18 months ago I got a Parson Russell Terrier puppy (think Jack Russell with longer legs and a longer rough coat) and he has turned out to be a great little dog. He looks something like this. Before I got him I did a lot of reading since I had never had a terrier before, but a few behaviors he exhibits I have never seen before in any other dog I have had in the past, and I would like to know that they are normal for terriers.
Every since he was a puppy he would steal socks and gloves from our laundry room and leave them strewn around the house. Lately he has been stealing socks and work gloves and leaving them on our driveway. I realize that he considers these things as part of us, but why take them and scatter them around the house and yard? He hasn’t buried any clothing as far as I know. Is this normal terrier behavior?
We buy rawhide chews for him, and he usually takes them directly from us and goes outside where he hides/buries them somewhere. I have never found his stash, and have never seen him chew these on his own outside. As far as I am concerned they are gone forever. Is this normal terrier behavior?
He loves to play fetch with tennis balls, and I play fetch with him for at least an hour a day, but sometimes when he runs into the woods to retrieve a ball he will suddenly stop and start pulling up random plants and ripping them out of the ground. He doesn’t eat the plants, and if I distract him he will continue playing fetch. Is this normal terrier behavior?
All of that is normal behaviour for many dogs (and one of mine is a JRT mix.) My Rottweiler is the one who takes his bones out to bury them; the JRTx, being a little bitch, will take her goodies to her bed and guard it from the other dogs with much posturing and snarling. Actually, three of the six Rottweilers I’ve owned over the years have typically disappeared their bones.
A friend recently adopted a Sheltie, who does the sock-and-underwear steal and scatter thing. She and her husband are learning that ripe-smelling clothing must go directly into the closed laundry basket so unmentionables don’t end up in the front yard.
The digging is probably him smelling bugs, critter pee or something under the ground that makes him lose interest in the ball - “ooh a shiny thing! Dig! Kill!” That’s my theory, anyhow. Terriers (as the name would suggest) were bred to “go to earth” and hunt vermin. My back yard is cratered with little digging holes, mostly in the wooded area. When we go to the lake or along the river, I frequently have to drag Fiona away from muskrat warrens. She’ll dig in a frenzy, for a long time, and I don’t want her to come face to face with a pissed-off muskrat, or unearth a nest of babies. She also catches mice and rabbits, so watch for tape worms if you suspect your little guy catches anything. Regular wormers don’t kill tapes, for that you need a single dose of Droncit (here in the US.)
Russell terriers are amazing, awesome dogs. I grew up with one, and she was the best dog I ever had. The strangest thing she did, that I’ve never seen other breeds do, is the “turbo”: taking off and tearing ass around the house at full speed for a minute or so for no apparent reason. I guess they just get a sudden burst of energy they need to let off.
Our dogs each do some of those things. One dog in particular will not chew rawhide unless she first buries, then retrieves it later. Later may be one minute or one week.
Your JRT is doing nothing out of the ordinary. I have 7 of them and at least one of them does each of the things described and many many more odd things. I’ve never been bored with them.
I used to have a Lab mix named Larry. Many years ago, right after I first got him, we went to my parents house for Christmas (they have a house and about 12 acres on a very large lake). My sister gave him a pack, of those rawhide “bones”. He took one and ran outside. That evening, he wanted a new one, which he consumed that night. I thought noting of it.
The next year, we went up for Christmas. When Larry got there, after greeting everyone who was there, he had to go outside. He came back in about 5 minutes later with a rawhide chew that looked as if it had been buried for about a year (it was covered with dirt, a bit moldy; perfect for a dog). That was probably 29 years ago, and it still amazes me.
I’ve got a Cairn Terrier that “turbos” too. (Good name for it!)
Completely random, spontaneous bursts of tearing from one end of the house to the other, looping 3 or 4 times, sometimes accompanied by growling. Then collapse, with a big sigh and a nap.
Glad to hear that this is not unique to my dog. He does zoomies too, which I assumed was just a way for him to blow off steam. And I get the part about chasing small furry animals and digging up their dens, but the scattering of clothing around is new to me.
Thanks for the link! This was enlightening - I’d never heard the term zoomies before. All three of the miniature poodles my parents owned (successively) got the zoomies at least once a day.
