Plummer Terrier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Plummer Terrier | ||
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The Plummer Terrier is a working terrier, and like all working terriers, it is a composite animal.
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[edit] Origins
The Plummer Terrier is mostly made out of Jack Russell Terrier, with a strong dash of beagle (added for nose, voice and coat color), and bull terrier (added for toughness and head size). A red fell terrier was mixed in to improve the overall appearance.
This strain of terriers, first created by Brian Plummer (also known as D. Brian Plummer and David Brian Plummer) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, started out -- by Plummer's own admission -- as genetic wrecks with shot jaws, an ugly appearance, foul tempers, and a tendency to be mute. For anyone with a lick of sense, a caution flag should now pop up: Who in their right mind begins to breed from such a canine mess? Brian Plummer did.
After a long period of outbreeding and culling, obvious genetic problems were worked out of the breed (they are as healthy as any today), but a new problem worked its way in -- today's dogs are sometimes too big for truly tight underground work. Perhaps that is not a problem if you are developing a dog just for ratting, which was Brian Plummer's passion. That said, early dogs were smaller than today's dogs -- a common problem in the world of working terriers.
[edit] Appearance
The Plummer Terrier is a very attractive smooth-coated dog with a rich reddish-tan saddle coat and head, a white band at the neckline, and white at the feet and tip of tail. The ears fold over like most terriers, and the nose and eye are typically black, and the jaw has a good scissors bite.
[edit] Future
A generally game working dog, the Plummer Terrier is not a Kennel Club breed, and most Plummer Terrier owners who work their dogs would prefer that this dog remain outside of the forced standards of the Kennel Club.
While the Plummer Terrier generally breeds true in appearance, the standard is a working terrier standard, and the most common serious fault in this breed are over-large dogs that are too big in the chest to easily get to ground.
If salvation is to be had (at least for underground work), it is in the hands of genuine diggers and dedicated ratters that are trying to size down the breed and keep it working on a regular basis.
If doom is to rear its head, it is in the form of internecine rivalries between breed clubs and show ring rossette chasers that do not work their own dogs. In fact, this is a threat to all working dogs of all breeds, and the Plummer terrier is no different.
Though it is a bit early to say for certain, the Plummer Terrier appears to be a breed that has caught on in popularity among a segment of the working terrier set, and with increased restrictions on fox hunting in the UK, its popularity as a ratting dog is likely to increase.
[edit] Brian Plummer as Author and Controversy
Brian Plummer (Born 1936 - Died 2003) was a prolific writer of dog books, and his spot in the lexicon of terrier literature is well-deserved and assured.
That said, Brian Plummer himself was always a somewhat controversial character in part because he found it amusing to bait others into intemperance, and in part because he told stories well (some of which might have been slightly exaggerated).
For most of his life Plummer suffered occasional bouts of depression and struggled to support himself under very marginal financial conditions. To supplement his meager income from writing books and teaching, Plummer bred Cavalier King Charles Spaniels for the pet trade even as he dabbled in recreating "lost" breeds like the Lucas Terrier and the Alaunt -- breeds that had slid into extinction in generations past because they no longer had a rational reason for existence or preservation. Today Plummer's "Lucas Terrier" is a scruffy show ring dog, while his "Alaunt" appears to be little more than a variation of the pig-working pit bull so common in the American South.
Brian Plummer's books are his life's work, and they have done a great deal to popularize both terrier and lurcher work. Plummer's most popular book is undoubtedly "Tales of a Rat Hunting Man," while "The Complete Jack Russell Terrier" remains one of the better books on the breed.
[edit] Books by Brian Plummer
- Tales of a Rat Hunting Man[1]ISBN 0-85115-097-7
- The Complete Jack Russell Terrier[2]ISBN 1-902481-02-X
- The Sporting Terrier[3]ISBN 1-902481-00-3
- The Working Terrier[4]ISBN 0-85115-099-3
- The Modern Working Terrier (Plummer writing under the pen name "Michael Shaw")[5]ISBN 0-85115-425-5
- The Fell Terrier[6]ISBN 0-85115-181-7
- The Plummer Bible[7]ISBN 0-9552179-4-6
- Secrets of Dog Training[9]ISBN 1-85487-119-6
- The Complete Lurcher[10]ISBN 0-85115-118-3
- The New Complete Lurcher[11]1853109924
- Rogues and Running Dogs[12]ISBN 0-9528510-6-7
- Merle: Start of a Dynasty[13]ISBN 0-85115-171-X
- Practical Lurcher Breeding[14]ISBN 0-85115-292-9
- The Complete Book of Sight Hounds, Longdogs and Lurchers [15]ISBN 1-85487-096-3
- Ferrets[16]ISBN 1-902481-01-1
- Modern Ferreting[17]ISBN 0-85115-083-7
- Lepus (A Novel)[18]ISBN 0-85115-219-8
- The Cottage at the Edge of the World[19]ISBN 0-9552179-2-X
- Hunters All[20]ISBN 1-871968-10-0
- Off the Beaten Path[21]ISBN 1-871968-15-1
- Adventures of an Artisan Hunter (Country Library)[22]ISBN 0-85115-213-9
- Diary of a Hunter[23]ISBN 0-9542117-0-7
- Polly: A White German Shepherd Dog[24]ISBN 1-902481-04-6
- Nathan (A Novel)[25]ISBN 0-9542117-2-3
- Development of the Dog[26]ISBN 0-85115-637-1
- In Pursuit of Coney[27]ISBN 0-9533648-8-7
- North and North Again[28]ISBN 0-9552179-1-1
- Trog (A Novel)[29]ISBN 0-907827-11-X
