ColleenC
Posted : 10/19/2006 11:14:02 PM
Parson's are actually the original "Jack Russell." Jack Russell really refers to a huge range of terriers that all look different. Just google Jack Russell and see the different things. They have now come up with a standard for the "Russell Terrier" which is the longer bodied type. But, they changed the name to Parson to keep the breed true to its original standards. The mention of white for Parsons is that they should be predominantly white. I didn't mean to say that since it didn't meet the standard it wasn't a Jack, but no matter how far from the standard a dog is, there are certain things that will be there. Such as more bone.
A note on that site...not very reliable in my opinion.
"
Jack Russell Terriers are a type, or strain, of working terrier; they are not pure bred in the sense that they have a broad genetic make-up, a broad standard, and do not breed true to type."
That is a quote from their "breed history" page. The real reason there is such a huge variety is that when they were being developed, people would cross random dogs, not keeping true to the breed. That is how the brindle markings got introduced, by breeding them with bully breeds.
The thing to remember is that Parson's are the original breed type. Their conformation is for fox hunting. They are built for speed and agilty. The short legged generic Jacks you see are not. They would not stand much of a chance in a fox hunt compared to the original Parson. If you want to do some more research, I suggest visiting [link
http://www.prtaa.org]www.prtaa.org[/link]. They have a ton of great information.