Small, however mighty, the tough Jack Russell is as popular as ever, not least as it’s The Queen Consort’s breed of option. Fellow terrier owner India Sturgis states why these small tearaways stay so continually attractive. Photographs by Sarah Farnsworth for Country Life.
‘You can do just about anything with a Jack Russell,’ states Greg Mousley, of Meynell Sundance Jack Russell Terriers, a popular breeder of 50 years. ‘They are the most intelligent canine ever.’ To show his point, Mr Mousley’s finest technique, when working as an expert installed terrierman for the Meynell and South Staffordshire foxhounds for 35 years, was to bring a Jack Russell — Digger or Axeman — in a specifically made bag when out hunting. ‘The dog sat in front of me with the bag resting on the pommel of the saddle,’ he describes. ‘I used to jump, too, no problem; we’d dive a gate, anything. They enjoyed it.’
Those acquainted with the breed might not be amazed by their durability, perseverance and working impulse. Jack Russells are difficult, rowdy and extremely smart dogs — if periodically able to press the limitation of love with their eccentricities, peccadillos and combating spirit at a picnic.
Camilla, The Queen Consort, and her Jack Russells
So deep is the love of Queen Camilla for her Jack Russells that she had a picture of them stitch in to the gown she endured the day of her crowning at Westminster Abbey:
Spot the dog?. The authorities Coronation Portrait of Her Majesty the Queen Consort. Credit: Hugo Burnand / Royal Household
‘My own dogs, Beth and Bluebell, cannot claim to have saved any lives, but I am, nonetheless, very proud of their resilience,’ The Queen Consort composed in Top Dogs: A British Love Affair (Triglyph Books, £60). ‘I embraced them from Battersea a number of years earlier. Beth originated from a family who might no longer look after her and poor Bluebell had actually been discovered abandoned in the woods, 3 weeks old, starving, covered in sores, with a docked tail and simply a couple of spots of fur.
‘Battersea nursed her back to health and I fell in love with her when I visited their brilliant centre in 2012. They are both colourful characters — and now I cannot imagine my life, my home or my sofas without them.’
Her Majesty likewise accorded the dogs the honour of putting them on the frontispiece of Country Life when she guest-edited the publication in July 2022:
Bluebell and Beth, as seen in the 13 July 2022 Frontispiece of County Life Magazine. ©Anya Campbell for Country Life
The story of the Jack Russell
The terrier’s irrepressible self-esteem was kept in mind long prior to the arrival of the pressure familiar today. In AD207, the Greek poet Oppian blogged about little, underground hunting dogs, ‘work-limbed and black-eyed’, that were ‘flanked with no flesh and bristled with rough hairs’. There are records of ‘small curres that fallen to be terryers’ from the 14th century and Louis XI of France was considered to have actually required that, throughout his last disease in 1483, cur dogs be presented to his bedchamber to captivate him with rat hunts.
However, it was when, in 1815, the Revd John ‘Jack’ Russell, a passionate hunting man and dog breeder called the Sporting Parson, fell in love at very first sight with tri-coloured milkman’s terrier Trump that the familiar breed entered into being. She was most likely better to the Parson Russell terrier, comparable in percentage to the contemporary Jack, however with a somewhat bigger frame and longer legs. Purchasing Trump from the milkman, Revd Russell reproduced from her to excellent impact, prioritising the guts to deal with, however not attack, a fox, strong back legs for digging, endurance and a mainly white coat to separate it from the quarry it was pursuing.
‘The Reverend John Russell’, 1879. Credit: Vincent Brooks Day / Alamy.
Jack Russells are much shorter and stockier, yet still fast sufficient to stay up to date with foxhounds on workout, their legs shooting like pistons. Both Parson and Jack Russells might be smooth, rough or broken-coated.
Now, the infamously annoying terrier is again acquiring appeal beyond working circles. According to the Kennel Club (KC), the variety of signed up Jack Russell dogs increased by 71% in the 2nd quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year and 37% in the 3rd.
Many associate this to their arrival at Buckingham Palace, where they took over the corgis. They were generated by the brand-new King and The Queen Consort, who own 2 Jack Russells — the previously mentioned Bluebell and Beth. But it is not simply Queen Camilla who loves them: The King has actually been a fan of the breed for years, owning 2 — Pooh and Tigga — in the 1990s and 2000s. The previous made headings for, unfortunately, vanishing throughout a walk at Balmoral. Tigga, who lived to 18 and is buried at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, was eternalized by carver Emma Stothard, by means of a willow sculpture in the gardens.
The then-Prince Charles, Prince of Wales welcomes his Jack Russell dog Tigga throughout a polo match at Windsor Great Park on June 01, 1979 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)
In 2016, Jack Russells were offered another increase when they got main acknowledgment by the KC. ‘In the show world, they are becoming very popular,’ enthuses Geoff Corish, creator and chairman of the Jack Russell Terrier Club. ‘The working type of Jack Russell has had a reputation of being a bit feisty and sharp. Today, Jack Russell terriers are strong little dogs, but easier to get on with, great with children and just as motivated.’
Lady Ralph Kerr, owner of 2 Parson Russells — Tuppence and Puffin — concurs they’re ‘affectionate, biddable, intelligent and wonderful dogs’ — however not for everybody.
‘It’s essential that they enter into the right-hand men. They require a great deal of love and a really firm hand at the very same time — a bit like a kid. Put in a lot and you go out a lot.’ Hers have the run of Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire (although they are not enabled on couches). Tuppence, Puffin’s granddaughter, checks out together with hens, pigs, pygmy goats and alpacas at Melbourne’s family zoo and has actually even been understood to assemble sheep. Puffin, in her younger days, went running and riding with Lady Kerr, however is best understood for her nose. During a family check out to Scotland, Lady Kerr’s child’s Jack Russell, Bella, went missing out on, triggering much alarm. Three days later on, Puffin discovered her and dug her out of a badger sett.
‘They weren’t ever the very best of good friends,’ confesses Lady Kerr, ‘but Puffin got her out. My other daughter and I were standing in the kitchen wondering how we were going to tell her sister that her dog had been killed by a badger, when there was a familiar yap at the door. Their fur was in the wrong direction and they were covered in sand and earth. They are remarkably tough.’
Lady Ralph Kerr’s Jack Russell, Tuppence. ©Sarah Farnsworth / Country Life
The desire to hole up, although handy when hunting and tracking, does have its drawbacks. Caroline Gathorne-Hardy, Countess of Cranbrook, has actually had Jack Russells for half a century and suffered the catastrophe of losing 3 down, she thinks, warrens, burrows, sets or obsolete pipelines. ‘At one point, I had three generations — Solo, the grandmother; Tahra, the mother; and Domino, the granddaughter,’ she states. ‘Mother and daughter were inveterate hunters and would look alertly and confidingly at each other and go off together.’
She keeps in mind an especially worrying 3 weeks when 11-month-old Domino disappeared chasing after a bunny near their home at Great Glemham House, Suffolk. ‘She reappeared on the lawn after Storm Jude uprooted several trees and must have released her from where she was buried. It seemed so improbable that she survived so long underground. Her claws were worn down, she was incredibly skinny and veterinary friends believed she was kept alive by water dripping through the sandy soil.’ Her last dog passed away of old age 2 years earlier and Lady Cranbrook isn’t yet preparing her replacement. ‘I would so love another, but it would be a continual worry as we now live near a public road.’
Oykel, the Jack Russell owned by Lady Ralph Kerr’s child Johnnie. ©Sarah Farnsworth / Country Life
For all their japes, it’s a Jack Russell’s bravery and spirit for which they are most enjoyed. No more so than Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s late terrier, Bothie, who is the only dog to have actually checked out both the North and South Pole. He signed up with Sir Ranulph and his late better half, Virginia, on their Transglobe Expedition in 1979, dealing with down a moose, Arctic wolves, an Adélie penguin and skidoos throughout the three-year journey.
‘A mongrel he undoubtedly was,’ remembers Sir Ranulph in his narrative Bothie the Polar Dog, ‘and a stubborn-minded, non-house-trained, contrary-souled, yappy-voiced one at that. But, he was also Bothie, who has made us laugh, given us something to love and talk to during those long difficult months.’
Today, he applauds Jack Russells’ ‘lovely, quirky behaviour and unpredictability’ and says Bothie was ‘one of the family’. Although open up to having another, he has no strategies today to get one.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s dog Bothie in the Arctic circle on the Transglobe Expedition.
For my part, I wouldn’t switch my one-year-old Jack Russell — Thimble — for all the types worldwide. She gets on the cooking area table, barks at our windshield wipers, launches herself at the windows on seeing birds, yet stays the most intelligent, most faithful, funniest, companionable and caring of her kind.
‘Lots of people are really enjoying the breed,’ acknowledges Mr Corish. ‘They are going to be a major force in the terrier world for a long time.’
Lady Ralph Kerr with among her Jack Russells — Puffin, grandma of Tuppence — at home in Derbyshire. ©Sarah Farnsworth / Country Life
The Jack Russell through the ages
1815
John ‘Jack’ Russell, later on Revd, purchases a little tan and white terrier bitch, called Trump, from a passing milkman throughout his in 2015 at Oxford University. The dog is referred to as white with a tan spot at the root of her tail and comparable eye spots, and ends up being the structure bitch for his breeding program
1904
Breeder Arthur Heinemann prepares a requirement for the breed. He embraces the freshly established dog type from Revd Russell and types them to hunt foxes, badgers and otters
1960–1970s
Jack Russells are drawn from Britain to Australia. In 1972, the Jack Russell Terrier Club of Australia is established and the breed is established and initially seen in a program ring
1982
Bothie ends up being the very first dog to take a trip to the North and South Pole, together with his owners Sir Ranulph and Lady (Ginny) Fiennes
1990
The Kennel Club formally acknowledges the Parson Jack Russell Terrier (in 1999, the name modifications to Parson Russell Terrier to much better identify it from Jack Russell Terriers)
2016
The Kennel Club formally acknowledges the Jack Russell Terrier
2017
The initially Jack Russell wins a Crufts rosette
2022
Susan Lee, a 61-year-old female in Vermont, endures a bear attack when her Jack Russell utilized ‘ninja moves’ to hold him back, according to a video game warden who reacted to the occurrence
Lady Ralph Kerr’s Jack Russell, Tuppence. ©Sarah Farnsworth / Country Life
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