are likely to be known and recorded by the JRTCA as well.

The protection and preservation of the working terrier is made possible by elevating the status of work within the Club, by encouraging the pursuit of diverse types of quarry, by keeping honest records on the size of the dogs and the types of quarry worked, and doing it for generation after generation.

This focus and dedication is what makes the JRTCA a different kind of registry -- and it has made a world of difference to the sport of working terriers in America.

• Brandwine Punch: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Briar Run Addytude: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Briar Run Wango: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Brockwood Sprint: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Castle Pines Kessa: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Conquest Strike: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• DayDream Bayou Billy: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Firestorm Fever: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox
• Foxton Locks Ted: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Golden Hills Tansy: Red Fox, Groundhog, Opossum
• Little Eden Ovation: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox
• Little Eden Turbo: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Little Eden Maggie: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Natural Instinct Q-T: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Oakwood Brass: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox
• Old Glory Jarrett: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox
• Pheasant Hill Kylee Kaboom: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Pine Hill Reva: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox
• Runaway Farm Mocha: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Skytop Squire: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• The Holow Zeena: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Sallishan Twilght: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Sow's Ear Taltos: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• White Rose Tipple: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Woods End Chase: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Hart Farm Dancer: Raccoon, Groundhog, Opossum
• Salt Valley Wolfman: Raccoon, Groundhog, Red Fox