The decision by the Kennel Club to register the Jack Russell Terrier as a show-dog met with outrage when it was announced in October. (See my blog here)
Now the Jack Russell Terrier Club of GB has confirmed that the KC went ahead despite its vehement opposition and has issued a swingeing statement in response. It calls the KC move "ridiculous" and accuses the Kennel Club of embarking on a journey into "a minefield of confusion, misery and despair".
Chairman Greg Mousley also accuses the KC of ruining rather than preserving the future of the breeds in its care.
The statement in full.
The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain, has, for 40 years, stood against Kennel Club recognition for the Jack Russell Terrier and will always do so.
We along with our worldwide affiliated Jack Russell Clubs, fought tooth and nail against the recognition of the Parson Jack Russell Terrier but the Kennel Club committee blindly went ahead. Now many years later they have realised their predicted failure and Parson Russells are almost as rare as the breed the Kennel Club started with in 1860, the Fox Terrier. They badly need a small breed to gain income!
The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain wrote the definitive breed standard for the Jack Russell Terrier 38 years ago and it has been adopted by Jack Russell Clubs worldwide, even copied by the Parson Russell Club! No doubt it will be used once again.
Along with our affiliates we have a registration system reaching back to the mid 70s. Our terriers, worldwide, are classy, correct in conformation and possess a tremendous working ability. They are virtually free of both hereditary and congenital defects whilst among the Kennel Club breeds these are rife.
Kennel Club recognition will not affect any of us and most importantly it will not affect the Real Jack Russell Terriers that are under our care The Parson Russell came and has almost left. This ridiculous attempt will also fail and pass.
The Kennel Club is about to embark on a journey into a minefield of confusion, misery and failure.
The JRTCGB along with its affiliated JRT Clubs worldwide have a huge register of quality Jack Russell Terrier dating back to the mid 70s. Our registration system is carefully structured to prevent any Kennel Club pollution.
We have a breed standard that is totally work related and practical.
The secretary of the Kennel Club, Caroline Kisco, gave the reason for their move: “By recognising the Jack Russell as an official breed we can help cement its heritage and protect its future”. Unreal!
Well Caroline, you are 41 years too late. We have been doing just that since 1974!
The Kennel Club has NEVER cemented the heritage nor protected the future of ANY of the breeds under their banner! Quite the opposite. Take for example the poor old English Bulldog - they have protected it to the point where natural reproduction is impossible!
What kind of protecting and cementing is Caroline talking about exactly!?
The true working Jack Russell is quite safe where it always has been, LONG BEFORE THE OLD SPORTING PARSON BOUGHT ONE! Safe, with the working terrier men and women of Great Britain and the rest of the world!
Our worldwide aim is:
To PROTECT, PRESERVE and WORK the Jack Russell Terrier. We have held firm against the Parson Russell and succeeded. The same resilience will hold firm again.The Jack Russell Terrier was first registered as a showdog in Australia, where it has become very inbred. It was exported from there to be recognised and shown in FCI countries. These Ozzie exports, in fact, are the dogs that the KC will be recognising - not the working-bred/pet-bred native dogs that are popular in the UK with those who couldn't give two hoots about Kennel Club registration.
Greg Mousley
Chairman and a founder member of the JRTCGB
So the newly-registered KC dogs won't be the real deal. Sure, they may descend from the same original stock but they have been primped, pimped and inbred for several generations by those who are only interested in what a dog looks like, not what it it truly is under the bonnet.
Inevitably, it will lead to considerable confusion. The danger is that the imposter will start to water down the real Jack Russell as people won't be savvy enough to avoid the KC-registered dogs.
If you ever wanted proof that the KC is not about the dogs, this is it. Bottom line? The Jack Russell is not theirs to steal.
The "Hands off Our Jack Russells!" petition to ask the KC to revoke this decision is still active - with currently over 800 signatures. Please sign if you haven't already!
Signed. What will it take for them to get it??
ReplyDeletemuch ado about nothing .. don't want to register .. don;t.. easy as that and Oh the "confusion" what will we do? the shy is falling.. run.. LOL
ReplyDeleteBoth of them can jump in the lake as far as Im concerned neither is protecting the "true JRT".
DeleteThe shys indeed hiccup, falling, shiccup! In. At least for the assumed exclushivity of the Jack Russell Terrier club of Great Britain and it's shingle, classy, hiccup, correct, Parson type. Heil Shitler!
For the JRTCGB itch all about the name JRT, not the dawg the KC has regischtered. Bloody cheek of the KSheeee. Tape meashures at dawn, a dual to the bitter end.
Seasons greetings B
The JRTCGB does not recognise one over-arching type but a variety... and above all else it recognises the dog as a working dog. It IS about "the dawg", River P. More reading comprehension; less alcohol would be my advice... ;-)
DeleteFuss about nothing. Use whatever registration system you wish, the one will not impact the other. Never the twain etc! We could all go to a JRTCGB show or a KC show and see bad tempered, poorly constructed dogs as well as some absolutely fabulous ones.
ReplyDeleteAs for people getting confused well perhaps they should do a bit more research. So utterly fed up with people buying dogs on a whim and then complaining they have been "sold a pup". Well guess what they deserve nothing less and the only ones that suffer are the dog they bought and the next pup they made space for.
Jeff.
One thing is for certain the KC's version of the JRT is already a hugely popular pet and show dog and on a global scale. Any dangers involved certainly don't include it becoming "as rare as the breed the Kennel Club started with in 1860, the Fox terrier". In fact it's true as Jemima says the real danger is that it could water down the entire JRT type as it already threatens to do in many countries.
Delete"The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain wrote the definitive breed standard for the Jack Russell Terrier 38 years ago and it has been adopted by Jack Russell Clubs worldwide, even copied by the Parson Russell Club! No doubt it will be used once again."
I honestly don't think it's I who is not doing enough reading here, because such statements look like they are being made in a dark dank rectal vacuum.
The JRT standard the KC will be using was written by the Australians and has indeed been adopted by "Jack Russell Terrier clubs" worldwide and before theirs and in many more countries. No one is interested in the JRTCGB's supposed "definitive standard" of their Parsons version of the JRT or the JRTCA's standard of the same, or how many dogs the JRTCA has registered. They wish by the sounds of it.
Utter ignorance for example of the fact that the Australians already claimed the name, dog and standard in the very early seventies, the breed standard was written and sealed in fact in 1970. So predates the JRTCGB's standard by a good half a decade if not more....blah blah salmon paté.
It sounds like the JRTCGB has been taken by surprise about all of this. Im not sure how when the show JRT has been around longer than their Parson version of the JRT. Why didn't they scream foul then? Because they didn't even have their own standard yet. Some did shout foul but it wasn't the JRTCGB they were still trying to standardise their Parsons.
I think there is room for everyone to have a version of the JRT! The one to avoid in the future will probably be the KC's version, though. It is perhaps confusing for the general public when everyone claims the genuine article and yet don't have that right based on their standards or pedigrees.
As it stands if you want a Parsons type that is a pedigree and reasonably less inbred but still a show dog for the most head for the JRTCGB, if you want something more inbred and slightly shorter and still a show dog head for the KCs world wide. If you dont want either get your genuine JRT from the local nearest you who is either working their dogs or not and doesn't give a damn who stole the name and who also doesn't give damn what any standards say or don't say and who wont claim based on pedigree alone that their dogs are the definitive JRT. They also wont be showing their dogs. These are the breeders who will tweak the breed in the good old time honoured way by injecting different breeds in as and when needed, who don't give a damn if it's a working Teckel or even whippet used. They choose what suits them for the job be it pet or earth dog or both.
These are the dogs worth preserving because these are the dogs everyone else will need when theirs are a pile of crock-shit. Think that could be Australian for bull-shit......these are the only dogs who can claim to be the genuine JRTs. IMO....
The JRT is a type almost a landrace by definition and not a pedigree breed and as soon as the KC's, clubs, associations manage to grasp that simple fact they don't hold claim on nutting.
Working dogs were never entered into a breeding programme based strictly on the piece of paper the pedigree it's printed on, nor on a pure single strict acceptable phenotype, purity of race...
ReplyDeleteA flirt with a Whippet or a whiff of Border, Patterdale, Staffie more popularly now in the UK though even Sealyham and its a mongrel and unacceptable as a JRT!!! Even worse its no longer acceptable as a working dog apparently. The irony.....This is how the breed was bred all along, mostly back to all white and limited spotty but OK.
There was a time certainly that the JRTCGB was in fact completely open to a truly open registry but that time has long long passed like it always does with zealous pure breed fanatics.
I agree you can never go wrong with more reading but that statement of theirs is pure flatulence. I did bother to read it.
The only thing that worries them so much is that the name JRT is being used, apparently abused, stolen from their true JRT by the KC, nothing else. They lay claim to the only acceptable "classy" blah blah true pedigree JRT! The only variety in their version of the JRT is a few whiskers on the jaw and millimetres at the wither. The word "classy" here is very much a synonym for pedigree. I think they think it makes them sound better but in fact it makes them sound that much worse.
They should stop deluding themselves and stop calling their variety of JRT the only true JRT or even JRT! Instead they should just call themselves another Parson terrier club of GB, or working parsons whatever I don't honestly give a damn, so should the American JRT club.
That will clear up any confusion LOL.
It's true the KC should also be throttled for using the name JRT, but not for the JRTCGB's reasons but for exactly the same reasons they shouldn't be using it.
Why one must ask oneself is it that everyone wants to claim the only true type and name JRT based on their single version of the whole type generally called the JRT? When we all know diversity is the very key to the breeds success, that type includes all types that's why it's a type and not an f'cked up pedigree show dog.
Nothing other than more of the same slippery slope that began the Kennel Club and it's showing mentality all those years ago.
There's definitely that.
I don't want either of their dogs so maybe Im impartial, in my opinion both are as dangerous as each other and it looks like Im still unanimous in that (:
I'm not signing this one, either. Like you, River P, I think the JRT club may be a bit better than the kennel club, but not by much. I don't believe in isolating domestic animals in closed gene pools where they will eventually become inbred and go extinct, just as their wild cousins do.
DeleteIf you want earth dogs (terriers), go get some, and breed them if you wish. Let them be fit and functional, and their form and behavior will follow suit. Ditto for sight hounds, scent hounds, stock dogs, etc. Let them mate with others of their own type, and even outcross to other types every once in a while if need be. All these standards and registries reveal more about the people who fret about them, than the animals in their care.
The petition is mine, not the JRTGB's. And all it asks it for the KC to revoke their decision to register the Jack Russell. Please reconsider!
DeleteI agree with American Lion...
DeleteI further agree with the JRTCGB :
"The true working Jack Russell is quite safe where it always has been, LONG BEFORE THE OLD SPORTING PARSON BOUGHT ONE! Safe, with the working terrier men and women of Great Britain and the rest of the world!"
So what's the problem? Arguably the JRT is also safe with the hundreds and thousands even millions of pet owners in GB and the rest of the globe. Those chasing frisbees, killing spiders, rats, wasps and sleeping under 100% Egyptian cotton close to the warm skin of their owners. Big and small, short and tall. No pedigrees at all, anyway moving on...
So why do the JRTYCGB seem to think they need to protect the breed then, or even are protecting the general type and after first saying they don't need protecting? Because its just lip service to the idea and nothing else that's why. They're just protecting one type, their type and their methods are what caused problems with pedigree dogs in the first place. In the same way that the word "working" is to them. Not to say some don't work their Parsons types though..even more do without pedigrees though.
"Our worldwide aim is:
To PROTECT, PRESERVE........ the Jack Russell Terrier."
Safe without the good old synonyms of pedigree depression "PROTECT AND PRESERVE"?
Those words are so familiar too, now where have I heard them before? Oh yes the KC of course! Yes absolutely no surprises there at all, they say that about every breed registered with them. Are they protecting and preserving anything, not really, mostly quite the opposite in fact.
I also dont disagree that some use of pedigrees can be important, just not closed registries. A pedigree is a detailed record of ancestors that's all, its also not a guarantee of anything, working, pet, health anything in fact unless you know the reputation of the dogs involved.
It's true this is Jemima's petition and her reasons for it are in fact 100% sound. However sadly it's been highjacked by politics and not entirely unwillingly I might add. Except it now makes signing that much more difficult for those who do actually want the breed type the JRT to hang around for ever and a day.
TBC
I also don't want the KC (probably the last KC of KC's on the planet of the "JRT") to have the exclusive rights to the name the JRT of course but neither do I want the JRTCGB's the JRTCA's or anyone else to think they can have it either, anyone with a claim to the only real JRT being a single closed pedigree phenotype......blah blah.
DeleteIf we allow the KC to think it has the claim to the "real" JRT with its type that somewhat trashes and clashes with the JRTCGB's claim to the same with its Parson and the JRTCA and everyone else. In fact it trashes everyone's claims because all of the types involved in the only true breed type are so different anyway. It's already trashed as hundreds of KC's already claim the same. I don't consider the British Kennel Club the last word on anything so it's also perfectly and soundly trashed in my opinion now that they claim the same.
That works out nicely? Just saying...the more confusion the better. Anarchy yes!
The number of these dogs shouldn't be underestimated, though as they are by far the greatest majority of JRT worldwide and rapidly becoming the only type in many countries.
The type as such doesn't worry me too much at all in fact, not as it stands today. I also happen to think a JRT should be slightly longer in the back than on the leg simply because a dog that can't turn around in a hole easily and safely is in danger of getting stuck or worse. Look at the show Wired haired Fox Terrier for example with it's silly stiff short back, long legs and keel so deep, I doubt it could even go to ground never mind do a Uturn in a confined space. Any bona fide terrier person would tell you the same. So I would still be choosing something that looked fairly similar to the KCs and FCI's JRT but with gameness intact and also for my money very smooth haired. I like a small dog of that shape, I think its more functional. Not the Parsons, the single JRTCGB type anyway.
I think there is a small worry that these dog just by the sheer numbers involved could ultimately end up being dominant at the expenses of everything else out there. I also reckon that could be fixed in a jiff if a minority do in fact keep working their dogs as intended what ever the type. Even if they don't exactly there will always be a minority that for whatever reason (usually not entirely sound) values gameness and will strive to maintain that.....the rest is easy. In fact the JRT seems to be recreated all the time on a continual basis.
Im sure our signatures wont make or break anything anyway. But just in case Im not going to promise to eat my hat either. (:
What exactly is the Kennel Club responsible for. My understanding is the breed clubs sets things like the breed standard, supplies judges etc. The breed club is also likely to have a registration system in place, most likely to be a closed registry. So what exactly is changing other than the registration organisor? Isn't the KC really only a registration system without any actual power unless allowed it by the breed clubs themselves?
ReplyDeleteThat's more or less right in that the showing "JRT" as a breed already has a standard and is already registered in the KCs of most countries around the globe and the IFC. The sudden stink is that the British KC has now accepted it. They are probably the last on the planet. I'm not sure why, it's quite strange. Maybe and perhaps appropriately for the JRT as a breed at large because they are more conservative as far as accepting that a sub-type has become a pedigree breed.
DeleteThe American, AKC also was late on the uptake but it is already accepted by them under a different name as the JRTCA, American JRT club claimed copy right or some such complete crap on the name JRT......
I'm tired of people excusing these central bodies like they are innocent. This is as much about registries and event organizers as the breed clubs. The registry sets the rules. They govern and they can set standards FOR standards! They can also announce to breed clubs that serious inbreeding is unacceptable, and outcrossing to create diversity is fine, that breeding for the intent of the breed, not for appearances, is a priority.
DeleteThey can become a body of an entirely different sort. They can lead the way. They simply choose not to.
That's the FCI of course. Fédération Cynologique Internationale!
DeleteYes exactly UrbanCollieChic they do. Wish there was a definitive URL to send people who might not understand very well because it's quite a lot of explaining.....but in an ideal world that might be the best anyway, nothing but a registry function...
A little searching here should help, though.
Anyway for the JRTCGB here is the short list of countries whose Kennel clubs recognise a Jack Russell Terrier type and there registered and call it the Jack Russell Terrier. Notably missing perhaps (: some East African Kennel club member countries.
This JRT variant is just called the JRT but it is in fact a bit of an Australian creation based on various small slightly longer than tall JRT dogs of British descent. Not to be confused with the JRTCGB's version they also call the JRT which is the recognisable Parson type.
So for these countries Kennel Clubs at least this is what a JRT presently is, even if in one (America I think) the same dog is called something else....not sure think they call it the "Russell" or Russell Jacks....something or other.
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Belgium
Belarus
Bolivia
Bosnia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Guatemala
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Moldavia
Monaco
Montenegro
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Ukraine
United Kingdom of Great Britain
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain is indeed the International hub for their Parsons version of the JRT which they also call the JRT. They do in fact have affiliates (not sure if this is just one breeder, one owner or what the story is, the web site is a bit thin) in from what I can see definitely anyway five or so countries/states, provinces or otherwise small towns, farmsteads, back yards not specificaly neccesarily even on the map around the world.
Australia
Canada
Kansas (?!)
New Zealand
South Africa
Japan
Mexico, possibly (there's no fixed address)
Bad Sooden Allendorf (Germany in the region?)
Any actual countries involved their kennel clubs already recognise the Australian dog called the JRT.
Are we to be too fussed about the fact that the British Kennel Club are also on the former or top most list now?
Or....
I know the JRT type as a whole is a dog of British descent but even the JRT club of America has and apparently even legaly (in that country apparently at least) stolen the name for their version of the breed, maybe it's just fitting the KC should have as well now just for extra measure?
I signed long ago. I fear that it will do no good. The best I can do is tell people why they should NOT get a KC Parson, JRT, or ANY KC dog. No AKC dogs either.
ReplyDeleteEast is East and West is West, Never the twain shall meet.....fiddle sticks! Or rather jodhpurs, one size fits all. A rather random reference to India the British Empire, riding apparel and Rudyard Kipling.
ReplyDeleteAnyway just this year Chairman of the KC Steve Dean said writing in the June edition of the Kennel club Journal :
“Some (intentional designer mongrels) like the lurcher and Jack Russell, we seem to accept, but more modern crossbreed titles cause concern...”
One thing is for certain they haven't accepted the Lurcher as a pedigree worth registering. What of the hypocrisy then considering his statement when just this very same year they accepted the "JRT" on their registers as a pedigree dog? Is this the first "designer mongrel" to hit the KC's big time? No of course it's not as we know most pedigree dogs are designer mongrels. The KC members don't want to know that nor does Dean.
He went on to quickly reasure "The KC promotes the pedigree dog exclusively"
We seem to accept the KC is full of bullshit rather and quite rightly too.
The full piece he wrote "A gulf exists between members and the KC elite" published in "terrier World" justifying to the trembling fearing plebs or KC general members the intent of the KC core elite to register "mongrels".
http://www.terrierworld.co.uk/four.htm
Apparently its all a lure to attract even more to pedigree dog ownership and the KC, as most people's first dog in the UK apparently is a cross breed. Not sure if this last part is even true but anyway.....if it is it's interesting.
The Rev "Jack" Russell was a member of the Kennel Club from 1873 until his death in 1883 (at that time membership was limited to 200) and he judged terrier breeds at the Kennel Club shows.
ReplyDeleteYes he did one time. Just once, and vowed never ever to judge again at a dog show, and kept his word, he never did again. For obvious reasons but foremost him being a hunting enthuisiast he just couldn't see the point in evaluating dogs this way.
ReplyDeleteCompletely pointless.
I does make you wonder doesn't it what the JRTCGB's never mind the KC's think they are still up to but it bears very little resemblance to the origins of the dog itself.
If we are to be true to the spirit of the JRT it should never be found in a closed registry, it should be ideally.......oops a bush baby just lept across my key board, I seem to be attracting moths. Ciao!!!!
The problem with the Australian version is that it bears no history or conformation to the type of Terrier that John Russell used. The Australian version were bred out of the working den dogs of Australia which were Corgi/Dachshund/Terrier crosses with the tan and white crossbred terriers that were brought out to Australia in the 1960,s and 1970,s. The offspring of these dogs were just labelled "Jack Russells" for the want of a better name. A new club was formed and called the Jack Russell Terrier Club of Australia.
ReplyDelete