History of the Parson Russell
The Parson Russell
Terrier was first bred in the south of England in the mid-1800's to hunt
European red fox, both over and under the ground. The Parson Russell ran with
horse and hound as the hunt trailed the fox across the Devon countryside. When
the hounds drove a fox to ground the terrier followed, baying to bolt his quarry
so that the chase could continue.
Everything about the Parson Russell Terrier says
foxhunting: conformation, character, attitude and intelligence. He is of
balanced and flexible build with straight legs and a narrow chest. He measures
ideally between 12" and 14" in height. Coat is broken, dense, straight, harsh
and tight so as to give a smooth appearance from a distance. His height gives
him the length of leg to follow the fox and hounds, and the narrow chest,
flexible frame and tenacity to follow a fox below ground. He is bold though
cautious in temperament, an independent, intelligent terrier accustomed to
working alone with only his instincts to guide him. Indeed, many a tale has been
told of a Parson Russell finding the fox before the hounds could.
Parson Russell is named for the most renowned of British huntsmen, Rev. John
Russell, "The Sporting Parson" (1795-1883), whose passion for foxhunting, hounds
and working terriers is legendary. Rev. Russell and his compatriots bred with
care uniform terriers measuring 14" in height and 14-17 lbs. in weight. Rev.
Russell's own terriers were known to be of a distinct type: white or
predominantly white with tan or black and tan markings traditionally confined to
the head and base of tail.
Rev. Russell was a founding member of England's
Kennel Club in 1873, and in 1874 he judged fox terriers for The Kennel Club. In
his day, Rev. Russell was called "The Father of the Wirehaired Fox Terrier", at
a time when it was thought that wire coats were a passing fad. Rev. Russell's
bloodlines are found in the pedigrees of early smooth fox terriers, for as a
breeder of broken coats he often bred to smooth-coated fox terriers to improve
coat quality. His bloodlines are also found on both sides of the wire-coated
bitch, L'il Foiler, dam of the well known wire champion, Carlisle Tack, said to
be indistinguishable from the type terrier bred by Parson Russell.
Foxhunting in the southern part of Great Britain was, and is
today, comprised primarily of mounted hunts riding over the fields of the
countryside. Terriers working these hunts were required to be baying terriers.
Parson Russell demanded that his terriers be "steady from riot", for the hunt
ended if the fox did not bolt. In the south, "hard" Russells who tried to kill
the fox underground were suspected of carrying undesirable bull terrier blood
(hence the brindle disqualification in the standard). In the northwest of
England near the Scottish border, foxhunts are not mounted and man and dog
follow the fox on foot over rocky terrain. Northern terriers are often expected
to be hard dogs who can latch onto their quarry and drag it from the earth as
the rocks make it difficult to dig. In the north, hard Russell-type terriers
were suspected of carrying Lakeland or fell terrier blood (hence the faulting in
the standard of a curly or kinky coat).
The Parson Russell Terrier was, and should
remain, a baying terrier whose job is to bolt, not kill, his quarry. This part
of the breed's history affects both its correct type and attitude in the show
After Rev. Russell's death, the name "Jack
Russell Terrier" was misused to describe all mix and manner of working and hunt
terriers, many of which bore little, if any, similarity to Rev. Russell's own
terriers. The mounted style of foxhunting in southern England had been hampered
by expanding agricultural practices and the sport became expensive. Those
without sufficient land or resource took to fox and badger digging for terrier
sport. Terriers were carried to known settes and released down an earth to
attack whatever they found, no horses or hounds required. These terriers were
more aggressive than intelligent, and needed not the leg, stamina nor common
sense of the early Parson Russell. The public came to know a "Jack Russell" only
as a game working terrier, regardless of shape or size. Unfortunately, it was
this kind of terrier: long-backed, short-legged, prick-eared, frequently
achrondroplastic and of questionable temperament, that was imported to America
incorrectly bearing the name "Jack Russell Terrier". Rev. Russell and his
compatriots would never have recognized these terriers as the Parson Russell or
the Fox Terrier, for indeed they are not.
The first breed Standard was drafted in 1904 by
Arthur Heinemann, who founded the Parson Jack Russell Terrier Club in 1914. The
standard called for a 14" terrier and accurately reflects the original
Parson-type terrier. This type terrier was kept alive by sportsmen in southern
England and recorded through the years by well-known dog fanciers.
In England in the early 1970's, a 10" to 15"
height standard was devised to encompass the myriad of commonly popular post-war
breed distortions. The 10" to 15" standard calls for a "balanced" terrier as
does the 12" to 14" standard. From a breeder's standpoint, the 10" to 15"
standard is impossible to reproduce as a 10" balanced terrier has none of the
bone, substance, or stature necessary to satisfy breed function.
The Jack Russell Terrier Association of
America(JRTAA), originally the Jack Russell Terrier Breeders Association
(JRTBA), was founded in 1985 to help restore and breed to the original Parson
Jack Russell Terrier breed standard. The JRTAA standard was based upon the
Heinemann standard and was written to represent the Parson Russell Terrier as a
working terrier to red fox and red fox alone. With the specified 12" to 14"
standard height range, the JRTAA breed standard defined a terrier that could
perform the dual functions required of Rev. Russell's terriers, to both follow
the fox both above and below ground.
In January of 1990 the breed was recognized on
the 14" standard in England by The Kennel Club as the Parson Jack Russell
terrier, a working variant of the fox terrier. The Parson Jack Russell Terrier
Club of Great Britain (PJRTC) was composed of working terrier people who felt
the breed was seriously endangered by the practices of those who advocated a 10"
to 15" standard, and they took the breed to Kennel Club recognition to protect
the original standard.
In July of 1997, the Board of Directors of the
American Kennel Club unanimously accepted the Jack Russell Terrier into its
registry, effective November 1, 1997. On January 1, 1998 the breed became
eligible for competition in all AKC events, including conformation participation
in the Miscellaneous Class at all-breed shows. The breed was accepted into the
AKC Terrier Group on April 1, 2000. On April 1, 2003, the name of the breed was
changed from Jack Russell Terrier to Parson Russell Terrier to differentiate the
true Parson-type terrier from little generic terriers casually referred to as
"Jack Russell". The Jack Russell Terrier Association of America club name was
changed to Parson Russell Terrier Association of America (PRTAA). The Breed
Standard was revised effective September 29, 2004.