Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Jack Russels & Rat terriers

I am on my 3rd and 4th JRT's now.
they are going on 8 months
Puppy's will be Puppy's and the Jacks are on steroids

The male almost twice the size of his little sister the runt of the litter but she rules him to no end.

He took all the toys so she took control of the food and now taking control of the toys as well.

I think the smaller they are the bigger they think they are.

I'll take a Rat over a Russel anytime.

Most should.

Grandmother had a chubby mostly black and tan male rat terrier that was a mouse, rat and the occasional snake killing machine. Cunning little dog, too. Give it a piece of biscuit and instead of eating it it would use it for 'bait' at known mouse holes. Cool little dog. Any time it was awake it usually was either hunting something to kill or a leg to hump.

Had one little white with black spots RT when I was a kid. Loved to play ball better than anything. Had to have him on a leash at parks where baseball games were being played or else he would join in. If it was a grounder it was rare for anyone to get to the ball before he did.

Sneaked out one day by itself, hit by a car and killed. That happened almost 60 years ago and I still get a lump in my throat.

I'm still calling BS, I don't recall you walking with a limp.

I had a JRT that was a killer little dog. Not really hyper, more alert than anything. Certainly prone to not giving a schit about much of anything that couldn't be killed.

He was a shorter leg rough coat type dog. Came from a chicken farm in Georgia. I'd get another from them in a heart beat if they are still around and I could find them!

All these dogs were originally "types" selected on the basis of ability rather than "breeds" bred to a standard of appearance.

In England this all began to change in the "breed" fad of the Nineteenth Century. There through systematic inbreeding the selections were made mostly on the basis of appearance and so many of our bewildering array of terrier breeds developed.

The Jack Russel escaped breed recognition (always the kiss of death for functional dogs) until relatively recently. Forty years ago a bona-fide "Jack Russel" came in a variety of forms and sizes, mostly popular with the horsey set and kept around barns. I saw little short legged examples of around 10 pounds all the way up to longer-legged 25 or 30 pound versions, the only commonality being fearlessness and an inclination to tackle anything (common wisdom had it never leave your Russel alone with your cat in the house or else sooner or later you were coming home to a thoroughly dead cat ). Likewise Russel puppies had to be separated early before the runts of the litter were worried to death by the rest.

Back in the days the dividing line between a "fox terrier" and a "Jack Russel" would have been blurred indeed until the breeders-for-looks crowd came in and created the "official" Fox Terrier. Understandably a watered-down version of the original when it comes to gameness.

To have an idea of what ALL English regional terrier types were like at one time before they were inbred for appearance check out what the Jack Russel has been and the Patterdale terrier still is.

Over here the rat terrier is descended from general purpose fiests, useful for everything from killing rats to chasing rabbits and treeing squirrels. Not nearly the miniature psychopaths that Jack Russels are, and much less inclined to go underground in pursuit of quarry.

Fortunately IIRC AKC recognition of rat terriers as a breed was fairly recent, and the breed's popularity across the South at least far predated this, so unspoiled examples do still exist.

Birdwatcher

I'll have a rat terrier/feist till I die.

Chances mom brother and dad are go getters too.

Scott that's the puppy I was trying to find a good home for. Looks like he got a great one!! Good thread fellas.

My buddy's rat terrier, one of the shorter legged veriety, is a licker. If you don't watch out she'll be running along the top/back of the couch getting each person's ear as she passes by.

mine was a long-legged short haired mostly white w/brown beast. and beast she was too. her parents were guardians of a commerical poultry houses in ne georgia.



yep. in general and on average a JRT is a much more aggressive attack dog than a rat-terrier. and there are some jack-rats around, but one doesn't see them all that often. the mtn fistes i'm most familiar with are more tree dogs than anything, but will do anything necessary on a homestead. i'm thinking they have north african whippet hound, and beagle blood mixed into their terrier ancestry.

I think I got my dog in Winder. It was around there anyhow. Not too far from Athens, where I was living at the time.

yep, lot's of poultry in the area, but it's getting more sparse now that urbanization is taking over.

mine came from a commercial poultry farm at the base of Skitts mtn in ne Georgia. those beasts allowed nothing to bother the poultry.

as an aside, and as a purely subjective comment, we always preferred the white w/brown spots more so than the whites w/black spots. i'm sure it didn't matter in the real world. each one would kill whatever.

I frequently think of that phone call from you and the subsequent whirlwind roundtrip drive from Michigan to Tennessee, and back again non-stop to pick up "Chance".

The wife is long gone, but Chance is still my pard and can't imagine what life would be like without him!

Thank you again!!

Good looking dogs

I have a Jack Daniels mountain dog...you can just see the raw intelligence in his face {yeah right!!} It's a good thing he don't weigh 125 pounds...there would be nothing safe on the planet:




adding the word "mountain" to the title of a pet makes it more valuable...if you just say "I have a dog for sale" people say "what???" If you say "I have a mountain dog for sale" they say "How much???"

The only JRT I've known was the one at Wilderness in Tennessee, where the Campfire Hog Hunt took place a few years. He was a friendly guy, but when riding in his master's Ranger, he'd jump out and make sure downed hogs were dead.