You'll Never Have a Dog Like Monty

By now many of you will know that I am a dog person. I’ve shared my life with many furry friends over the years, from Border Collies to gun dogs to terriers. All of those who passed through my life have held a special place in my heart, and they continue to do so to this day.

My current dog is Monty, a Jack Russell terrier who turns five in June. He’s not just my dog, he’s my friend, my companion, and a member of my family. He loves and cares about everyone he lives with, whether they have two legs or four. My big brother Paul once described him as being one of the most kind and caring souls he’s ever known.

Monty is definitely one of a kind, and you will never have a dog like him.

Now I know that sounds a bit arrogant but let me explain. Like every other living creature on this planet Monty is a product of his environment. He’s the way he is because of the way he was raised and of the things he’s experienced. All of this combined has made him into the dog he is today.

When others have met and got to know some of the dogs I’ve lived over the years they’ve commented about how good natured they were and how they’d like dogs just like them. Take my old Yellow Labrador Shane for instance. Shane was a big loveable idiot. He was as handsome as he was daft, but he was also quite the charmer. A friend met him, fell in love with him, and then decided she was going to get a Labrador and that he was going to be just like Shane.

He wasn’t. The dog may have been the same breed as Shane but personality-wise he was nothing like him. In fact the dog was a bit too much for her to handle and she had to give him up in the end.

Paul once made reference to Shane when he said that while one of the most friendly dogs he knew was a Labrador, one of the most vicious dogs was also a Labrador. I’ve had a similar experience myself to this.

When I worked in the pet shop a chap came in with his Jack Russell looking for a walking harness. I had a very difficult time trying to get the dog to sit still while I fitted the harness to him, so much so that I needed the help of my work buddy Greg. The dog was still having none of it, he just didn’t want to be fitted with a harness, and eventually he took out his frustration by taking a chomp on my hand.

Eventually we managed to get the harness on him, and after the chap paid for the harness he told me that I wasn’t the first person his dog had bitten, and that there was one time the dog and clamped down on his hand so hard that he could lift him up into the air. He told me this with a great big smile on his face, as if he thought it was great that he’d raised a vicious little so-and-so who’d sunk his teeth into a few people.

This dog was, by far, the most vicious dog I’d ever met, and even though he was a Jack Russell personality and temperament-wise he was the polar opposite to Monty.

Dogs are really like people. Like us they really are products of their environment, so if you see me out with Monty and his best mate Archie, the mad as a hatter Patterdale Terrier, please don’t think that if you get a Jack Russell yourself they’ll be just like Monty, because Monty is one of a kind, and you’ll never have a dog like Monty.