The Parson Russell Terrier

The JRTCA breed standard has not changed since the club was formed. But the little terriers being shown in AKC breed rings began to change—much as the Fox Terriers of old began to diverge from the working terriers in Britain. The JRTCA eventually sold the name Parson Russell Terrier to the JRTAA. The idea was to help make clear the difference between the two breeds. In 2003 the AKC officially changed the breed name of the dogs it registers to the Parson Russell Terrier and the club changed its name to the Parson Russell Terrier Association of America.

With a more rigid standard that seems to place appearance above working ability, changes will happen quite quickly to this new terrier breed. The Parson Russell Terrier is already a dog of more substance than the Jack Russell Terrier. The Parson Russell standard tolerates less variation in height—just twelve to fourteen inches at the withers, compared to ten to fifteen inches for the Jack Russell, which is suitable for a variety of hunting applications. The Parson Russell breed standard notes a preference for a spot at the base of the tail, which will have some breeders working hard to breed dogs with those markings, rather than on striving to maintain the essence of what the dog should be, a working hunting terrier.

There is currently another group approaching the AKC with another variant of the breed that has short legs, again seeking to use the name Jack Russell Terrier. David Ross of the JRTCA comments, “By adopting the name ‘Parson Russell Terrier’ for the AKC variant of the Jack Russell Terrier, the AKC and the Jack Russell Terrier Association did in fact separate the standards into two different terriers, eliminating much of the confusion and leaving the name Jack Russell Terrier for the standard the JRTCA and the Jack Russell Terrier Club of Great Britain have used for many decades. While education and time will be needed for both our organizations to completely sort these terriers out in the public’s mind, a good start has been made. However, if the AKC now accepts yet another standard for ‘Short’ Jack Russells and calls them ‘Jack Russell Terrier,’
both our registries will be in the unenviable position of telling innocent buyers that while their breeder and pedigree say they own a Jack Russell Terrier, the fact is they have purchased a ‘new’ variant of the terrier named after our terrier.”