In July, 2007 we brought home a stray Jack Russell Terrier. He was about four months old and had been found wandering at a very busy Tampa intersection. He was being sheltered at Ehrlich Animal Hospital. They've taken excellent care of our animls for twenty years. A friend who works as a tech there, knew we were familiar with Jack Russells and asked if we'd be interested in this one. We brought him home and named him Hobbit because JR's are earth dogs and a J.R. wrote the famous tales about the hobbits in Lord of the Rings.
Hobbit is a long- legged version of the breed, with a very refined head and bone structure. He had been kenneled for a month when we got him. He's highly intelligent and shows signs of anxiety. He runs small, rapid circles to the left when anything excites or scares him, startles easily and is quick to bite. He jumps on everything he can reach, including the dining table and eats anything he can get his mouth on. He'd been used to eliminating in his kennel. We'd heard dogs that are raised like that are very hard to train. In this case, it's been true. We've had him six months and he's about 80% housebroken. He no longer goes in his crate and accidents in the house are infrequent.
On the plus side, Hobbit can be very affectionate. He's bonded with Scott and learned to be a magnificent couch potato. He's wonderful company for afternoon naps or nighttime movie watching. He and Ella are good pals. They wrestle and play tug and he tries his best to keep up with her at the dogpark. We started Hobbit in Puppy Kindergarten the second week we had him. We also put him in a supervised play group where he was able to play with large and small breeds. Since then, he's done Intro To Agility and is currently in a Tricks class. He excells at learning, leaving us feeling slow and clumsy.
We've grown quite attached to this little terrier, but there have been times we felt he was more than we could handle. He's bit both Scott and I more than once, and at least one of those bites could have used stitches. When he reached the six month stage of maturity, his aggression intensified. He had been easy and friendly at the vet's, but the last visit, he was a snarling, biting fury. He's also become reactive on leash when people or dogs pass us and he fence fights with the backyard dogs. He continues to be a voracious chewer and a difficult dog to develope boundaries with in the house. But at this point, we are commited to him. He would be a difficult dog to place. Jack Russells are notorious high energy, trouble makers. He is our fifth JR, so much of this is no surprise to us. But our others were adopted as weanling puppies and we had very few problems with them. Hobbit brings us new challenges. We're learning to appreciate the positive training approach. Ella has benefited from it, but trying to train a problematic terrier with positive methods is a whole different ballgame. Most of the time we feel like Frodo struggling to climb that mountain and drop that ring in.
Hobbit is a long- legged version of the breed, with a very refined head and bone structure. He had been kenneled for a month when we got him. He's highly intelligent and shows signs of anxiety. He runs small, rapid circles to the left when anything excites or scares him, startles easily and is quick to bite. He jumps on everything he can reach, including the dining table and eats anything he can get his mouth on. He'd been used to eliminating in his kennel. We'd heard dogs that are raised like that are very hard to train. In this case, it's been true. We've had him six months and he's about 80% housebroken. He no longer goes in his crate and accidents in the house are infrequent.
On the plus side, Hobbit can be very affectionate. He's bonded with Scott and learned to be a magnificent couch potato. He's wonderful company for afternoon naps or nighttime movie watching. He and Ella are good pals. They wrestle and play tug and he tries his best to keep up with her at the dogpark. We started Hobbit in Puppy Kindergarten the second week we had him. We also put him in a supervised play group where he was able to play with large and small breeds. Since then, he's done Intro To Agility and is currently in a Tricks class. He excells at learning, leaving us feeling slow and clumsy.
We've grown quite attached to this little terrier, but there have been times we felt he was more than we could handle. He's bit both Scott and I more than once, and at least one of those bites could have used stitches. When he reached the six month stage of maturity, his aggression intensified. He had been easy and friendly at the vet's, but the last visit, he was a snarling, biting fury. He's also become reactive on leash when people or dogs pass us and he fence fights with the backyard dogs. He continues to be a voracious chewer and a difficult dog to develope boundaries with in the house. But at this point, we are commited to him. He would be a difficult dog to place. Jack Russells are notorious high energy, trouble makers. He is our fifth JR, so much of this is no surprise to us. But our others were adopted as weanling puppies and we had very few problems with them. Hobbit brings us new challenges. We're learning to appreciate the positive training approach. Ella has benefited from it, but trying to train a problematic terrier with positive methods is a whole different ballgame. Most of the time we feel like Frodo struggling to climb that mountain and drop that ring in.
