A brief history of JRT breeding

There has been Jack Russells in Finland at least since the 1970's but the breed was officially recognised by the Finnish Kennel Club in 2001. In a short period of time the JRT has become the most popular Terrier breed in Finland and there are a lot of JRTs in the show ring. The popularity hasn't been all positive, though, as the registered number of Jack Russells has risen dramatically: in 2002 185 JRT puppies were registered, in 2006 695!

At the same time that the breeding has become more geared towards producing Jacks for dog shows there has been a marked increase in the relations between the dogs used for breeding. There has been a few imports that have had a huge impact on the Finnish JRT population. As most of those imports are related to each other in some way, this has diminished the gene pool even more. The Finnish breed club for the Jack Russell, Suomen Jackrussellinterrierit ry. has already taken the problem under advisement.

Quote from the JRT Breeding Programme as approved by the Finnish Kennel Club:

"As the register is open ie. the Finnish Jack Russell Terrier population is not a closed one, in theory the inbreeding coefficient could even become smaller. This however preconceives that the breeders will use dogs of different lines."

"The breeding goal is to attain a Jack Russell Terrier that is healthy, has a good temperament and has a conformation that conforms to the breed standard. The main focus of breeding should, however, be health and temperament. We aim to keep the gene pool as large as possible by avoiding overusing single individuals for breeding and by favouring the use of dogs as unrelated to each other as possible."

End of quote

Which way has breeding gone?

If we add together the imports to Finland that have had registration papers from their country of origin - mainly Australian and Dutch bred dogs, here abbreviated to AD dogs - they have 1049 1st generation offspring, 1314 2nd generation offspring = 2363 offspring (as of May 2007). An estimated 1500-2000 dogs of the 2769 registered JRTs in Finland are at least 25% HA import bred.

If all the HA imports were unrelated to each other, all would be fairly well. Unfortunately however the HA imports are siblings, half siblings, cousins or second cousins - and at least if you look further back in their pedigree you see the same dogs' influence there. Then we can't truly consider them unrelated dogs even if the inbreeding coefficient is low.

In 2006 only 25% of registered puppies were without HA imports in their immediate pedigree. Out of 115 imports we have at least 1500 offspring.

Outside of this calculation are all the imports that are registered through the assessments in Finland.

How do we make a change?

The most common way for dog breeders to go about their business is for the breeder to make their decisions privately, without taking other breeders' decisions into consideration. The unexpected result can sometimes be that most breeders use dogs of similar breeding and at the same time a lot of diversity is lost. The Jack Russell Terrier has already reached a point in Finland where it's difficult to find dogs that are unrelated to the common lines. Even though the number of puppies born are increasing rapidly, they are also more and more narrowly related to each other.

What kind of solutions are there to be found? One way is to increase the communication between breeders and their knowledge of the problems attached to increased homozygosity in the breed. Then hopefully the breeders will take the current state of the breed and the future of it into cosideration when making their breeding choices. Another way is to encourage breeders and private dog owners to familiarise themselves with the prevalent lines within the breed and then import dogs that are either unrelated to dogs in Finland or have few, if any, relatives used for breeding here. We all share the same wish, that the Jack Russell Terrier breed will be viable and vigorous in 50, 100 or 200 years' time. The choices to attain that are made now!

The continuation of breed assessment to register new stock is vital for the future of the breed. This also is written into the breeding plan of the Finnish Jack Russell Terrier Club.

Quote from the JRT Breeding Programme as approved by the Finnish Kennel Club:

The Club is in favour of keeping the breed assessments for registration open as long as possible, so that the gene pool in the breed becomes as wide as possible. Breeders are encouraged to import dogs so that the breeding population is as genetically diverse as possible. The problem is the overuse of some individual dogs and their offspring."