"I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone." -
J.R.R Tolkien
Our foray into dog breeding has been a little like our foray into horse breeding – a great experience likely not to be repeated!
Our family has always owned Jack Russel Terriers, and they hold a special place in our hearts. In my mind Jack Russels and horses have always gone hand in hand. In South Africa, where I grew up, most barns sport a couple of terriers. They can usually be seen driving about with their owners in their trucks, heads out the window, or hanging about the yard keeping the mice and rat population in check. At horses shows it’s common to see them lounging at their owners feet in the club house, or out walking the course.
The American Kennel Club describes the breed as “upbeat, lively, inquisitive, and friendly.” It was developed by the Reverend Jack Russell, England's "Sporting Parson" as a working dog for use in fox hunts and to control vermin.
They are incredibly brave little dogs, with big personalities, and are fiercely loyal to “their person.” This means that they don’t do well in large families with young children, love to dig, and tend to pursue cats with an intensity borne of more than 150 years of prey instinct. However, they are highly intelligent, and eager to please, and when well-trained make the very best companions.
Our decision to try our hand at breeding came of trying to find a puppy for ourselves. There were no litters available in Oregon, and the pups cost around $1800 – more when you factored in the cost of flying to another state to pick one up! We ended up buying our male puppy from a breeder in Texas and our female from California.
The puppies are adorable, fitting into the palm of your hand when they are born. By the time they are ready to go to their new homes at 10 weeks they would fit in a shoe box. Our little guy, Gunga Din (named for the character in a famous Rudyard Kipling poem), was tri-colored with a classic whiskered face and Zulu (aptly named for an African warrior tribe) was a shaggy little brown and white fluff ball.
In the beginning the puppies have three modes – eat, sleep, and play. From the beginning their personalities are obvious and you can easily see what type of dog they will be.
The problem with buying puppies sight unseen is that it’s hard to assess their personality from a photo or short video clip. Once the pups arrived it quickly became obvious that Zulu had a very high prey instinct. Usually, you can train a pup not to chase poultry or cats, but Zulu couldn’t be trained out of her drive to hunt. In a dog bought for that purpose this is great, it’s not so good on a farm with cats, chickens, and ducks. Needless to say we lost a number of treasured pets in the first year despite taking all the precautions we could.
Fortunately, she proved to be a wonderful mother, fiercely protective, and meticulously caring for her five squirming, incessantly hungry, little pups.
I was at an evening meeting at work when I got the call that the first pup had been born. I raced home in time to witness the birth of the rest of the litter. The pups were born at about half hour intervals and each weighed about 3 pounds. All were tri-colored and resembled their father more than their mother.
The miracle of birth never ceases to amaze me and being a part of the process - helping mom clean her pups and clearing their airways - makes them feel like they are as much your children as hers. In fact, raising a litter of puppies is much like having a newborn baby, from waking every two hours to check on them, and constantly worrying about whether they are too cold or too warm, to cleaning up after them.
Our grown sons ended up each asking for a pup, so we gave them pick of the litter, which left us with three still needing homes. Finding good families for them was our main goal, but it was still heartbreaking saying goodbye.
At the end of the day, we found the capital outlay, related expenses, and amount of work involved in having a litter, not worth the return on our investment. I am glad we got to experience it, and grateful for the opportunity to bless our boys with Jack Russels of their own, but would I do it again? Probably not.
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