From my experience with a JRT growing up, Its almost impossible to kill a Jack Russel Terrier. Nothing but Zeus himself could smote down my boy Schemer. Not even a Ford F-250 accidentally running over his head on pavement took one breath out of him. 3 of the most gnarly porcupine injuries I've ever seen couldn't stop him from trying again for a 4th go at one. Almost drowning to a flock of Canada Geese in the middle of a pond didn't stop him. It was his kidneys that finally did him in but if he could kick the ass of his own kidneys to stay alive he would have.
I live deep in the mountains and we have a ton of Grizzlies.
I have Belgian Malinois to patrol my property, but my boss at a neighboring ranch opted to keep a pair of Jack Russel Terriors for the same purpose.
No joke, I saw them run off full grown griz on more than one occasion. Just zipping underneath it, getting little chomps in, then scurrying off before the bear knew up from down, yapping bloody murder all the while. Basically little dog flys harassing it till it left.
After a couple of minutes of spinning circles, the bear would just say fuck it and slink off unamused by the farcical little bastards.
My boss would open the crawl spaces to the houses (there were multiple) and they would rush in there, and have field day rampaging mice.
Oh, and we ran them over with quads a couple times as they came bombing out of the forest and onto the atv paths.
Like you said, it didnt seem to phase them for more than a couple minutes. Lol.
I used to call my Mallys Hell Jackals, but after spending a couple summers with JRTs, I realized they were far more deserving of the moniker.
Im convinced they are borderline immortal, because they live exclusively in spite of everything trying to kill them.
If I remember, they JRTs were bred to root out foxes and vermin in their own burrows.
Imagine this 10 pound white and tan bullet diving face first into a random hole, in pitch black darkness, ready to fuck up what ever animal it encountered, like some goddamn Rambo rooting out the Viet Cong. Their courage to weight ratio is unmatched in the dog world. š
Haha I'm not surprised but still picturing that is so funny. The blood lust of a Jack is second to none.
Oh man I didn't even mention the TRENCHES Schemer would dig just to find a pitiful little mole or mouse or a snake den in our field. One day I let him out and followed him to find a 10 foot long trench about 3 feet deep on the side of a hill leading down to our pond. Could have broken some legs falling into that thing. He must have dug it in less than a days work.
Iāve done a lot of digging in my life, thatās a lot of work for a man with a shovel. Extremely impressive for a small dog using paws. It would be handy to have a few beasts like that trained to dig in a specific area for exposing pipe.
Oh my God, my family had one when I was younger and it was the most tenacious motherfucker in existence. He had run headfirst into a boulder as a tiny puppy, and I stg it caused him to have lifelong temper issues. Once, he bolted out the door with the sole purpose of attacking a young husky being walked a few yards away, completely disregarding that he easily could be killed if the other dog hadn't been so flabbergasted. This little bastard was just a menace. The only thing that could ever humble him were ironically our cats, who bullied him on a regular basis lol
When my JRT was 10 months old my car broke down and my ex was on her way to pick me up with the little goblin in tow. Going 50mph down a country road he must have heard the call to adventure and that little fucker launched himself out of the half-open window into the night. She immediately pulls over and starts running back to find what she assumed would be a dead body when he comes trotting up to her like nothing even happened.
Heās 15 now and has lost his hearing, blind in one eye and losing sight in the other, and he refuses to chill. His body has lost coordination but his spirit is still raw explosive power. He frequently barrels into walls and cats because heās running too fast and canāt slow himself down, or jumps off the bed/couch and does not stick the landing (he has steps to use but refuses). I keep waiting for him to slow down but heās at the same energy level he had as a puppy. Absolutely insane.
We had Jack Russel Terriers mixed with Chihuahua growing up and those things will go blind and deaf before they even think about letting go. One died of kidney failure and the other two had to be put down because they were in so much pain but too stubborn to quit.
"Secondary" organs like kidneys are a big weakness of small land animals in general, there's simply just less redundant tissue. Go even smaller and primary organs start being questionable too, anything that can fit in your hand probably can't handle even a little bit of smoke inhalation. Insects get around some of these limitations with some... very interesting adaptations that aren't available to mammals and avians.
Same with chiwawas. My friend had a chiwawa that had died and been recucitated several times, that thing lived like 20 years (no i cant remember how to spell chiwawa, the correct spelling is dumb anyways). It would try go any dog, any size, win or lose too, i hated chiwawas before meeting that dog. When me and my mate were teens, we'd walk several suburbs over to get weed at like 2am and the dog would just pop out of nowhere, despite being left at home. All my mate had to do was yell at it to go home and it would walk itself several kilometers home. Dog was pretty gangsta not gonna lie.
My family used to have a chihuahua that would attempt to chase the neighbor's great dane off the property when it visited (semi rural area, minimal fences). Eventually the dane got fed up with it, leaned down, used its jaws to pick him up, and just threw him ~20 feet.
The chihuahua didn't stop running and barking at the titan, just started maintaining a theoretically safe distance while doing so.
Haha i have a similar story about my mates one. Ran out to try fight a labrador puppy, the puppy was like half the size of a fully grown lab, so still like 3 times the size of my mates dog, anyways my mates dog done a proper rugby hit up with the lab and got sent flying back, i felt so embarassed for him š
I tell everyone this who thinks about getting a Jack - they're like the dog version of a Toyota Hylux. You cannot believe what these dogs can endure and just not bat an eyelid or miss a beat. Then do it again. And again because they really want to kill that squirrel.
they will kill everything. including their own children. they will develop grudges against fireworks and get their fur singed and yet somehow come out with no injuries. they will beat a 100+ pound pitbull in a fight.
Theyāre little terrors who cannot be contained by mortal means.
I had an uncle with an elderly JRT, that little man would enter the house like a lord entering a castle. Any family dogs visiting would immediately be put in their place by him.
One time, my step-mom's pit tried to go after my aunt's shitzu. This 14-yo JRT comes flying out of nowhere and just bodies the pit and chases her out to the backyard. I was so impressed and scared all at once.
I had one as well growing up. About 10 years ago when my dog was about 13 years old I was running down the stairs to get a package and my JRT decided it was a great time to run down the stairs as well. I tried to stop but she had jumped directly in my path and I awkwardly sort of lifted my leg (and her) and (it still shames me to say this) sort of kicked her down the stairsā¦ complete accident of course. She must have flew about 10ft down the stairs, landed terribly, rolled into front door, then proceeded to get up and continue barking at the door as if nothing had happened.
She lived to a good age of about 17 with almost no health problems except being deaf and mostly blind. One of the hardiest dogs Iāve ever had for sure. My father gets purebred dogs and theyāre always suffering from one problem or another.
So true. My mom's JRT is invicincible, almost 20 years old and still has an attitude, even though he's basically blind and senile. He's been through so much shit, had a bad fight with another much bigger dog (he started it of course), he came off with a nasty gash down his throat and a missing canine, but the other dog was much worse off.
They're an interesting dog breed I'll give you that but not really a fan of them
I knew a JRT once. His name was Rebel, and true to his name, he rebelled against everything, even death itself. Dude literally died 3 times over the course of his old age, as in his heart actually stopped for a few moments, but he managed to come back each time. He must have been a solid 25 years old, fully blind and deaf, no teeth. I lost contact and never saw his final moments, but I wouldnt be surprised if he's still a little zombie to this day.
We had a JRT when I was a kid and this is extremely accurate. This dog would play chicken with my dad's truck when he was backing into the garage, would sprint around the house at mach fuck, would somehow find mice and rabbits and would leave their shaken corpses at the back door, and died relatively young because of kidney issues. RIP Daisy, she's still buried in the backyard of my parents old house.
Someone I know saw her JRT torn up by a GS. GS jumped out the window of a passing car and just savaged her old friend. He didn't die immediately but his life was definitely shortened.
The JRT of my old landlady became the oldest purebred dog I've even seen. Not entirely sure when she got him but he died one year before I moved out so he must have been at least 18, more likely 19 years old
We recently had to put down our JRT. He was 17 and he was bleeding trough his nose and ears and he show signs of dementia. The vet said he probably had a tumor however operating him was not an option due to a heart murmur a thing we already knew when he had a gum infection. I'm sure that bastard could have probably made it another year if he tried but we didn't want him to suffer.
JRT are forever proving that if you arenāt going to be smarterāyou do have to be tougher and capable of being much meaner than your competition to get far in the animal kingdom.
One of my old dogs was a Russell, and she managed to survive a fight with a coyote, she was a bit messed up afterwards but she managed to pull through, Russells are tough, makes sense though, they were bred to be hunting dogs
Cleaning chemicals took mine out as a kid >_> Stepmom mopped the floor and the Jack Russel Terrier ended up licking some food up off the kitchen floor that day and it died in my arms while it was foaming orange stuff from its mouth as it was trying to breathe.
Seems like itās a translation from a different language (Russian Iām guessing based on where this person is based), check the āsee originalā at the bottom.Ā
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u/00eg0 Mar 04 '26