Meet Pici, Britain's Naughtiest Dog

Sociable, sun-loving and incredibly patient with children, this innocent-looking Jack Russell actually enjoys a secret life of crime. Victoria Marston finds out more and introduces the runners-up

- John Holder

PICI thinks she’s human—I think all Jack Russells do, actually,’ says the London-based little dog’s owner, Elizabeth Johnson.

She goes on to explain that Pici (who is named for the local pasta where she was born in Italy, pronounced ‘peachy’) is confident, kind, gentle, a sun-worshipper, slightly territorial with strangers or other dogs, but unbelievably tolerant of children —‘a child in a shop the other day grabbed her tail and just pulled and pulled and pulled. We had to prise its fingers off as she would never snap or growl, she just rammed her tail firmly between her legs for the next half an hour’. Pici, however, is also something of a master criminal.

When COUNTRY LIFE announced a new search for Britain’s naughtiest dog, four years after Rabbit was crowned (March 25, 2015), the postbags were soon overflowing with tales of disobedience and destruction, but it quickly became clear that there was r going to be one winner.

Pici—a much-loved birthday gift, 12 years ago, to Mrs Johnson’s daughter Lottie, who turned 21 yesterday—cut her teeth, so to speak, with the usual litany of canine crimes. ‘No one seems to have told her that chocolate is poisonous to dogs,’ reflects Mrs Johnson, recalling the time the little terrier snaffled the family’s Easter eggs. ‘We found a ball of foil placed neatly in her basket and she showed not the slightest ill effect.’

Another time, Pici managed to retrieve and demolish a packet of biscuits from the bottom of a guest’s overnight bag, without leaving the slightest trace of disturbance— ‘she’s very light-fingered’—and, one Christmas, she discovered and opened her own present, leaving the rest untouched.