Welcome to the Finnish JRT diversity project

This is the Jack Russell Terrier project for genetic diversity. This website is showcasing a Finnish project where private JRT breeders have agreed to work together to preserve the breed's vitality, health and temperament. The project also works to collect a broad range of data of all the dogs within the project for later scientific study. We've recieved help from several experts in different fields in drawing up the project specifics.

The participating dogs have been chosen to represent as wide a variety of genes as possible. They've then been organised into breeding groups. Within each group the inbreeding coefficient is kept to a minimum and when needed, a rotational mating system between groups is used to add hybrid vigour. When all the founding dogs breed equally and moderately, as many JRT lines as possible are kept alive for later generations of breeders. We also bring in new blood by importing dogs that are unrelated to dogs in Finland.

Please take a moment to read about the project and if you have anything to ask, just contact us at