Showing posts with label dog breed. Show all posts
When it comes to owning one of these feisty little creatures it is best to keep in mind that they are a hunting dog and that is what they were bred to do is cat rodents and foxes and you should not be surprised if your jack will chase your cat(s) around the house because this is only natural for them. You cannot try and teach or train this out of them because then you are taking away this dog’s job and therefore causing a flaw in the dog.
Jack Russell’s are kind and sweet with an energetic disposition. They need a job something to keep them busy and out of trouble, but if you choose to purchase a Jack Russell and have smaller pets inside the house you might get more trouble then you were asking for. These dogs cannot tell the difference between another household pet and prey they think that they are one and the same.
Some Jack Russell’s can be kept in a house with cats, but that does not mean that the cats will always be safe. They may act like they are friends, but it only takes being out of the house one time for the rough housing between the two animals to turn deadly. It is better if you have a Jack Russell and a cat to never ever leave them unsupervised alone even if they look like they get along. This is a common mistake that a lot of owners have they think that just because the Jack Russell is not chasing around the cat all day that it is fine for them to be in the house together and this is simple untrue. This is when the owner comes home to a dead cat and does not understand what happened and blames it on the dog. A Jack Russell likes to play, but they tend to play rough of at least that is my experience with Max. You cannot expect them to be gentle with something that is its enemy. So before getting this breed of dog you need to consider the other pets in the household and if you are going to be able to monitor them all throughout the day, if the answer is no then move on because this breed is not for you.
I have two cats Harley and Sadie and they live in the house with Max, but I do not ever let them alone with him because I know that something that is just play could turn deadly. Harley and Sadie are indoor/outdoor cats and so when I leave the home they go outside into the garage while Max stays in the house. Max was raised around these cats from the time he was a puppy, but I would still not trust that nothing could happen to them. The reason that I got Max even though I had cats was the breeder had told me that these dogs get along well with other animals and that includes cats. I now see that he did not do his research as well as I and I should have looked into it more, but I could not stand to get rid of Max just because of this fact and My husband would not allow the cats to be put into a adoption center and I really didn’t want that either, so we try and make the best out of the situation that we are in. It seems to have worked for the most part. The cats and dog are never ever left alone together and we have gates all over the house so that the cats have someplace to escape to. We also have never allowed Max to play rough with the cats. I can say that it takes more time on the owner’s part when you have other smaller animals in the house. This is the main reason I say to consider your time that you have in a day to monitor these animals. It is best to keep the other pets in the household in mind before purchasing or adopting this breed of dog because you might be in for more trouble then you asked for.
Whoever thinks that a Jack Russell is not smart, they are wrong. My mom tried telling me that she did not think that Max was smart because he has some pink on the roof of his mouth. I laughed because she is always trying to compete with me, by saying that he dog is smarter. Max does some things that sometimes make him look as though he is not a smart dog like tearing up the trash or my shoes, but that is not a dumb dog it is a typical Jack Russell when they are bored and there are only a few things left for them to do.
He looks at me and cocks his head when I am talking to me and he also makes great eye contact and so I know he knows what I am saying to him and he is listening. Today though it was a funny moment of a dog trying to push his limits in the house but in at the same time use his intelligence. My husband and I do not let Max go into the bathroom because every time he is in there he tends to rip the toilet paper to shreds, and so we have taught him to sit outside the door and wait and he does a great job with this. Sometimes he will even take a nap by the door when I am in the bathtub. We today I was taking a bath and Max brought his fake duck dog toy and lay down. I told him to sit and wait, he did this and because I was taking a bath about 5 minutes into it he laid down. Then all of a sudden he kind of nudged the duck inside the doorway, but not so much that he could not reach it from where he was laying at. I just thought that he was done playing with it and he just did not want it anymore, then he pushed it a little farther in the doorway and moved towards it, this did not really mean to much to me at that moment and so I just let it be, but before I knew it he was nudging it all the way into the bathroom and then I figured out what he was doing. He thought that if he kept pushing the duck into the bathroom that I would not be upset with him for coming in to get it.
Needless to say Max outwitted me for a few seconds today
This blog is mainly a tribute to my dog Max. We have had him a little over a year and we have had our ups and downs. The way I came about getting a Jack Russell was not really like some people would have thought. My husband had said to me that he never wanted to get a dog and so I just kept nagging at him because I was raised with dogs my whole life and so I really wanted my children to experience this. We already had two cats, two parakeets and a fish and so I was at first kind of scared to get a dog, but I knew if I waited any longer my husband would not give me the ok, so I started looking that day. My husband said that he did not want a large dog that small or medium in size would be alright and that is mainly because of younger son, he did not want a large dog that would be jumping all over him. I have to admit that I did not at the time do any research on a Jack Russell and really had no idea what one was.
How I Found Max
I was looking through the local online newspaper and I had seen someone post that they had two Jack Russell’s for sale a male and a female and then only lived about 10 miles from me. I was interested mainly because said that they would only grow to be about medium in size. I called the guy up right away and he said that I could come and look at the puppies that day. So I went and picked up my mom and we went to the town to see them. She had warned me that terriers were a hyper breed of dog, but I did not care because I had 4 children hyper was nothing to me.
Seeing Max For The First Time
When I first saw Max it was instant love at first sight, I knew that this was the dog that I wanted to take home. The previous owners lived on a farm like I did so I thought that our home would be perfect in size. He was running around pulling small tree branches around the yard and chasing after balls. I thought wow he is playful, but boy I did not know the half of it. I did ask the previous owner if he would good with children and he told me that yes he would that he had grandchildren come over all the time to play with the dogs and so I took him home.
My Husbands Reaction
My husband is a truck driver and was out on the road when I bought him. I had sent him pictures of Max so that he knew what he looked like. He was kind of shocked at first because I had went and bought the dog so fast, but once he got home he to feel in love with Max and has a close bond with the dog now, that I think he never thought that he would have with a dog.
