We don’t know the date that the Daily Paper (presumably of the UK) published the following report, but it beautifully encapsulates the “never say die” attitude we love about terriers.

“A Terrier belonging to the Essex Union Hunt went down an earth after a fox at Ongar and did not return. For six days diggers tried to locate it, and at last succeeded. The exhausted Terrier was given brandy and milk to revive it. Then it tried to get back into the earth again.”

It is not an uncommon story. Some terriers have been found ensconced underground for days, unwilling to leave their quarry at any cost. In certain areas, some fox holes could be up to a mile long, and terriers that went after the critters that used these holes had to be able to stay underground for extended periods (though certainly not with the expectation that it be for days!)

Badgers, for example, live much of their lives underground, coming up only for short times at night. Some badgers can grow to be forty pounds, and between their size, ill temper, and having jaws like vice grips, it took a special dog – a terrier – to pursue them. Badgers were a particular nuisance to farmers; they preyed on chickens, and dug holes in which livestock broke their
legs. The purpose of sending a terrier (or Dachshund) after badgers wasn’t to kill them, but to move them to places where they did less damage. This required the dogs to go underground, locate the badger, and keep it busy while the farmers or hunters dug down and threw a net over it.

We caution that what we’ve described should in no way be equated illegal badger baiting, a horrific and cruel activity for which no punishment by law is severe enough, in our view.

“Jack Russell Terriers at Rabbit Hole” by Arthur Wardle (1886-1949)