What kind of conformation standards do you breed to?

When choosing the founding population we aren't too particular about the details like colour and the smaller details of the dog's conformation. Nor will we breed show dogs in the future, either. We still won't compromise when it comes to breed type and a healthy build. When we choose the founding population our aim is to choose puppies of good type from a line of good type and not consider whether the puppy itself will be a show star.

One of the irreversible facts of dog breeding is that if you try to breed for many qualities at once, there is either no progress or the progress is very slow. Therefore we've chosen the main focus of the breeding programme to be the traits that are the most important both to us, the dog owners and indeed to the dogs themselves: temperament and health. If we'd aim to improve the conformation of each generation drastically, we wouldn't be able to improve the temperament and health of the offspring as efficiently. Not even if as breeders we would wish for it or even believe it!

The project puppies are unlikely to become Best of Breed in the show ring at least for the first generations. This doesn't mean that we'll be ignoring the conformation aspect completely in making our breeding decisions: we aim to breed Jack Russell Terriers. Traits that are foreign to the breed or unhealthy for the dog will be bred out. The breed standard is fortunately broad enough and can be interpreted in different ways, so it can encompass dogs that look very different but are still Jack Russells.

Fortunately it's possible to maintain the exterior diversity also within the breed standard. One of the most fascinating things about the Jack Russells are their individual differences. There's a rainbow of different temperaments, colours, coats and conformations within the breed. Our devout wish is that the breed will continue to be as many faceted as it is now and that it won't change into an almost cloned breed like so many show breeds before it.

In short: Our aim is to preserve both the looks that fit the breed standard and diversity among them. These two are luckily not at war.