THIS year’s reserve champion at Crufts was a nine-year-old red and white, rough coated Jack Russell named Zen, co-owned by Hiroshi Tsuyuki and Kao Miichi from Japan. In the history of this prestigious dog show this is the first time a Jack Russell has received an award and, considering Crufts started in 1891 and the breed has been in existence since the early 1800s, this long-awaited recognition of the breed is well overdue.

The Jack Russell breed today can trace its origins back to the early white Hunt Terrier which is now extinct. The small working terriers we now know were originally bred by the Reverend John Russell, a Church of England parson from Devon, from whom the breed derives its name. A keen huntsman, he apparently kept his Sunday sermons very short in order to get away hunting. His original terriers were mostly white so that they could be seen from a distance, and not be mistaken for a fox.