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JRT or Rat Terrier?

10325 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Sora, 
S
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Hello, wanted to get some insight on my dog's breed. Have it narrowed down to a Rat Terrier and Jack Russel Terrier Chihauaha cross. I think he resembles a rat terrier moreso than the ladder, but when he was adopted we were told JRT x Chihauaha, but I would definitely like some opinions because the owners might have just been misinformed on the breed since a lot of people don't know what rat terriers are. He wasn't adopted at a breeder or anything like that, there was someone selling puppies outside of a grocery store in a box. He has a very prominent chest sorta like a greyhound and he has fairly short legs so he might be mixed slightly with some other breeds but I'm not sure. Temperament wise he is very calm and only wants to play occasionally. He doesn't bark at all (unless he's playing or is told to speak and it's unexpectedly deep sounding) and isn't very concerned about other dogs. He seems to care more about pleasing his owners (my bf and I) than what other dogs are doing. He is naturally great to take walks with because he is so well behaved. He is very easy to train and knows lots of tricks. He loves to cuddle and is very chill. Highly intelligent and seems to have a greater perspective than most dogs. So here he is:

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revolutionrocknroll
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I'd guess JRT just because in the last pic it looks like he has short legs, which many JRTs have, and Rat Terriers have long legs and tend to be lean. JRTs can also have the upright ears too.

Some JRTs:






Rat Terriers:






Otherwise, the breeds look so similar it would be hard to figure out which one was in a mix.
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Yeah I see what you are saying. I do think there is a breed of rat terrier with short legs though. "Teddy Roosevelt" Terrior I think. Not entirely sure. I just feel like his face is a lot slimmer than a jack Russell. But what really throws me off is his personality. He can be energetic but he is never out of hand. He is usually very chill and has always been that way. He likes to jump when you come home or he gets in the mood to play every now and then but he is extremely adaptive to whatever we are doing and usually just wants love and cuddles which is very unlike either but mostly JRT. But it is more common for JRT to be brown than rat terrier so I have no idea haha.
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Here's the deal.

There was at one time a working terrier, which was used for going after all sorts of critters that was mostly white and came in smooth coat and wire coat.

This group gave rise to the Fox Terrier...both wire hair and smooth hair. The Kennel Club got ahold of it and you basically got two divisions...papered 'show' terriers and unpapered working terriers.

These working terriers came in different types, but often different types in the same litter. And people had no qualm about mixing different variants trying to get good dogs.

Later on people started to slap breed labels on these dogs. You could actually have a litter of pups, and Charlie takes 1 pup while Bob takes another. Charlie ends up registering his pup as a JRT while Bob registers his as a rat terrier. What does that make the other dogs in the same litter?

Deciding to call your terrier mix a JRT X whatever vs a Rat Terrier X whatever is arbitrary. You can choose whichever of those you like.
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Now do we think there's any Chihauaha in him? Because I think people just assume because he has pointy ears. I don't see any other features that point to Chihauaha on him. Perhaps he is a Rat Terrior jack Russell mix. *shrugs* oh well. He's a great dog regardless of his breed. Just always struggle with what to tell people when they ask.
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So after doing further research I read a very interesting post that noted that Jack Russells only have ticking on their actual skin and not their coats while rat terriers generally have some on their coat. My dog has ticking on his legs and paws. I think I'm going to go with Rat Terrier mix because of this. The short legs definitely throw me off but there is a breed of rat terrier with short legs. It's also highly possible he is simply a JRT Rat Terrier cross and the owner thought since the rat terrier had pricked ears it was a Chihauaha. His personality is also way too chill to be predominantly JRT.
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