50 Fun Facts About Jack Russell Terrier

The Jack Russell Terrier is named after a clergyman who hunted foxes in which part of England?

North Devon. After university Russell took his first terrier home there and spent the rest of his life, more than 60 years, breeding terriers to work with the local hunts.

The word 'terrier', as in Jack Russell Terrier, comes from the Latin word for what?

Earth. 'Terrier' is short for the Old French chien terrier, an 'earth dog', because these dogs chase their quarry down into its burrow.

While a student at Oxford, John Russell bought the first Jack Russell terrier from whom?

A local milkman. Russell met the man out with his terrier and, his biographer wrote, 'never budged from the spot' until he had talked him into selling her.

What was the name of the female terrier that founded John Russell's Jack Russell line?

Trump. Russell bought her the moment he saw her, and his biographer called her 'such an animal as Russell had only seen in his dreams'.

What did John Russell reportedly pride himself on regarding his terriers?

They never tasted blood. An obituary in 1883 recorded the boast: a terrier's job was to bay at its quarry until it bolted, never to kill it.

In Swimbridge, where John Russell was vicar for nearly 50 years, what is still named The Jack Russell?

The village pub. Russell moved to another parish in his eighties, but when he died in 1883 he was brought back to Swimbridge and buried in the churchyard.

In 1873 the hunting clergyman John Russell became a founder member of which organisation?

The Kennel Club. Russell judged the fox terriers at one of its early London shows, yet his own terriers were seldom if ever seen in the show ring.

In 1894 Arthur Heinemann founded a club to breed Jack Russell-type terriers for digging out which animal?

Badgers. Heinemann's Badger Club wanted a stronger dog than Russell's, and Bull Terrier blood was probably added to give its terriers the nerve to face one underground.

Why were John Russell's terriers bred longer in the leg than most burrowing terriers?

To keep up with the hounds. His terriers ran across country with the pack, then went underground when the fox did, so they needed stamina in a body small enough for a burrow.

Beth and Bluebell, rescue Jack Russells from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, were adopted by which royal?

Queen Camilla. She adopted both from Battersea; Bluebell, she said, had been found wandering in woods, hairless and 'virtually dead', before the home nursed her back to health.

America's Jack Russell club, unlike most dog registries, will register a terrier only once it is what?

Fully grown. A Jack Russell must be at least a year old and pass a vet's check on its own merits, and the club says having registered parents guarantees nothing.

Under what name was John Russell's type of terrier officially recognised for British shows in 1990?

Parson Jack Russell Terrier. 'Jack' was dropped from the name in 1999, and the plain Jack Russell Terrier had to wait until 2016 for recognition of its own.

Milo, a Jack Russell, steals scenes from Jim Carrey in which 1994 comedy?

The Mask. Milo fetches the keys to spring his owner from a police cell, then pulls on the magic mask himself to fight off the gangsters.

America's Jack Russell club fought AKC recognition for decades, fearing the breed would lose what?

Its working ability. The club argued that the show ring had reshaped the Fox Terrier until it could no longer follow a fox underground, and it barred its members from registering dogs with the AKC.

America's Jack Russell club magazine shares which John Wayne western's title?

True Grit. The magazine once doubled as a blacklist: the club printed the names of members who registered terriers with the rival AKC, and in 2005 a federal appeals court rejected a challenge from two of them.

Show judges 'span' a Jack Russell with two hands to check the size of what?

Its chest. The hands must meet around the ribs behind the elbows, because a fox can be spanned that way and a deeper-chested terrier could not follow one through its tunnels.

Why did hunters prefer mostly white terriers?

To tell them from the fox. One early writer warned that reddish terriers were 'in the clamour of the chase taken for the fox', and the American club's standard still demands a coat more than 51% white.

What is a 'broken' coat on a Jack Russell?

A combination of smooth and rough. It looks much like a smooth coat but carries trace hair on the head, face, legs or body, and it must stay harsh enough to keep out the weather.

Why was a working Jack Russell's docked tail traditionally left a few inches long?

To give a handhold. A hunter could reach into the burrow, grip the tail and pull the terrier out backwards, which is why the American standard asks for about four inches.

A fidgety pup named Jack Russell, who is a Jack Russell, stars in the 'Army' episode of which cartoon?

Bluey. Jack struggles to sit still or remember instructions, until playing Army with his new friend Rusty turns out to be the game that helps him focus.

The short-legged show Jack Russell now seen at dog shows worldwide was developed mainly in which country?

Australia. Emigrants took working terriers out with them, a breed club formed there in 1972, and the type it refined for the show ring is the one the rest of the world later adopted.

In which relay dog sport are small Jack Russells prized because the smallest dog sets the hurdle height?

Flyball. Four dogs race in relay over hurdles to a box that fires out a tennis ball, and one quick little 'height dog' lets the whole team jump lower.

In the go-to-ground trials run by America's Jack Russell club, terriers race through a tunnel to which caged animal?

A rat. It sits safe behind bars at the end of a tunnel up to 30 feet long, and the terrier is timed on how fast it gets there and how keenly it barks and digs at the cage.

In the US, a working Jack Russell can suffer a dangerous toxic shock after cornering which animal underground?

A skunk. Sprayed at close range in an airless den, a terrier can collapse within minutes: one club report describes a dog dug out in convulsions and revived by mouth-to-nose breathing.

In a 2022 UK study that ranked the Jack Russell longest-lived at 12.7 years, which breed came last at 4.5?

French Bulldog. Flat-faced breeds sat at the bottom of the table, though the authors warned that a recent boom in puppies had left their sample of French Bulldogs unusually young.

A Jack Russell that hops a few strides on three legs, then runs on normally, most likely has a problem with what?

A kneecap. In a luxating patella it slips out of its groove, so the dog carries the leg for a few strides, then runs on as if nothing had happened once it pops back.

To make Moose, the Jack Russell on Frasier, nuzzle his co-stars on cue, what was dabbed behind their ears?

Liver pâté. His co-star John Mahoney gave the trick away: the dog famous for staring down Kelsey Grammer needed a little bribery to look affectionate on camera.

George, New Zealand's hero Jack Russell, was honoured after his death in 2007 with which American military medal?

A Purple Heart. Jerrell Hudman, a former US Marine wounded in Vietnam, read George's story in Texas and offered his own medal to the dog's grieving owner.

Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, seen in young Jack Russells, destroys the ball of which joint?

The hip. The head of the thigh bone dies and crumbles, usually before the dog's first birthday, and vets treat it by removing the ball so the muscles form a 'false joint'.

Nipper, a Victorian terrier sometimes called part Jack Russell, is the dog in the logo of which British music brand?

HMV. It stands for His Master's Voice, a painting Edison's firm turned down; the Gramophone Company bought it only after the artist swapped the phonograph for one of its own machines.

In 1982 Bothie the Jack Russell became the first dog to do what?

Travel to both the North and South Poles. Bothie wintered in Antarctica with the Transglobe Expedition and was flown to the Arctic ice with the champagne; dogs were banned from Antarctica in 1994, so none can follow him.

Bothie, a Jack Russell, spent three years on the Transglobe Expedition with which British explorer?

Ranulph Fiennes. He called Bothie 'stubborn-minded, non-house-trained, contrary-souled' and 'yappy-voiced', then sat down with his wife Ginny to write a best-selling book about him.

A Jack Russell named George won a posthumous PDSA Gold Medal for saving five children in 2007 from what?

An attack by two pit bulls. George went for the bigger dogs so the children could get away and was so badly mauled that he had to be put down; a statue of him now stands in Manaia, New Zealand.

Patron, a Jack Russell who became a Ukrainian national hero in 2022, is trained to sniff out what?

Explosives. A video of him at work in a tiny protective vest went viral in March 2022, and by late April Ukraine credited him with helping to clear nearly 90 devices around Chernihiv.

Dilyn, the Jack Russell cross adopted by Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds in 2019, came from a rescue where?

Wales. A charity in the Rhondda took him in after a tip-off that a puppy dealer was about to dump him for his crooked jaw, and his name is the Welsh word for 'follow'.

Chalky, a Jack Russell whose death made BBC News in 2007, appeared with which chef on his TV series?

Rick Stein. Chalky snarled at the cameraman, attacked crabs and had a beer named after him, and Stein admitted he was 'petrified' the dog would bite Prince Charles.

The Jack Russell Eddie on the sitcom Frasier was played by Moose and later by which dog?

His son Enzo. Father and son shared the role before Moose retired, and Enzo, a near-identical 'younger lookalike', carried it to the end of the series in 2004.

Moose, the Jack Russell from Frasier, also appeared in which 2000 family film?

My Dog Skip. Moose played the ageing Skip in the film of Willie Morris's memoir of a 1940s Mississippi boyhood, while a younger Jack Russell handled most of the title role.

Why did the first owners of Moose, the Frasier Jack Russell, give him up?

He was too wild to handle. He escaped, chewed everything and ran off, his trainer recalled, and 'when he killed a neighbor's cat and chased some horses, that was it'.

Soccer was the Jack Russell star of which PBS children's series of the 1990s?

Wishbone. Soccer plays a terrier who daydreams himself into classic literature, usually as the hero, though in Don Quixote he settles for the sidekick, Sancho Panza.

The Palm Dog, won by Uggie the Jack Russell in 2011, is an unofficial prize at which film festival?

Cannes. The prize is a comic twin of the festival's Palme d'Or, voted by film critics since 2001, and the winner takes home a leather collar instead of a trophy.

The 'Consider Uggie' campaign for the terrier from The Artist aimed to win him what?

An Academy Award nomination. None came, and when BAFTA voters asked to back him too, it replied that he 'is not a human being' and that 'his unique motivation as an actor was sausages'.

Which games company made Uggie the Jack Russell its first 'spokesdog' in 2012?

Nintendo. Uggie had announced his retirement, then put it off to become the face of its pet-raising game nintendogs + cats.

Sykes, a terrier known as Harvey in Britain's Thinkbox adverts, played the detective's dog in which series?

Midsomer Murders. Sykes was found wandering as a stray before a stunt-dog trainer took him in, and he went on to spend five years as DCI Barnaby's family pet.

K.K. Slider, the guitar-playing dog, appears in which video game series?

Animal Crossing. K.K., who looks like a Jack Russell, is based on the series' own composer, Kazumi Totaka: his Japanese name, Totakeke, is a squeezed-together 'Totaka K.'

Max, the Jack Russell hero of The Secret Life of Pets, has his life upended when his owner adopts which dog?

Duke, a Newfoundland mix, arrives from the pound and takes over the apartment; each tries to get rid of the other, and both end up lost on the streets of New York.

The dog actor Cosmo played Friday, a Jack Russell, in which 2009 film?

Hotel for Dogs. Roger Ebert wrote that Friday, the leader of the pack, 'does more acting than most of the humans, and doesn't even get billing'.

On the sitcom Frasier, Eddie the Jack Russell belongs to which character?

Martin Crane. The retired policeman announces that the dog's full name is Eddie Spaghetti, 'because he has worms', one more irritation for the son whose apartment they share.

Which actor so missed Cosmo, his Jack Russell co-star in Beginners, that he adopted a dog of his own?

Ewan McGregor. He found Sid, a poodle mix, on the last day of the shoot and called him 'my little Cosmo replacement'.

In 2012 Uggie the Jack Russell marked his retirement with a ceremony outside which Hollywood landmark?

Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Uggie arrived by fire engine, and his trainer pressed his paws into the wet cement beside the stars' handprints.