You can't hunt fox with dogs in the UKMel46 wrote:I think it all depends on the circumstances as to whether a dog becomes aggressive or not. Our dogs are very friendly to people and other dogs. However, they are Jack Russell Terriers. They are high strung hunting dogs. They have a mindset of a much bigger dog, and no fear. It is usually not recommended that you get one if you have small children. I believe they are still used for fox hunting in England.
In any case, they will not back down if challenged, so we keep them on lead when going for walks, and we cross to the other side when encountering other walkers with dogs. However, if a stray comes along, we can only try to keep our dogs away from it as best we can. If it growls and charges, we try to block it. But if it gets past us, all bets are off. This is different from a stray just wandering over to us and wagging its tail. We will then pet it and try to find the owner. Our dogs are friendly if the stray is friendly. I consider this normal everywhere.
Jack Russell's are sometimes used for ratting.