Its not the Jack Russels fault!

Both of them.

I was walking the dogs yesterday, and saw a large JRT coming towards them, and I thought I was in for trouble as the dog came towards mine crouching down back up teeth showing oh and was off lead, the owner also said 'you'll meet your match with them' so I was ready to pull apart a fight, thankfully when it got closer it ran at them with a wagging tail and everyone was happy, at this point though the owner walked over saying sorry and that the dog will never learn and hit the dogs head enough to send its head into Diesel's back leg, confusing both dogs, the terrier didn't know what happened so got its back up again, Diesel was confused so swang around to see what was happening, and confronted with a growling dog less then a foot away from her face Honey started growling, I asked the owner what on earth they were playing at, then they grabbed their dog and walked away, well I wonder how long it will take until she gets bitten or causes a fight between dogs?

After this I saw a tiny jack russel, I had seen her before, this dog has a large scar across its back where it had been half killed by another dog, the poor JRT had to spend ages at the vets getting put back together, and know understandable is scared of other dogs, although is getting more trusting towards mine (they are always on a lead around this one and I think it helps), I was talking to this woman a while, she's a lovely lady, whose mum use to race Greyhounds, and she thinks that Honey and Diesel are full Greys, and I don't have the heart to correct her, I think that she's the only one that I don't , anyway her dog did growl a bit at Diesel, but as it wasn't close to him at the time we ignored it and carried on chatting, must admit she's another one I like to speak to, because she says things like she did that day, like 'how do I keep my two so wonderfully slim', anyway after a while we walked on, and past some houses that are being built backing onto the park when some builder must of seen what happened as he started to try and moan about Jack Russels to me, and then looked shocked when I told him it wasn't their fault or because of what breed they are, but the experiences that they have had, or what they are having around other dogs, it does seem such a shame though that people judge breeds or types without knowing the full story .

YEs-I know what you mean! Though I too have had a lot of encounters with JRTs where they charge up to Cherry yapping and growling and she is on lead and the owner thinks this is acceptable or even funny behaviour!

I bet they wouldn't think that if Cherry had a go back!

I was at a dog show recently and the lady next to me had a Golden Retriever and it was having a friendly sniff with Parker when the owner looked at him and pulled her back muttering something about "leave it alone".

I was tempted to say "oh is your dog not friendly? Thanks for moving it away from him" but thought better of it!
Breed predjudice is not very nice when you have a sociable friendly dog of that breed. I worked with someone who had a Golden Retriever that had been growly with him, when he came back from holiday he went to collect the dog from the boarding kennels and it had been destroyed as it had ripped the kennel-maid's arm open.

I think the problem with JRTS is that a lot of people get them because they are small and reasonably cheap too buy. What they don't realise is that they are still very much a working breed and are bred to kill things! I am not saying that they are 'vicious' but it should be kept in mind that they are tenacious little things and need to be bought up with respect. They need a firm hand and should not just be aloud to charge other dogs.

I think another problem too is that they think they are very large dogs and can be quite vocal when approaching other dogs and the owners don't think to train the dog to stop it doing this because it is small they think it doesn't matter whereas if you had a Rotty for example, approaching other dogs in this way you would be in big trouble!

My friend (yes I have one ) has a parsons jack russell called Fudge who is about 2 years old. She is absolutely lovely, very funny, full of energy, and plays with both mine. She has a lovely temperament and gets loads of exercise. If she comes to my house she is playing with my 11 year old Staffie non-stop. Never ever shown any agression whatsoever. She gives JRT's a good name