Jack Russell Terriers - love 'em or hate 'em?

 mine is a love/hate relationship with Amber..... her father was a petshop JRT and her mother was some kind of poodle/terrier mutt. i got Amber from my sister's cousins. they were going to keep her and she probably would have ended up with puppies sired by her father. but her owners finally told me i could have her.. then a year later i rescued her little sister (same parents/diff. litter) i would have kept them both but i already two bigger dogs and Amber was a jealous little brat. 

She's old now, but still active. and FOR a terrier, even a mix, she's pretty darned good. she is mostly well behaved but there is no way i could have her in the city. she is an escape artist that pretends to be deaf..... and recently she's started jumping onto the hood of our car. 

honestly though.... she's dynamite(big things come in small packages!) and i love her but i'm not so sure i could have another JRT. not a puppy at least. I have been tempted on a few occasions by some seniors up for adoption but I dont know them as well as i do Amber.... i KNOW she wont hurt my kids. she has always done her best to either avoid or tolerate them before escaping(and i'm always there to make sure there are "situations";) but with a strange dog with a strange history..... i'm not a risk taker.... When i first got Amber we lived on 200 acres of horse and cow ranch and she pretty much got to live a terrier's dream for several years, following me around on horse back and going hunting.... she got to sew those wild terrier oats for about four or five years before we moved. then she was "fostered" by some friends in the city until i could get my homelife sorted out. While they had her they didnt know what to make of her.... and she was still a jealous brat. she got into a fight with their labrador and I had to come get her before they gave her away in a news paper ad! 

Well, now she's settling down a bit. which is just fine because we live on 3 acres with neighbours around, but STILL in the country. i just feel like a puppy JRT would probably be miserable with us. 

BUT.... Amber was a totally unplanned surprised. i went to visit relatives one weekend, and they showed me the "cute little puppies" in the backyard... next thing i knew i was bringing one home.... I did learn a lot from her! nothing i regret either :) So who knows.... i believe in being in the right place at the right time. i wont go actively LOOKING for another terrier... but i also wouldnt say no to one. they can be very persuasive after all ;)

 Emma was raised on 5 acres, with neighbors, in a pretty quiet area. She did well, because of the off-the-property time she got. She was reliable off leash, by the time she was a year and a half old (which is amazing, considering that Ena STILL isn't, at almost 2). She gets very regular, long walks, with swimming time at the beach, the trails by the river, etc. She gets walks on the road, too, just for change of scenery. It ended up working out, and she's a great girl.

 It's impossible to say really, if I love or hate them.... it's not really a "breed", but more of a type, and there is still SO MUCH variety within it, from dog to dog, that it's easy to find one that is nutso and also pretty easy to find one that is more laid back.  I've never owned one, but I've known several. 

I've known JRTs with so much guts and drive, needing plenty of exercise, mental stimulation, a "job", lots of management and a pretty savvy owner - definitely not suitable for your avg "pet" home.  Then again, I've seen very sweet JRTs that fit right into a family as well as any dog can, and better than most, with no more than an avg amt of exercise and pretty minimal training - even letting themselves be dressed up like a doll and carried around like a baby.  I think this is one breed its easy to love and "hate" in equal amounts!!

 i was surprised at Amber's personality, Chuffy, lol her father was absolutely nuts (bouncing off the walls, hanging by his teeth from your clothing kinda nuts) and her mother was pretty much ignored because she was so hyper and demanding of attention. the owners were the prime example of THE worst dog owner and how NOT to treat animals..... i knew enough about the breed just from reading about them randomly that i felt confident enough to own one so i wasnt daunted in the least..... but Amber is just a surprise a minute. she is female aggressive. has more guts than twenty pit bulls. and the brains of a collie, which she uses sparingly....... and her loyalties are something like... "Yeah i'll go with you. but the moment it gets boring i'm outa here!" .... she is a dog ruled by entertainment..... yet in her senior years she's not quite so thrilled to go bouncing around with puppies. not like she used to.

When we lived on that ranch she had a little reputation... the neighbour dogs(my two big ones, plus the landlord's) were loose one day and seen by several people chasing deer.... the landlady told me "The herd of deer ran by... followed by the big dogs... and they were followed by that little white sand spur of yours!"

i was mortified, because my dogs were NOT supposed to be running loose! but the old woman thought it was funny as hell that this yappy little ball of scruff was doing her best to keep up with german shepherds and dobermans... AND deer!

The thing i was reminded of constantly was the pit terrier part of her heritage... Amber is a scrapper.. and i've heard a lot of JRT types are as well.. which was why her foster family didnt work out. Amber has absolutely no problem with jumping into a three dog fight or attacking and killing raccoons. She cant really help that side of her personality. and if you arent prepared for that random change of character then you may want a softer breed.. but like Chuffy said. they're all different! you just never know what you will end up with... or WHEN you will end up with it.

I have 2 JRTs and now a BC. Both breeds are called 'advanced' level dogs for training and ownership. I love the JRT most of the time. Independence trait can be a nuisance at times during training. People think they are stubborn and dumb but they aren't. The breed is highly underestimated in intelligence, I mean come on, they're in the hole by themselves with prey. They are fast learners when they want to be but you really have to make it worth their while. I train both my jacks in agility and they know what is going on. For example, they know patterns, if I run a sequence with a pinwheel, my male will stop and look at me .. "hey, i just jumped that one. let's do something else". My female will do the same thing say for a contact obstacle and she'll stop and refuse and basically give you this look.. "Did you not just see me do this earlier? Let's do something else." They aren't stupid. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

Yes, my JRTs have a prey drive. One is harder to control than the other with the female being the most difficult one and she is the soft one of the two. So for one to bolt is a possibility. Do I let my terriers hunt? Of course. Last year, they got 8 rabbits and one ground hog. Neighbors know to bring their cats when I work my dogs outside. No cat can outrun them period! My little was trained for JRT racing and at 1 year old she did the 40 yard dash in 4.09s. She is SMALL 11" and 13 lbs. That equates to 20 MPH or 10 YPS. Make the distance longer, the speed goes up. My friend in CA that train his 13" JRT for racing does 300' with a speed of 25 MPH. No domestic cat can run that fast! Per height vs speed, JRT is unmatched in speed, this includes the Whippet and GH IMHO which those dogs top out at 40 MPH. BCs are 30-35 MPH. My bigger JRT should be faster than my smaller one, he gets so close and all she does it kick it in another gear and its over.

Energy level.. Yes, they have a lot of it. Do I exercise them regularly? NO! In the early years, yes. But I realized that one you established a routine and schedule, you can get away with exercise. My JRTs are COUCH POTATOES and have an OFF switch like a BC. No BS! When its times to get worked or play, they flip it on.  I can get away with 4-5 days of doing nothing. If they start doing zoomies or start to get too busy, its time to work them mentally or physically.

They're just like any other dog, they need a routine and structure. When people see my JRTs, they think they are broken. Trust me, they aren't, they just know the boundaries. 

However, since they are terriers, they don't know their limits. My male will go up bigger dogs, he likes bigger dogs and size up. We have been attacked by a GR and he fought back which I ended up throwing the GR back in its yard. Clueless GR owner. So I have watch my Ps and Qs with that one. High confidence and he is a hard dog which I love. The other JRT like I said is soft which isn't a good match for me. Male is a lot of dog with awesome lines. He was suppose to be the stud dog to continue the lines. 

Would I get another JRT again? Perhaps but BCs make training so effortless, I love their biddability and focus (focus.. JRTs you have to work at it with them). I would probably do it again if I got the same type of dog I have in that male. 

We've never had one but did keep one for several weeks while a friend was away. He was well behaved and nice enough, but we didn't get too attached to that little terrier attitude. He really just didn't seem to have a rational self-image. As far as he knew, he was a 200 lb mastiff! They're probably great dogs for a certain type of person, but really just not my cup of tea.