David Hancock notes the absurdity of the Kennel Club's ideal size for a "Parson" Russell Terrier, the cocked up dog created by the Kennel Club based on a breed standard written by Arthur Heinemann, a dog dealer who never met John Russell and who dug badger rather than fox. Hancock writes:
Any pedigree Parson Russell dog which is less than 14" at the shoulder does not meet the requirements of the official KC breed standard. This means that the best working Jack Russell in the whole country could not win in the KC show ring entirely on grounds of size. Is that the best way to judge sporting terriers?.... Is a Jack Russell without some working instinct and a working build really a Russell?
Ironically, Arthur Heinemann, like John Russell before him, sneered at the "cup hunters" who did not own a shovel and had no ideas what the dogs were actually meant to do. He told Dan Russell:
"We are very much opposed to the modern show terrier and his type. Once you begin to breed it for show type, you lose the working qualities upon which you pride those terriers. I have been, I might say, the protagonist of the terrier bred for sport as against the terrier bred for show. I have no interest in cup hunting."
Heinemann might have had no interest in cup hunting, but that's all the American "Parson" Russell Club has ever chased. Their web site makes no mention of field work at all! And the result? The dogs are getting too big and are already beginning to look like Fox Terriers.
Truly, those who do not know the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.
No comments:
Post a Comment