It's always the little ones...

Lupus has had some minor altercations with a Jack Russell, called 'Billy', although they haven't really had a fight due to Lupus being a lot bigger and obviously more powerful. In case you don't know the breed, Jack Russels are a tenatious little animal that almost always will have ideas above it's station.

Unfortunately many owners reinforce this character trait by treating them as 'lap dogs' and also by carrying them around, so they think they're above other dogs.

Jack Russells were actually bread for hunting rats, rabbits and other small animals, hence their small size and muscular build. Most are now bought as companions and having met a few owners of these dogs they tend not to be 'dog' people... in that they treat their dog as though it were a person more than an animal.


Anyway, I was in the park with lupus and his friend, 'Harvey', who's a gorgeous bulldog about 18 months old, so he's fairly small. We were just leaving the park when Billy entered off the lead. He came up to Lupus and growled, but Lupus ignored him (as usual), but Billy attacked... yes, attacked Harvey and locked his jaws on to Harvey's ear and cheek.

This went on for what seemed like ages, but was probably just a few minutes, so we tried various things to try and separate them. If you're ever faced with this situation yourself, here are the things we tried and the thing that worked:

• Pulling the jaws apart - Don't bother, it won't work and they have sharp teeth!
• Finger up the bottom - Difficult when they're fighting, as they're small dogs.
• Strangulation - SUCCESS! So, throttle the terrier so it can't breathe and it will eventually let go.

So, there you have it. Jack Russells can be nasty little dogs that fiercely attack other dogs... but only if they think they might be able to win. So, Billy is now known as 'Bully', which I think is about right!