My wife, Valarie and I love our dog Jack. He arrived two years ago from a Minnesota breeder called MixedBreedPups.com. I bought him as a Christmas present for my wife and I can remember the day we brought him home from the airport. He was so tiny and scared, but soon was jumping, running and barking.
Jack’s mother was a Yorkshire Terrier named Gayle and his father was a Bichon Frise. As far as I know there were 3 other siblings, 2 males and 1 female who we’d love to reunite Jack with.
If you are unfamiliar with this dog breed mix, they are sometimes referred to as Yo-Chons or Yorkie-Chons. Yorki-Chons are a great alternative for families looking for a Yorki-Poo. Most Yorkie-Poos mature a bit smaller than is safe for the youngest children, so these fit in very well with those families. Yorki-Chons are sturdy, fun loving dogs, typically about medium in activity level.
Yorkie-Bichons are non-shedding, a great choice for families with allergies. While no dog is completely hypo-allergenic, these come close. Professional grooming should be planned at 6 to 12 week intervals, depending on the allergy situation in the home, and the style of cut your prefer. Long trims will require more frequent grooms.
Jack is just turned 2 years old on October 30th and we couldn’t be happier with him. This site is dedicated to him and we will be posting stories, pictures and anything else related to Yorkie Bichon mix breeds to help spread the word about this wonderful mix breed pup.
One of Jack’s favorite games is “playing” fetch. In our condo we have a loft, so how we play is that I’ll throw his favorite toy up onto the loft and Jack will run up the stairs like a bat our of hell and grab his toy. It works best when the toy is a squeaky toy because he’ll you can really get him revved up by “squeak squeak squeaking” it in his face. One thing you’ll see, that I find hilarious is that Jack will peak over the edge, down from the loft, before coming down. I think he does this to check and make sure I am still there. Here is a little video of us playing…
and here is another video where Jack decides he wants to stay up in the loft
One thing about Jack though is he may go get the ball, but you can be sure that he won’t give it back. He loves to play keep away so I have to temp him with a treat or something more enticing in order for him to drop his toy. This game you saw is usually a one time only thing.
Every since Val and I got home from our Mexican Riviera cruise, Jack has been a little sick. Nothing terrible as he seems to act fine when he plays and greets us at the door. Unfortunately though he is having a bad case of “The Runs”. We noticed it getting worse each day until nothing but liquid comes out where it should be solid. Often times he attempts to go, but can’t and then just sits on the grass. It is so sad looking that you just want to scoop him up and hug the little guy.
This past Saturday night was the worst though, I suspect some of our guests at a party we had, fed him some table food. At this point we were only feeding him chicken and rise and had just started to see some improvement but that all went to hell in a handbag Saturday night. Jack sleeps in our bed, and when he is about to throw up or go to the bathroom he will thankfully jump off the bed first. This alerts my wife (‘m a heavy sleeper and could get hit in the head by a brick and not wake up,) that something is wrong. We first put him back in bed and he jumped back down moments later so I quickly rushed him outside thinking something was about to explode. YUP!
During the night, Jack had to be let out 3 times and another time in the morning. I’d be lying to you if I said we managed to anticipate all his movements as we found a few spots where he had gone to the bathroom on the rug. Let me tell you that stuff is a pisser to clean up. So after that night we did not feed him for 24 hours and then started him on a regimen of chicken and white rice only.
I’m happy to say that Jack is officially clogged up now and should be returning to normal pretty soon. Just like humans who take Imodium, dogs will usually not go to the bathroom at all for a day or so until their stomachs start to feel better. Jack’s tummy isn’t making those sickly noises anymore so we are on track for a full recover any day now.
Jack is a pretty smart dog, but I find it hard to teach him tricks because he gets so excited about the potential for a treat that he doesn’t listen. He will basically just start doing all the old tricks that we’ve taught him in the past without even being prompted. Sitting, laying down, Up, paw all in a spastic sequence. Imagine if humans got that excited about the possibility of getting some candy? LOL that would be hilarious!
In a past post I mentioned I was going to take a video of Jack doing some of his favorite tricks and I finally got around to taking it. My wife Valarie also stars in this short clip so please tell her she looks great! hehe
As you can see he has no idea what roll over means. I’ve been trying to teach him that for months but our little Yorkie Bichon wants nothing to do with it.
I recently discovered a great site for follow yorkie (and yorkie mix breed) dogs called YorkieTalk.com. There are some really nice people and is very active. I posted a hello, we are new here post and got quite a few responses over the next few hours. That is a pretty good sign the community is active and doing well. They have forums, photo galleries, live chats and many other great areas to the site.
On some other notes, Since I’ve been home pretty much 24/7 for the last 5 weeks because of my foot surgery, I think Jack has completely gotten used to it and has permanently affixed himself to my side. He lays on my lap all day long, follows me from room to room and won’t even go outside with my wife unless I make like I’m going to out as well. He’ll run up to me and stair at me until I come with. Very cute, but he is going to be in for a rude awakening when I have to go back to work in a little over a week.
I will say that if we didn’t have him, my time at home would have been much harder. He allows me to take play breaks, even though he still wants me to chase him around the kitchen table. I can do that, but i’m VERY slow to say the least. I’ve resorted to getting an old towel from the linen closet and playing tug-a-war until he tires. Nothing gets his lower jaw quivering like a fresh towel. I’ll have to try and capture, on video, when his Jaw quivers with excitement.
I’m off to Chili’s with the Wife. Have a good weekend everyone!
Over the two years we’ve had Jack, he will occasionally start having these episodes where it sounds like he is having trouble breathing. His body gets stiff, back arches and he makes this weird sound. After doing a little pocking around on the internet it turns out that some dogs have this reflex called Reverse Sneezing. It isn’t bread specific and at least in Jack doesn’t happen to often. I’d say that he’ll probably have an episode once ever few months, but it’ll happen a few times over an hour or so.
Jack will stop after a few minutes, but to help your dog stop reverse sneezing a little quicker you have to get them to swallow. An easy trick for doing this is to cover their nose and that’ll make your pup swallow. I’ve tested this out on our borkie and it works very well. He will swallow and the reverse sneezing will usually come to an end. I don’t believe there is a cure for it, but we are going to show the video to our vet when Jack goes in for his yearly checkup next month.
I know pets can have allergies and I’ve dealt with it first hand growing up with my Turkish Angora cat named Rusty. Of the 20 or allergens out there he was allergic to roughly 12 of them and we had to give him a shot once a month in order to combat the affects. Rusty’s allergies would make him get very itchy around the face and it would also cause very skittish reactions.
With Jack we have noticed over the past year he tends to lick and lightly bite on his legs until the fur is completely wet. It doesn’t seem to get overly red or irritated though so part of my thinks that he is just cleaning himself. However, Jack does not like it when you touch that area and will pull his leg away or even show his teeth a little.
I have been trying to pay close attention to him with the hopes of finding the cause of the allergy. Maybe it’s the type of food he is eating or a treat that we give him causes the itchy legs. There is no particular season, of the year, that brings it on because he has been doing it routinely. Magoo will literally spend thirty minutes just licking and licking and licking. Sometimes you wish the little guy could talk and just say “Hey! my legs are itchy” or “It’s nothing, I’m just keeping up my appearance”.
All in all it doesn’t look to be causing any damage to his legs, he never draws blood or irritates the area that much. On our next vet visit we’ll bring it up and see what the doc has to say. Does anyone have an idea of what might be going on?
This is a short video Val and I took when Jack was about 15 weeks old. It’s amazing to think he was that small and also that dark in color. At about 6 months old his coat really started to get lighter, but thank fully the cuteness stayed. When I picked him out I had no idea what he would look like as he aged. I wasn’t to big on the bichon look and the white fur, but combining that with a yorkie coloring and snout ended up being quite the compliment.
This past Monday I was put on the DL (disabled list) when I opted for foot surgery to help fix some problems that have come back from an old injury. Seeing that I won’t be able to drive for the next few weeks, I’ll be working from home. This brings the added benefit of spending some wonderful time with our 2 year old Borkie (Yorkie Bichon mix).
Jack has been nothing short of great! every time I sit down he’ll curl up on my lap and just hang out with me. He’s usually a playful dog, but I think he realizes I’m a bit injured and has just settled down next to me and kept me company. Jack is afraid of my crutches though, as I think they remind him of a broom or something. He hasn’t started barking at them just yet, but I can see it coming. You should see the way he barks at my wife when she sweeps the kitchen floor, he goes nuts!
Right now I’m sitting on the couch (i hooked up my computer to my 42 inch TV so I could keep my foot elevated on the couch) and Jack is laying behind my head on the cushion. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that dog gots some cat in him.
Some things Jack has been doing since I had my operation..
Sitting on the couch with me
Follows me to the bathroom
He brings his toy to me, instead of trying to get me to chase him
barks like a crazed lunatic when someone is coming in (well he does this all the time but I like to think he is being extra protective.)
Next week I’ll try and post a cute video or pictures of Jack doing some doggy tricks
I don’t know why, but every dog or cat that I’ve owned has wanted to take part, (read…get in the way) when the bed is being made. I guess they think the moving sheets and thrown pillows are to enticing to pass up. Jack, our Yorkie Bichon pup is no different! As you can see from this short video, he got underneath the fitted pillow top and was having a little fun.
Like many other pet owners, we always have trouble finding a good spot for our Yorkie Bichon doggy, Jack, when we go away for vacation. We hate the idea of bringing him to a boarder and having him stuck in a cage for hours on end. Growing up, my parents always put our family dog in a boarder and sometimes Cricket would come home with Kennel cough and she would always seem a bit off for a few days afterwords. We don’t want this for Jack, and we know how much he hates being in a cage.
About a year ago, my wife was talking to one of her co-workers and got a recommendation for a local family who watches dogs for $35 a day. They have 3 dogs of their own as well as 3 great little girls. On average they may watch 1 to 3 other dogs at any given time. It is the perfect match for us and our pup.
Before even bringing Jack there for his first extended stay, we brought him over for about an hour to just check out the place and see how he reacts to the owners dogs and kids. He, understandably was very nervous and wouldn’t leave our side for the first half hour, but soon started sniffing around and getting to comfortable.
The first time we left him their was for a week, and dropping him off was hard on us as we watched Jack shacking in Nicole’s hands as we walked away. It was heart wrenching for sure! About 2 days into the trip and just as we were really starting to miss our dog and wonder how he was doing, Nicole sent my wife a picture text message of Jack sleeping on their couch in his favorite feet up position.
When we saw that, we just knew Jack was in good hands and was having a good time. At the end of the week, we picked Jack up and he was his old self but with some shorter hair. The dog watcher also does grooming too! Since then we have used Nicole 2 more times and each time jack is a little less nervous, which makes us feel like we chose the perfect dog watcher.
I’m writing this post because Val and I just got back from Las Vegas (Great place to spend New Years Eve!) and we have yet to pick up Jack because we got back too late. I miss him and can’t wait to pick the little guy up from Nicole tomorrow afternoon. Jack is a huge part of our family and it’s not the same sleeping in our bed with out him.
My wife, Valarie and I love our dog Jack. He arrived two years ago from a Minnesota breeder called MixedBreedPups.com. I bought him as a Christmas present for my wife and I can remember the day we brought him home from the airport. He was so tiny and scared, but soon was jumping, running and barking.
smaller than is safe for the youngest children, so these fit in very well with those families. Yorki-Chons are sturdy, fun loving dogs, typically about medium in activity level.
