JKSNIPER Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Anyone have experience withtraining and raising Jack Russell puppies? My son is getting one from a reputable breeder .Despite owning various dogs of different breeds I never owned a J.R. before and appreciate any advice anyone here has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Never owned one and never will. I have been around a few though and they wore me out just watching them! Best of luck to you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcave Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 (edited) My second one just turned 3. Keep them busy and they need alot of attention. They are smart and learn fast but don't let them boss you around. I use my dog on the trapline and he can't get enough of it. Edited March 18, 2013 by Bearcave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kschwan Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 My JRT just turned 14 , still lots of life in her, Smart, hyper and full of energy. When I say smart I thought that would mean easy to train wht it really meant was that they figure you are easy to train. You have to be disciplined with them and make sure that they are not training you . She is a great dog but dang she is neve racking sometimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillChunn Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 My brother and sister-in-law have one. They decided to see if they could tire her out by throwing a toy and having her bring it back. The dog won. They gave up after 3 1/2 hours. She still wanted to play. Remember all dogs train their owners. BC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I remember somebody had a JRT puppy at Nationals at PASA one year. They tied it to a tree during lunch. Something got it's attention...as it dug a hole halfway to China in about 2 seconds. All you could see is dog butt and dirt flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKSNIPER Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 I remember somebody had a JRT puppy at Nationals at PASA one year. They tied it to a tree during lunch. Something got it's attention...as it dug a hole halfway to China in about 2 seconds. All you could see is dog butt and dirt flying. Oh God...... What have we gotten ourselves into? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWFAN Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Been around lots of super hyper, energetic JRT's that need lots of attention. From what I've heard and read (and a friend had one), the breed experiences a higher rate of deafness compared to a lot of other breeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKSNIPER Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 Deafness should make him fit right in with all us shooters. Theres some hilarious videos of JR's on you tube one named "Jesse" with his owner "Heather" made a few videos of funny tricks and Jesse puts stuff in the washer and closes the door and closes all the kitchen cabinet doors...helps Heather take off her jacket, shoes, and socks, climbs into bed and pulls the covers over himself. They are funny to watch but I can see where if you don't give them something to do (like bored young Marines) they will FIND something to do which will probably turn out badly for the owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basman Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 JRT are smart and loyal, make sure you have a yard for them to run in. Stick with the training, otherwise they will become the alpha dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 a bored dog is a destructive dog. I like the Kong style toys: As you can see, they come in various sizes and are basically indestructible. I like to to smear a few dabs of peanut butter in that hole, then stick them in the freezer. I have four that I keep in rotation. There are always two in the freezer at any one point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbbean Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Our 14 yr old Jack Russel Terrorist is as smart and loyal a dog as I've ever had. Was a piece of cake to train, and only took 10 years to calm down to normal puppy level. Plan to spend a lot of time with your JRT, and keep a couple of toys handy at all times. They're easy to travel with (pocket size!), and are rarely destructive unless left alone too long and too often. Very social. Welcome to the club! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKSNIPER Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Chills..+1 Just had a professional dog trainer say the exact same thing to us. Highly recommended the peanut butter in the Kong and then freeze it for those times you have to leave the dog alone in his crate 'cos you gotta go to work or whatever. Thanks bbbean. We're looking forward towards JRT day one which will be next Wednesday (27th) he will arrive at the airport. Should be interesting for my son who had dogs here with us but never had one of his own. He's been living the bachelor life and now I was kidding with my wife that this little guy will be a "chick magnet" for our boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooster Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 We got one 6 years ago and is as crazy as the day we got her, ate some poisonous seeds from a plant in the yard and cost me $2000.00 to keep her from dying. I have been bit more by this dog than any other dog I have had. If my wife wasn't retired there is no way we could keep her in a crate for 8 hours while we went to work. A really good book to read is "We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear". A really fascinating breed, They are totally fearless, they send these guys into badger holes. They have been known to eat through floors to get at mice and rats. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbbean Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 this little guy will be a "chick magnet" for our boy. Absolutely! When we're in town and I walk Lydia, I'm the most popular guy in town. It's either that, or chicks dig CROs. I'm not sure which. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightUp_OG Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I have a JRT. He is 2 yrs. Smart, loyal, loving, fun, energetic (read spaz) and the most amazing little dog ever. We use only positive re-enforcement in our training, lots of treats! As others have said you need a yard, they have to be able to run and need lots of toys. Kong toys are the best. They take the longest for our dog to destroy and trust me they will get destroyed. As others have said, you need to be the Alpha dog because JRT's think they are the size of an Irish Wolf Hound. They like to dig as they have an enormous prey drive and digging out critters I.E. "Go to ground" is instinctual. We never EVER feed him people food!!! They only time he gets a people food treat is steak during emergency recall training. That training is a MUST for any dog. We have trained our little guy to do all of the basic obedience as well as advanced recall and heal. We train and play every day. He is also one hell of a Frisbee dog. We started with a small cloth disc and worked up to a larger disc but not a plastic one that could hurt his mouth. He can speak, roll over and jump into my arms on command. I can't stress enough that they are the most human like dog I have ever been around and will bring much joy but they take a tremendous amount to attention and time. You MUST be willing to devote yourself to the dog and your rewards will be great! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ima45dv8 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Match your energy level to the dog. Are you ready to be as active as the dog? Can you provide the stimulus it needs to find a calm (in this case...worn out) state of mind? A treadmill for expending energy is cool. Train it to walk on it while you find a place to rest your feet. If you aren't prepared to be the provider of all things that tire this dog out, it might not be the best one for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 My Dad had 1. There is NO place in your house it can not get to. Look at the top of your fridge, yep it can get there. If you have a cat there is no place it can go to get away from the dog, no place. Dad does not do cats, but I do remember him saying that he was advised that Russell's would eventually kill off any other non-dog type pets. I don't know if that's true, but I do know it is an active persons dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbbean Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 If you have a cat there is no place it can go to get away from the dog, no place. Dad does not do cats, but I do remember him saying that he was advised that Russell's would eventually kill off any other non-dog type pets. . Don't believe everything people tell you. Our JRT lives with three cats. They don't curl up together, but they do play chase, and pull their punches when they do squabble. My two kids fought worse than the dog and cat do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StraightUp_OG Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 (edited) Yeah the cat thing, for me at least, is not true. We have a cat that thinks he s a dog (we trained him to do tricks too). Our Jack and the cat are buds. They play well together and the cat starts it most of the time but we do stop it when it gets rough and we have a huge cat condo that the cat can escape to that the dog can't reach. With that said, we do not encourage "chase the kitty" because of the prey drive in the dog. Not because we are afraid the dog will kill the cat it's that we don't want the cat to hurt himself when trying to escape. They are together all day when we are at work and they mostly just sleep until we get home to play. Edited March 21, 2013 by StraightUp_OG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKSNIPER Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 We're about as ready as we can be. We have the vet lined up to check him out on Wed (he arrives at La Guardia on Tues.) we have the Kongs, Raquetballs and other toys. The breeder said she moved him into their house to be with the older dog they have and their other pets and he has gotten along with everyone just fine. She said that if you have cats its ok (we don't) but its best if the dog lives with other pets when hes still a puppy. Trying to introduce another type of pet to the house at a later date might cause conflict and we were told without hesitation absolutely NO hamsters, mice, snakes, etc as the JRT won't be able to quell its prey drive and WILL kill them. Apparently hes the "calm one" of the litter. I can only hope..... We have a Golden Retriever who just loves little dogs so I'm betting that "Bandit" and "Lily" will be good friends right from the get go. We have a big fenced in yard. I do not intend to let him outside to just roam around as we have a groundhog that lives under our shed and I have heard stories about them chasing game underground and being underground for 3 days at a time. I intend to follow the Brian Killcommons dog training philosophy which is to use a lot of positive reinforcement in training and the human is supposed to be the smart end of the leash so we also have to be the patient end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcave Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Puppy will take alittle time to get use to new surroundings. He may check out the groundhog den but will have to get some size and confidence before going to ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKSNIPER Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 Its been cold here ....unusually so for the beginning of spring (25 degrees this AM) so I think Mr Groundhog will not be appearing until it warms up a lot from where we are now. 3 days to JRT splashdown at Laguardia at 3pm EST. Hes coming from Texas so he might not understand real english for a while but we'll work on it. Got plenty of toys , chewing stuff, 2 kongs with associated peanut butter, a bed, harness and collar. He sees our vet on Wednesday. Should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbbean Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 One more word of advise - it's hard to be humble when you live with a JRT, but try - you do't want to hurt the other guys' feelings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiley1 Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 I have owned and breed JR's for about 20 yrs now. The biggest mistakes people make is; -paper training teaches dogs that it is ok to pee in the house. -JR's are very sensitive so make sure to praise them lots. Most don't handle being hit very well so it's better just to yell at them when they make a mistake or ignore it if it's not to bad. -good dogs are well exercised and Jacks need plenty. -Jacks often don't "get a brain" until they are about 3yrs. -Jacks have a lot of problems with separation anxiety e.g. pooping on the floor and shredding things. If you have to leave them exercise first and don't make a big deal about it. Best thing is to take them with you.Jack's are pack animals and don't understand that they can't be with us all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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