Welcome, Ralph

Everyone, meet Ralph. Ralph is new to the blogosphere. He was only adopted a very short time ago but Jack Russells are a tenacious breed so he's finding his feet fast. Isn't he a cutie? I get the impression he knows it, too. Anyway, as he's another JR I thought I'd be nice and introduce him to my friends.

Jack Russell? Parson Russell? What's the difference?

My original cunning plan for today was to show you a picture of Mollie Dog refusing to get out of bed, and give it a witty caption. Unfortunately, I foolishly switched the camera on after pointing it at the head and legs poking out from under the duvet, and the sound of the lens extending woke her up - and she got out of bed! I suppose now I know how to wake her up in the mornings... and next time I'll switch the camera on before I go anywhere near Mollie!

So - my backup plan is to consolidate in one place all the links to sites where I've read about the history of the JR breed. If I had more time and energy I'd write an actual article, but I'll just give you the links and let you come to your own conclusions for the moment - do let me know what you think though, as I find it all somewhat confusing.
I do find it interesting that the Jack Russell Club of Great Britain say, on their History page,

"The Jack Russell Terrier of today is still able to perform the functions it was originally bred to do. It has longer legs which enable it to run with the hounds."

If you read their breed standards, Mollie is way off - her nose is too long, her head too round, her tail probably too long plus it's not straight, her elbows stick out too far, she's far too timid. Mind you, her inherent Terrier bravery is coming out more and more - she was giving the monsters in the garden what for again last night (well, you never know - they might attack at any time!!).

Other sites with information about the breed are:

• Battersea Dogs Home - breed guide
• Wikipedia - quite a good entry
• www.jack-russell.co.uk - an interesting site that's growing all the time - and Mollie's in the gallery of course!!
• Pet Planet's Parson Russell page - they state that the Parson Russell is the long legged variety (the JR club just have two height categories for the JR)
• Jack Russell Terrier Club of America - again, for them Parsons is just another name for the same thing and terriers with ickle legs are simply achondroplastic dwarfs
• Another Article on JRs
• D For Dog article - an owner's view of living with a JR
• Jack Facts - 'fact' sheet from an Irish breeder site
  

The AKC and UKC recognition of Jack Russell is in general staunchly opposed by working dog clubs such as the JRTCA and JRGB:

• JRTCA Stance
• Confusing article on DogBreedInfo
• A page illustrating different KC standards - does it make it any less confusing?
  
• JRGB rules page - see Rule 2 para f

In my opinion, the move by the UK KC and AKC to give the two different sized variations different breed names and set a conformity driven by looks alone is proving horrendously confusing, especially since no-one quite seems to agree on the names.
Some rescue centres and breeders are now calling the long-legged variety such as Mollie a Parsons Russell, some just call her a JR, some a Russell..*shrug* Well, she's registered with her insurance and chip companies as a JR, but we just call her Mollie. I don't think she conforms to any breed standard, but she's a wonderful pet.

Water Baby

On Tuesday, we went to Sence Valley Forest Park again - and this time we took a camera. It was warm out and it's a 2 mile drive, so by the time we got there Mollie was starting to overheat slightly. We threw the ball as we walked (off and on - when produced from a pocket and squeaked it provides an excellent distraction from other dogs) and by the time we got to the first bridge, Mollie was panting hard. I walk down to the 'stream' to see if I could persuade her to have a drink, but she decided that was enough and flung herself in. We spent a few minutes chucking the ball from one bank to the other, with Mollie swimming across the current, then walked further down to where the path slopes down towards the water, and Trace threw the ball - and off went Mollie. As you can see, she really enjoys swimming now!! When we took her to Bosworth Water Park in April, it took several attempt to get her in the water and she wasn't very confident at all. Since then she's really toned up and got stronger and generally more confident and that obviously helps with the swimming as well.

There are some more photos here, in a slide show. The white gravel in some of the photos shows where the paths were eroded by the flood, and the straw across the path shows where the water was up to at the weekend.

Back in the car, Mollie (with the aid of her wet fur) managed to slip her harness and escape onto the parcel shelf. She then spent almost the entire trip from Ibstock to Loughborough (we went to visit some friends) drying herself and nesting. Here she is drying her muddy face on the shelf - her tail was wagging so hard that it's just a blur!!

The rear windscreen is now a bit filthy... and the harness is going to be adjusted somewhat before it's used again - it was new so I didn't quite tighten it enough...

Dominance

Graham has been discussing dominance on his blog after I mentioned that we, too, wrestle with our dog!

When we first got Mollie, I was very worried about dominance and was all for making sure Mollie was always on the floor, not allowed on the furniture etc as a lot of people say that encouraging any kind of bossy or pseudo aggressive behaviour can cause your dog to become dominant and basically potentially dangerous. But then I read about wolves and watched that TV program where that bloke basically 'became' a wolf, and I thought, hey - among dog and wolf packs, the leader still plays with the others, and it's an integral part of the bonding process. So, Mollie gets occasional reminders about walking behind us when going upstairs, and she gets fed after the cats, and has to sit or lie down for treats etc, but we play with her as if we're dogs. To start with, she didn't know what to do - if you went down on all fours, growled and bounced her, she'd run away - but now she bounces back and plays properly!! Sometimes it looks and sounds for all the world like she's biting my hand off, but leaves nothing but a slightly damp patch - and she always stops when we stop. Ultimately, I guess it depends on the relationship you have with your dog and on your dog's character. We have to be on our guard as Mollie will occasionally push the boundaries a bit (she IS a terrier, after all!), but it's fairly easy to put her in her place ("BED!!" usually works!), and she was doing that when we first got her anyway. And a knock on effect of us playing with her like this is that she's much much happier playing with other dogs now!

Mollie Blog

Mollie is our 3 year old Jack Russell - she's a long legged one, which means some people will think or her as a Parsons Russell. We just call her Mollie dog and tend to think of her as JR X whippet - she runs like the wind!! We got Mollie last November after her previous owner had to rehome her (for reasons which I won't go into here).
Mollie dog is a character. She HATES mornings, would rather lie in until at least ten o'clock. She will quite happily go for long walks - the furthest so far is 8/9 miles so far - and she refuses to acknowledge when she's tired; but we can tell, and we stop and make her have a rest and a drink. She's not quite ball-obsessed, but she does have a small collection of Air Kong tennis balls - some of which no longer squeak, and many of which are "somewhere safe". When she's very excited she likes to squeak a ball to show her feelings...
As my partner and I both work full time, Mollie spends her days with our retired neighbours where she gets lots of cuddles, a cooked lunch, and played with all day if the sun is shining. It's a dog's life.

The photo above is from a sequence taken when she'd just been given a Sherley's Beef 'n' Bacon Knot. It's her favourite treat, although last night she did discover rather a liking for pancakes (made with goat milk).