About Us
Boys
Girls
More Family
Links
Contact
 
 
 About Us
?
Mackie & Shooter
Before you read on, please click here
for an important announcement.

I first encountered Parson Russell Terriers while on a trip to England in 1987. They were of the “puddin” type but cute as anything and triggered my interest in the breed. I imported my first two bitches from the late Barry Jones’ Heliwar kennel from the UK in 1988. Little did I know how important my stumbling into that situation would become.

In the beginning, I had a bit of trouble getting breeders to consider selling me dogs. JRTs were on the verge of TKC recognition in the UK and terrier enthusiasts wished to keep the best in the country. Also, some breeders would hear my American voice on the phone and the price would double or triple. One of the ladies I spoke with didn’t have anything to sell me but suggested I call Barry. She didn’t mention that he was the president of the Parson Jack Russell Terrier Club and neither did he when he kindly offered to pick me up at the train station.

Mackie
I picked out the two bitches from a litter and was advised to keep them in different homes as they matured because of same sex aggression - particularly volatile in littermates he told me. He sold them to me for the “going rate” of 40 pounds (about $65 at the time). The girls, as predicted, did end up hating each other in a big way. We split them up so that one lived with me, the other with a friend and that solved our problem. This was the beginning of Somerset Jack Russell Terriers.

I continued for a couple of years with my Heliwar dogs and then decided I needed to add some new blood to the program. I contacted Sheila Atter of Ridley Parson Jack Russell Terriers about purchasing a male pup. Shortly after, Ridley Poacher of Somerset came into the breeding program and we discovered that Heliwar/Ridley was a very complimentary cross. I tried other bloodlines over the years but have never been as satisfied with the results as with those of Heliwar/Ridley dogs.

Ray & Julie
In 1997 the dogs and I started sharing our lives with my now husband, Ray. Little did Ray know when he first met me how much his life would be changed by the introduction of many little white dogs to it. He has jumped in with both feet. He feeds, cleans and walks dogs, gets roped into showing on occasion and has even whelped bitches while I was away at dog shows. He rarely complains and for the most part feels like I do - that as Roger Karas said "Dogs are not our whole lives, dogs make our lives whole." We are a team and it works well for all concerned. I did it alone for many years but it is much nicer to have someone to share it all with.

Here at Somerset Jack Russell Terriers the goal is to produce a correctly conformed dog with a sound, trainable disposition. The rule at our house, for all creatures, is that if they are not nice to be around, they don’t continue to live here and certainly don’t reproduce. This goes for all things: the sheep, goats, horses, and especially the dogs.

Since most of the dogs that breeders produce, including show dogs, spend most of their lives as companions, temperament is extremely important. Dogs we have bred have earned AKC championships, Earthdog titles, Canine Good Citizen certificates and there are some aspiring agility dogs that have come from Somerset as well.

We hope that you will enjoy perusing this site and will email us us with any questions or comments that you might have about it and our dogs.

Julie and Ray Dalbey