Bagg End Jack Russell Terriers

Bagg End Jack Russell Terriers Bagg End has relocated from from Central Minnesota to the North Georgia Mountians. Jack Russells have been a part of my life since 1980.
(3)

We raise quality Jack Russell's in our home with our children. We pay attention to personality and suitability.Which e

Wonderful  successful weekend in the sunshine!
07/08/2024

Wonderful successful weekend in the sunshine!

07/04/2024

Posted by a preservation breeder who is ALSO a Vet!! Here's the real deal, people:

Watching the Westminster coverage, I was struck by many things, but this remained the most prominent:
So many of these amazing breeds have critically low registrations. Just 600 Sussex Spaniels, to name one. Many of these are breeds that make amazing companion dogs, and the public knows nothing about them.
As a veterinarian, I average seeing about 3 "new puppies" per day (these can be existing or new clients, but new puppies to them), sometimes more, sometimes less. I would guess that about 3-4 of these each MONTH is a purebred dog. And maybe ONE is from a preservation breeder. The others are merle or off color "purebreds" or from mills.
The rest? Every sort of doodle you can imagine, or other mixes such as husky/gsd (no idea who is doing this, but please stop), pomsky, shipoo, havapoo, shichon, cavachon, the list goes on and on.
The sad part is that many of these owners are educated, smart people, who just truly don't know. They don't know about the amazing purebred dogs who would fit so much better in their home. They don't know that buying a purebred dog is buying predictability. They don't know about health testing or breed typical traits or breed typical health concerns. They know they want a puppy and they can go online and order one, and be fooled by photos and words. Some even say "when I got there I knew it was a mill, but I couldn't say no at that point."
We need to do better. We need to promote and educate and...go ahead and crucify me for this...breed more dogs. Stop vilifying breeders who actually breed. Because pretty soon, we are all going to be extinct and all that will be left is designer dogs.
When I can talk to someone BEFORE they get their puppy, I can make a difference. I can educate about breeds that may work for them, about health issues, and about finding the right breeder. But as the veterinarian, all I can do is sigh when I see yet another "cockadoodledont" on my schedule and educate after the fact about pet insurance and training and the things we can do to try to help that particular puppy.
I don't have the solution, but I do know that we have to do better.

Mid- America terrier trial was awesome and we made the news 😉  Norfolk Daily News photos
07/04/2024

Mid- America terrier trial was awesome and we made the news 😉

Norfolk Daily News photos

I am super cute and a whole lot of fun. Update … I have a fur ever home
02/15/2024

I am super cute and a whole lot of fun.

Update … I have a fur ever home

Happy Groundhog Day! … just checking if you’re home 😉
02/02/2024

Happy Groundhog Day! … just checking if you’re home 😉

BaggEnd Prim Not Proper on her very first trip. Looking forward to continuing to work with her !
11/24/2022

BaggEnd Prim Not Proper on her very first trip. Looking forward to continuing to work with her !

Down-N-Dirty MeraMac had an amazing Halloween weekend!  He is such a tenacious hunting partner!
11/24/2022

Down-N-Dirty MeraMac had an amazing Halloween weekend! He is such a tenacious hunting partner!

06/03/2022

THE JACK RUSSELL: HISTORY WITH A WARNING

How did the Kennel Club come to add the "Parson Russell Terrier" to its roles 100 years after the Reverend John Russell died, and what does this story tell us about the role of all-breed registries in the world of honest working dogs?

▪️The Rise and Fall of the Fox Terrier▪️

The Reverend John Russell was born in 1795 and acquired his first white foxing terrier in 1815 from a milkman. Russell’s claim to fame is not that he invented the fox terrier, but that he was “the old man of terrier work” when the Kennel Club was founded in 1873.

Like most new organizations, the Kennel Club began on shaky legs, and sought to promote itself by trying to associate itself with big names as quickly as possible. Though John Russell had retired and sold off his hounds a few years earlier, he was still famous, and so he was tapped to judge fox terriers at the Crystal Palace Show of 1874.

Apparently, Russell did not much like what he saw, however, for he never agreed to judge a Kennel Club show again, and he refused to let his own dogs be registered.

Russell later described his own dogs as:

"True terriers…but differing from the present show dogs as the wild eglantine differs from a garden rose."

Working terrier men of the era agreed, and they too stayed away from the shows to the extent that by 1893 Rawdon Lee, author of Modern Dogs, noted the absence of hunt terriers in the ring:

"[Those terriers] best adapted for hard work… are cross-bred, hardy dogs, specially trained for the purpose, although many of the 'pedigree' animals will do similar duty to the best of their ability, but their 'pedigree' and no doubt inbreeding to a certain extent, has made them constitutionally and generally weaker than their less blue-blooded cousins."

Bam! The Kennel Club Fox Terrier had ceased to be a working dog in less than 20 years time!

▪️The Rise of the Jack Russell Terrier▪️

Dog dealers selling working terriers at the turn of the Twentieth Century sought to differentiate their working dogs from the non-working and over-large terriers paraded at Kennel Club shows.

Advertisements for working dogs no longer called them “fox terriers,” but instead offered up "Jack Russell" terriers, the name Robert Leighton was already calling them in his 1910 book, Dogs and All About Them.

By 1930, a survey of over 100 mounted hunts in the U.K. found "Jack Russell" terriers listed, as well as "white hunt terriers" and "Devonshire working terriers". When the term “fox terrier” was used, it was carefully proceeded by the words "cross," "cross bred," "non-pedigree," or even "mongrel".

No one was using a pure-bred Kennel Club dog!

World War II saw a decline in the mounted hunts, but things roared back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, as easy access to cars made it easier to get out into the countryside.

In 1974, the Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain was founded "to promote and preserve the working terrier known as the Jack Russell." In 1976, its U.S. analog was created -- the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America.

Both clubs have prospered and stuck to their original mission, and today the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America remains the largest Jack Russell terrier club in the world.

▪️The Kennel Club Steps In▪️

With an increase in the popularity of the Jack Russell terrier, a push was initiated to pull the “old” fox-working terrier into The Kennel Club.

In 1990 this goal was finally achieved with representatives from several smaller Jack Russell Clubs meeting to draw up a conformation "standard" that called for a dog standing 12-15 inches at the withers. The new dog was to be called the “Parson Jack Russell Terrier," a name invented special for the occassion.

The origin of the new Kennel Club standard is a bit vague. It is said to be adopted from one originally written by Arthur Heinemann, an American-born badger digging man and dog dealer from the 1920s, but no evidence to support this claim has ever been presented.

Gerald Jones, who hunted with Heinemann and knew him well, says Heinemann did not value the kind of larger dog saluted at the top of the Kennel Club’s standard:

"He always said there was nothing a good fourteen inch terrier could do that a good eleven inch terrier couldn't do better…. Some of his best workers were no more than ten inches."

And, of course, Heinemann, like every other digging man, was opposed to Kennel Club registration. Jones quotes Heinemann directly on this point:

"[I am] very much opposed to the modern show terrier and his type. Once you begin to breed it for show type, you lose the working qualities upon which you pride those terriers. I have been, I might say, the protagonist of the terrier bred for sport as against the terrier bred for show. I have no interest in cup hunting."

Russell and Heinemann may not have had any interest in cup hunting, but the Kennel Club hierarchy did, and so a few syncophants were rounded up, and the thing was done.

In 1999 The Kennel Club changed the name of the dog to the "Parson Russell Terrier" -– another name invented wholecloth and without historical roots.

The American Kennel Club followed the U.K. Kennel Club in embracing both the 12-15 inch standard and in embracing the various invented names and name changes.

In 2005, The Kennel Club added a bit more confusion to the story by changing the standard for the dog they were now calling the Parson Russell Terrier, extending it to encompass dogs ranging from 10 to 15 inches tall at the shoulders.

The American Kennel Club, however, has not followed the U.K Kennel Club in changing the standard, instead chosing to simply create another breed of dog (now in its Foundation Stock Service) called the "Russell Terrier."

The breed description of this dog claims it "originated" in the United Kingdom, but that it was "developed" in Australia -- a country which John Russell never so much as visited, which had no Jack Russells at all until the very late 1960s, and where the dog in question remains a pet and show dog that never sees a moment's work!

▪️Only Two Types▪️

How to sort it all out, then?

I think simplicity is best.

In my opinion, there are only two types of terriers in the world: those that work and those that don't.

The white ones that work, and which come from a long line of workers, are called Jack Russell Terriers, and they are called that out of respect for the working standard that the Reverend John Russell himself honored throughout his life.

What are we to make of the Kennel Club dogs? Simple: They are not Jack Russell terriers.

They are not Jack Russells in name, nor are they Jack Russell terriers in terms of performing regular honest work.

They are simply another small terrier, same as so many in the Kennel Club.

There is nothing wrong with that, but there is nothing very special either.

The good news is that with the name changes, no one will ever confuse these Kennel Club pretenders with the real thing – the real Jack Russell Terrier.

▪️A Lesson To Learn▪️

Is there a larger lesson to be gleaned from this history?

Indeed, I think there is, and it is this: No breed of working dog has ever been made in the show ring, while every working breed pulled on to the Kennel Club’s roles has been wecked or divided.

This, I think, is history with a warning!

—————

John Russell illustration by Kevin Brockbank
for the May 2011 issue of Dogs Today where this piece first appeared.

04/06/2022

What’s in a name? Don’t be fooled!
There are many different breeds of dogs. Most were originally bred for a specific purpose, whether herding, pointing birds or simply as lap dogs. The “real” Jack Russell Terrier was bred to work an English Fox underground. Not only do these terriers need the correct structure to enable them to venture into a dark, deep hole and face a very formidable quarry; they need the heart, intelligence and courage to do so. Breeders of true working Jack Russell Terriers did NOT want kennel club recognition. Why? There are two main reasons. The first is the "almighty dollar" factor. Simply put, the more dogs registered with the AKC, the richer the organization gets. While the AKC once prioritized the protection and quality of purebred dogs, it now doesn’t care how those dogs are bred and cared for. AKC papers guarantee nothing in terms of animal care—nothing about a dog’s health, quality, behavior or even whether the pup’s parents were bred early, or repeatedly or kept in humane conditions. Many AKC-registered pups sold at pet stores and online (even ROM "Register of Merit" Breeders) later turn out to be sick or have expensive, painful genetic defects. The same is true for other dog registries. But because the AKC and its member clubs sponsor many Best in Show competitions such as Westminster, many puppy buyers are duped into thinking AKC papers denote a healthy, well-treated animal.

Secondly, the Kennel Club has a long history of show ring breeders changing the majority of breeds to a dog that can no longer perform its original purpose. One only has to look at all the gun shy and/or stupid Sporting breeds, the unsound Working breeds or the pitiful brachycephalic breeds that cannot breathe or even breed properly! A prime example is the Kennel Club Fox Terrier. When they were first recognized in England in the late 1800’s, they looked very similar to today’s Jack Russell Terrier. Show ring fads led to a dog with extremely straight shoulder angulation, a deep, un-spannable chest and a ridiculously long muzzle. Show Fox Terriers no longer have the conformation to work underground; even less the desire to do so! So the breed itself has mutated away from it's working base. Many of us did not want to see that happen to the Jack Russell Terrier.

The Jack Russell Terrier was developed in England over two hundred years ago. The JRTCA, founded in 1976, is the oldest and largest breed club for the Jack Russell Terrier. It’s Registry is unique in the dog world as it requires each dog to be registered individually, at one year of age and after a Veterinarian’s certification, etc. Moreover, the JRTCA Registry will not accept Terriers with genetic faults or close inbreeding. This is opposed to the Kennel Club’s registering entire litters at birth without any critical health documentation! The JRTCA is affiliated to the Jack Russell Club of Great Britain (JRTCGB), the breed club for the Jack Russell Terrier in England, its country of origin.

So how did we get to the point where there are now Jack Russell Terriers, Parson Russell Terriers, and Russell Terriers? Some years ago there was a lawsuit. In a very oversimplified explanation, our trademarked name "Parson Terrier" was sold to the American Kennel Club and stipulations put on that the breed standard and name must be different. The JRTCA standard allows for terriers between 10" and 15" recognizing that there is a need for different sized terriers for different jobs and terrain. The Parson Standard only allows for terriers that are between 12"-15". Now, many of the current “winning” Parsons are un-spannable, partly due to the fact that many KC Judges are licensed to judge different breeds, and the vast majority of them have never worked a terrier and don’t appreciate the importance of chest size, etc. Sadly, they don’t even know how to properly span a terrier. There are also a lot of 16”+ AKC Parsons around as a result of such a narrow height standard! It should also be noted that the Parson was recognized with a very small number of terriers in their initial gene pool and is now showing the effects of inbreeding and the introduction of other breeds.

Now we come to the Russell Terrier. This breed originated in Australia and bears little resemblance physically and mentally to a real Jack Russell Terrier. They are short legged, standing between 10"-12" and are rectangular in shape rather than the squarer stance of the Jack Russell and Parson Russells. Sure, they can be cute but, in my opinion, they are a bad imitation of both! They are the “stuffed, plush toy” version of a JRT. It’s like they took out all the “terrier” in them. And again, they have all the same problems associated with Kennel Club registrations as the Parson Russells.

So...there are three breeds stemming from all of this. 5 if you consider the Smooth and Wire-coated Fox Terriers; even more if you add in the mongrel aberrations of “Irish” Jack Russells and “Mini” Jack Russells you’ll sometimes see advertised. This is not to say that there are no Russell or Parson Terriers that hunt underground. Just as this is not to say that every JRTCA Jack Russell Terrier hunts or is able to fit. There may even be a few Fox Terriers that still hunt. And I do not mean ratting or chasing rabbits and squirrels above ground.... I mean legitimate earthwork. To completely ignore the core purpose for a breed is to risk losing the very traits that make it what it is. Yes, the JRTCA has terrier trials where many dogs are judged solely on their conformation. Yes, people will argue that those shows are also taking the focus away from the purpose of the breed. However, many of our conformation judges are also working judges who have spent many hours in the field hunting with terriers and understand the priorities within our breed standard. All JRTCA Conformation Judges are required to have in-depth, first-hand experience of terrier work.

The bottom line is that there are three “Breeds” now and many times social media, articles and TV shows lump the JRT in with the other two or make it sound like they are all one in the same. The Jack Russell Terrier is registered and recognized by the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America and has been for decades prior to either the Parson or the Russell being recognized by the AKC. There are three different breeds that look similar but do your homework and choose wisely if you want a REAL Jack Russell Terrier!


Carlisle Tack (Fox Terrier born 1884)

Address

Clarkesville, GA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bagg End Jack Russell Terriers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Bagg End Jack Russell Terriers:

Videos

Share

Category


Other Pet Services in Clarkesville

Show All