We live in Carlisle,Cumbria & we own & breed the small traditional working Jack Russell which is well known to these parts.
Our dogs descend from the John Peel line & were first introduced to our family by Joe Bowman who was at the time courting my grandfathers Aunt before my grandfather was even born. In all our family have had the same strain of terriers since 1806 with my Gt Gt grandfather John Sarginson who was a blacksmith being the first person we are aware of in the family to have had a ' JRT hunt terrier', but no one ever kept records back then so we have to work from when my grandfather started to keep records of the dogs in 1950.
We have been made aware though that we have the oldest pure bred line of small JRT's in the world.
Our Jack Russell's are family pets & are worked from time to time but not day in day out as we have other things to do! they do have the hunting instinct, so give thought to this when thinking of aproaching me for a puppy as working Jack Russell's are harder to control in a family home if their minds aren't occupied, they are not aggressive or troublesome they just torment your life out wanting to play ball or anything else that they see fit to be entertained with, if you want a dog who will sit on your lap all day without moving a muscle except to eat or go out for the toilet then my Jack Russell's aren't for you go find some other breed, my Jack Russell's are quite happy in our home but they get taken out for very varied & different exercise & environment's so they never become bored, Jack Russell's demand time & attention! & will reward you with the same.
Jack Russells are not the most obedient dog in the world , so do not expect him/her to behave like a Labrador or Retriever although they will perform the basics of obedience if taught & are highly intelligent & driven to please their owners. And beware because they can climb extremely well! So make sure you have a climb proof garden just incase your new dog gets a whiff of a strange cat & decide's to give chase.
Although the Jack Russell in Cumbria was originally bred for hunting & is indeed still used for such purpose's they make fantastic pets, they are very funny little characters all are individual in temperament & if brought up correctly you will have years of enjoyment & affection.
The ideal colouring for a Jack Russell should be 51% white 49% colour, the Parson Russell is the one who is longer legged & has less colour.
About Us
These pictures are of my grandfather (founder & breeder of the Caldbeck JRT's) & my aunt in the late 50's with 2 of the fox cubs that my grandmother hand reared.
The picture above was given to me by my aunt after she discovered it laying at the bottom of some old letters & books in a suitcase, it was a brown coloured picture & had a few scratches on it so i have attempted to clean it up so that you can actually see the dog! The one between his feet is a fox, i would say all these pictures could have been taken on the same day.
Our Jack Russells killed the vixen and the cubs were dug out by my grandfather who knew that many foxes had been accounted for in that area so he decided to take the cubs home & luckily enough they took well to being hand reared, they were released when they were old enough to fend for themselves, but did become quite tame as you can see.
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My Gt Grandfather Issac Sarginson in 1896 with a one of our early JRTs, you will also find 2 fell terriers in the picture if you search hard enough!
My Grandfather & grandmother in 1951 with my father & another of our JRTs. A rough coated one.
