Thursday 12 July 2012

Why I Love Jack Russells


If you’d told me four years ago that I could have a Jack Russell, I’d probably have turned the offer down! Before having Saffy, I made the assumption that all Jack Russell Terriers are angry, yappy little dogs who are impossible to train and don’t really do much other than make noise. Ok, ok I know I clearly hadn’t done a lot of research, but I’m not alone in thinking this. Nowadays though I’m singing the praises of these little dogs and telling anyone who’ll listen about why they’re so amazing.

Saffy on the day we brought her home
Good things come in small packages:
Saffy’s tiny- which is ideal for me and my family! She can run around the house and garden happily during the day without getting in our way. She’s also lightweight which makes lifting her into the sink for a bath, putting her in the car and holding her at the vet’s much easier. Plus she’s still the perfect size for cuddles on the sofa- the idea of a giant Labrador or Newfoundland climbing into my lap is a bit daunting! Lots of people want to keep their dog puppy-sized forever, and Saffy hasn’t really grown all that much. The only thing that puzzles me is how such a small dog can still manage to take up all the space on my bed!

Does this look like a noisy dog?!
They’re only noisy if you let them be:
Saffy’s actually pretty quiet most of the time. Yes she’ll have a good growl and bark if anything dares come into her garden (be it a squirrel, neighbour’s cat or a pigeon) but around the house and out in the park she doesn’t need to make her voice heard. There are dogs living nearby who can be constantly noisy, maybe because they’ve never been told not to. When we got Saffy we tried not to encourage incessant barking, and whilst dogs will be dogs, she’s not yappy at all.

They can be trained:
People will tell you that Collies, Labradors and similar breeds  are the best to train and this is why they make good working dogs. Even if this is true, it doesn’t mean that all other breeds are beyond hope.  In my own experience with a Jack Russell she wasn’t a particularly quick learner when it came to basic training, but I think a lot of that was down the fact that she just didn’t understand what we were asking her to do. She figured out ‘sit’ quite quickly, and could manage to ‘stay’ and ‘come’ as she was told but it wasn’t until I took her to training classes that I was able to teach her to lie down. This was simply because I didn’t know how to teach a dog to lay down- understandable really as Saffy’s my first dog. Saffy’s now mastered ‘paw’ as well and I’ve taught her to jump. I don’t think she’s ever going to be considered an ‘intelligent’ dog, she is a little bit ditsy at times, but that’s just her character!

Playing with an old pair of tights
They love to play:
Saffy is a really energetic and playful dog. I’ll be honest- there are plenty of times that she wants to play and I just want to sit in front of the TV, but I’m just taking that as part of having a dog. I think she fitted in well with a family with teenage children because we all understood how to play with her and to teach her what she can and can’t do. A useful trick we did teach her though was to play by herself with a tennis ball. She drops it from the top of the stairs and then fetches it before starting all over again- far better than us throwing it for her all the time!

These are just some of the reasons that I love my dog and her breed, hopefully you agree.

3 comments:

  1. I hope Ollie is as quiet as Saffy! I hope I can teach him that ball game too, although our stairs are a disaster waiting to happen as they're open on one side - can Jack Russells fly?!

    I'm going to try to teach Ollie basic commands, to sit in a bike basket and to play Frisbee - hopefully that's not asking for much ;).

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  2. Our stairs are also open on one side actually, but it's never been a problem- Saffy knows to keep away from the edge!
    And I'm sure Ollie will be able to master all of that- best of luck with the training! :)

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  3. Hi Saffy! Nice to meet you. I love your blog and I agree that good things come in small packages. Although I'm a bigger package than Mum and Dad thought I'd be. *whisper* I'm now 5kg! :) x

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