Z’s attitude to B has been, from Day One, an appropriately regal, “You are invisible to me.” This is infinitely superior to her attitude toward M, which was a wary, “You might be dangerous. Do I need to defend my person from you?”
The latter led her into some very painful behavior. Painful to both of us — breaking up dog fights is not fun and has generally involved damage to my person, except for the one time where I scooped Zelda up and threw her into the pool. I read something about Jack Russell terriers once that said you should never own two of them, because if they fight, they will fight to the death — they are incapable of giving up. M had every advantage over Z but when Z decided she needed to fight, she would not let go, and M, quite sensibly, defended herself. Anyway, I think that book was probably silly — plenty of people own two JRTs without trouble, but Z has a stubbornness and a focus that is innate. She would have been good at catching rats, I suspect. Put her on the job and away she goes.
Her job, however, at least as she sees it, is me, the care and keeping of. Her focus is on reading my mind, delivering her interpretation of my wishes, keeping me safe. B has just been a peripheral creature, innocuous, not threatening, not interesting. Lately, however, I’ve been leaving the house a lot more often than I used to, and leaving the two of them home alone. Gradually, slowly, tentatively… well, you can see the photo. R called them Yin and Yang. I call them adorable.
My sister had two Jack Russels… she was going to breed them, LOL, until she got the second one and discovered how active they are, physically. Next thing I knew, she’d had them both fixed!
As I know from Zelda and her siblings, Jack Russell puppies are incredibly cute but a ton of work! When Z was little, I worked from home so I’d sit on my bed and type with one hand and throw the ball for her with the other for hours. (The bed is relevant because she had to return the ball by jumping on the bed. B can’t even get on the bed by himself.) She slowed down a lot with age, so I used to think that she was a very mellow dog. No, she’s not. She’s mellow for a Jack Russell. But compared to the other dogs, she is a bundle of energy.
they do look adorable. my grandkids have a JRT. he’s a handful.
They are working dogs, the kind that will find a job if you don’t give them one. You have to make sure that the job they find isn’t something like, “dig giant holes in the backyard” or “destroy all socks that fall on the floor”!
Hmm – I will have to think of the job angle in terms of my grandkids dog. He certainly thinks it is his job to protect them from anything in the yard that he thinks shouldn’t be there.
I finally put a picture of my magazine xmas tree on my blog. I was pleased with the results for so little effort on my part.