Got invited to join a  local FB group for small dogs and decided to accepted as a general good for business move.  I have never been a member of a pet based dog forum, so have been completed amazed at the opinions and lack of knowledge (or common sense).  Some of it is worrying - a lot of members have Jack Russels, Chis, or JRxChi, and seem oblivious to the potential for fighting between them - they are organising a meet up and dog walk soon, the thought of which scares me silly!  However, today the conversation has descended into the ridiculous, with one member posting a pic of her JR nuzzling the family rabbit, and a comment about having read JRs can be "aggressive" toward small animals, but look how good hers is! The pup is only 20 weeks old, so plenty of time for his terrier instinct to kick in.  However, the suggestion that breed traits are a fact has been met with outrage, they are all convinced that it all comes down to care and training!  One has even said that breed characteristics are all to do with breed standards and are ludicrous.

It's a real eyeopener, the absolute lack of knowledge over how their dogs may react in certain circumstances is simply ignored because that is not how they want to see them.  Some of the ideas are so strange, this week one member bought an older pup (another JR Chi X) to go wiht her JR- got the pup home crawling with fleas and seemed it think it was the norm for a puppy!  Another has said your shoudl never pay more than £200 for a puppy (any breed). One of todays discussions has been about "miniature" jack russels.  It's a whole new world!  And I pity the poor bunny in a month or two's time!

I was invited to join a group on FB after trying to look at a dog that was advertised for rehoming. I duly applied to join the group thinking that it was a rescue site only to find it was full of posts advertising dogs for sale. The dog I was originally looking at was being sold for £150 as the owners had no time for it - not quite 12 months old - and there were posts on there asking if they could have the dog for free.

I also saw a poster selling "wolf dogs" and so many other poor creatures for sale on there where the only criteria for a new owner was to be able to afford the asking price. So many pets of all shapes, size and breed all looking for new homes.

Talking with random (ie not your own puppy buyers!) pet owners is a real eye-opener, and shows the depth of ignorance of the majority of the public, and just how much education is needed. We all think we're not 'experts' but this forum's like a den of university professors compared to Mr Average.

Would be amazing if it was not so very sad. JRs like a lot of terriers are cross-breeds bred to hunt and kill small animals, not being a breed but rather a cross/mongrel terrier type they could have any degree of 'feisty' and they will not resemble a standard because they don't have one. The only thing that the working breeder wants of their litters is that they should be the right size to hunt the prey animal required to be eradicated. Other breeders sadly only care that they have enough pet homes for them to fill their pockets with some extra pocket money.

Hehe, that's the joy of the FB forums!! Beware!  What to do is, hold your peace and just wait till she's posting questions about why her JRx is destroying her lovely home and killed her rabbit.  Where did this devil dog come from!  Then you can add a little post on the end of all the 'sorry huni' comments, TOLD YA! HE'S A WORKING TERRIER!

> TOLD YA! HE'S A WORKING TERRIER!

Yes, and as much as you want to put out some gentle warnings, it is going to come that, I think.  I still fear for the upcoming meet up between them, I think there will be about 15 assorted Chis, Chi X JR, Jrs and a couple who look like Lakeland Xs - a great assortment of dogs to let off leads for playtime!

Couldn't agree more. Recently I had someone mention their Cavvie needed his nails trimming. 'They're one of the few breeds that need it doing.' Eh?

I am constantly shocked at not only the General Pubic/New Dog owners ideas or knowledge (or lack of) but of my OWN family!!!! I do not believe that I know all about dogs or animals in general but I am like a Guru compared to my own family who although have no pets at the moment Have had dogs through most of their childhood!!
*blushing at the embarrassment of what I am about to confess*.....my own sister once was surprised at cat poop looking like normal poop as she though they pooped like rabbits *sighs* she works in a school! and has a degree :-(
Paula xxx

Well, according to my friends new 'boyfriend' a man in his 50's (who we had the pleasure of meeting this week) I must be the devil incarnate, the only reason he did not breed from his lovely Molly is because he did not have room for 6+ new dogs in his home, as breeders must be so hard to home all those cute puppies, he could never do that as they would all be family.

I tried to explain the impracticalities of trying to keep a whole litter but he would have none of it! I mustn't love dogs apparently!

Well, I guess it makes a change :-) never come across that point of view before. I honestly could not be bothered and pushed a cream cake into my mouth to stop any words coming out. :-D

snooping on my son's fb account I saw a post from one of his friend's girlfriend asking for a stud dog for her (in her words) Chi, didn't mind if it was a Chi, Jack Russell or any other small dog. One offer was for a dachshund! They even told her to look up this cross on google. It seems that the weirder the cross the better nowadays!!

i was walking with a, group of what my husband calls normal people,  pet people, and they got on about how good it was going to  be when all dogs had to be microchipped and how it would stop all biting incidents and i said why does the chip stop the dog from biting,
they laughed and said no of course not but the dog can be traced,
oh i said so that dog over their pointed at a dog and said bites one of ours or us, so who has the scanner on them to scan it before it runs out the park and never is seen again as there is no owner with it is there, they then said never thought of it like that and i said to them if a dog is attacking yours would you really have time to sort your dog out grab your scanner and scan it, that changed their minds about microchipping they said that it was going to be a waste of time as the people who have the sort of dogs we where talking about would not microchip them anyway, these friends who i walk with have brought this up with other people and said to me who do we contact to talk through the microchipping law with as it said that it had confused people they thought that all dogs would now be caught and dealt with if they had been bitten, this made me think that many people no in the know are told all these lies about no need to health test these dogs as they are cross breeds and you will never have any probs with them,you can't see the mum she is not well, proberly the mother was in a puppy farm and we just bring the pups out to you, how do you get through to joe public, is it via media,tv adverts,newspaper adverts, many people think the kc are for the elite not to help people who just want a pet i do not know what the answer is but putting the word out and flood the market with advertising about going to get a puppy ,see with mother etc maybe a start and i do not mean in the dog papers, the nationals,tabloids, i feel so sorry for people that have been duped , but also feel as though sometimes common sense has gone out the window, or is it because i have been around dogs for years and years we know what to look for and when to walk away

It is scary indeed -and it is the same for all animals, the same sort of ignorant people exist everywhere. Years ago I bred and showed fancy rats, then after years gave up as I got fed up with them escaping (very intelligent so easily learn how to open cages) and killing other animals. I had mice, hamsters, gerbils, even a giant French Lop rabbit killed by escaped rats, plus a kitten attacked and scarred for life. Well when I mentioned my decision within the fancy several people told me that rats would not attack other animals if they were loved enough by their owners! (Miss that rolling eyes smiley.)

Then there are all the cat owners who think they don't need to neuter if they have a brother and a sister as the brother would never mate his sister, would he. Yet at the same time some people think you must make sure to keep rabbits and guinea pigs apart as THEY will breed together and have some sort of mutant babies. Syrian Hamsters live for 2-3 years max yet people will swear they had one that lived for 7 years -in fact they had a guinea pig but they never even knew it was not a hamster! Very common that one.

Beats me where people get all their weird ideas from.

> However, the suggestion that breed traits are a fact has been met with outrage, they are all convinced that it all comes down to care and training!

Yet these people stick to the same breed!

[url=]Yet at the same time some people think you must make sure to keep rabbits and guinea pigs apart as THEY will breed together and have some sort of mutant babies.[/url]

When the guy i work with use to own a pet shop he had a lady come on and ask him why her rabbit and guinea pig hadnt produced any babies as they had been keeping them tougher for ages lol.

On another forum im on there is someone who breeds there mice to sell as pets, she reasontly posted that she found a baby shrew and was asking if she can feed it mouse food, she was told no and that they have to eat constantly and it would be illegal to keep it, but she didnt listen and said she was doing a degree in animal science, welfare and management and put it in with one of her mice who had a litter. Guess what the mouse attacked it and ate it. She got upset that everyone was telling her to let it go and that she shouldnt have put it in with her mice and said everyone was bullying her.

I have the softest Bearded Collie boy but when he got near my rats when they were free ranging I had to move like lightening or they would have been ex rats!! A lesson well learned for me and luckily with no bad outcome for the rats!!

Animals will always be animals!!!

In Sibes, pet owner forums are rife.  The main answer to the 'off lead' debate is that 'they' have a 'special bond' with their sibe which is why it will come back, and all experienced sibe people don't! 

In all of the breeds it is the dog I feel so sorry for,because
ultimately they will pay for their owners stupidity

Having 2 Patterdales in the family we have been trying to train them to accept the free range chickens, however I don't doubt they would kill them in a nano second if given the chance as this is their character. The Boxers, spaniel ( and GSD before she went to the rainbow ) all walk among the chickens and completely ignore them, in fact once my GSD had a chicken sitting on her back, because they are not killers like terriers. People need to understand the breed characteristics.

Also recently we went to a junior football match and there was a woman with a 6 week old pup on a lead in really cold weather, allowing all the kids to take it in turns to take it for a walk. On talking to the woman ( in horror) she was not aware the pup needed feeding every few hours, she thought 1 meal a day was sufficient. She also did not know it needed vaccinations against Parvo etc and thought it was ok to walk a pup of this age along pavements.

I put her straight in no uncertain terms, but I cannot understand how people buy a pup without at least finding out what it needs and how to look after it.