My Yorkie Bichon Mix » Jack

A Curious Pup

admin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:28:59 +0000

Always looking at something…

An Old Dog Can Learn New Tricks!

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:17:33 +0000

We took Jack to Puppy Kindergarten when he was six months old. He learned your basic stuff. Stay, sit, down. But any instructor will tell you, that most of the learning is completed at home…outside the classroom…through constant reinforcement. After Jack got his doggy degree, we also taught him paw. What always eluded us, however, was that ever so cute command…roll over. We started slowly…very slowly. Jack is three now…We noticed that when he became turbo Jack, we could quite him down with a gentle…shhhhh. When he hears this command he rolls on to his belly….to have it rubbed…not to go the full three sixty. So we eventually started egging him on with a treat to roll all the way. Let us not kid you, this did not happen over night….but now that hes got it…its so much fun!!

Turbo Charged

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:04:08 +0000

Jack gets bursts of energy sometimes…and does laps around the house… In this video, he hasnt even reached top speed!

Jacks Trip To The Vet

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:56 +0000

Jack took a little trip to the vet last week. Just for his yearly checkup. Usually he doesnt get nervous when we take him in the car, because he is so used to going over to Nanas house. He doesnt usually get nervous until we try to get him out of the car at the vets office (or the groomers). But he must have sensed what was up, because on this particular day, he was shaking from the minute he got in the car. When we got to the vets office, the lady at the front desk actually commented on how badly he was shaking. Poor little guy. And It was only made worse when I realized I forgot something in the car. We went back to the car and he quickly jumped back in…thinking he was safe….only to be pulled back to the vets!

Our vet is a very nice lady who senses that Jack is a very shy, timid, pup…so she showers him with lots of love and attention, rather than jumping right into the checkup, shots and what not. She always says that he has an especially nice temperament and calls him a “good pup”. He didnt even make a peep when given his two shots, one for lyme and one for distemper. She also took blood from his front paw to check for heartworm. He isnt up for his next rabies shot until next year. (And our town actually does rabies vaccines for free every November at the fire house).

Jack was 11.8 pounds at last years checkup…and this year he was 12.6 The vet said that he is a good weight…but it wouldnt hurt if he lost the point 6. It should be a little easier getting him to run around outsisde, now that the weather is starting to warm up.

Jack Meets His New Friend, Toto.

admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:01:48 +0000

As we have already mentioned, Jack doesn’t get along that great with other dogs. But, when Jack saw Toto, it was love at first sight. That is because Toto is a stuffed dog, a collectors item that we only took out when our niece Addie asked to borrow him when she dressed up as Dorothy for Halloween. Well, Jack wouldn’t let up until he could have a hands on peek…

We’d Love To See Your Pup!

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:48:32 +0000

Over the last year, many people who have visited our blog have commented the same thing….our pup looks just like yours! We’d love to see pictures of your little yorkie-bichon…and post them on our blog! If you have a yorkie bichon…whether he could be Jacks twin or not…please email them to us… and we will post them on here! Valariecostello at gmail.com or Sjcostell at yahoo.com

We have also just set up a way for visitors to subscribe to our blog…so you can easily find out when we have added new stuff. Just go to the top right of this page, where it says Follow Jack and add your email address. We are hoping to get some new pictures, video and info on here very soon…so stayed tuned… And just for a little teaser….Jack has finally mastered… ROLL OVER!!

Jack Just Doesn’t Get Along With All Dogs

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:45:16 +0000

Admittedly, Val and I didn’t socialize Jack as much as we should have. I’m not sure why we didn’t, it just happened to turn out that way. The good part of an anti-social dog is that he walks great and doesn’t get distracted by other barking dogs. If we do meet up with a dog during a walk and stop to say hello, Jack will tuck himself behind our legs. Maybe he is shy??

We live in a condo complex with about 12 to 15 other dog owners which gives us a good chance to let our dog get to know other dogs. This is what I’ve noticed about Jack and the other dogs who are all very friendly.

8 of them Jack just ignores
4 to 5 he will kinda play with and sniff a bit
The last two Jack will just start growling and barking as soon as he catches wind of them coming.

He turns into Cujo! I can barely hold him back, in fact he broke out of the mettle ring that holds the leash to his collar.

One of these dogs is a 6 month old French Mastiff who from the first sniff Jack was in attack mode. The owner keeps calls Jack, “Killer”. The other dog is a beagle and just like the French Mastiff, Jack didn’t like him from the moment they met. I have no idea why he doesn’t like these two dogs, maybe they smell bad or something?@?

Does anyone else’s Yorkie-Bichon behave like this?

Chicken and Rice for a sick Pup

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:12:07 +0000

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. 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 rice 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 is thankfully smart enough to jump off the bed first. This alerts my wife (I’m a heavy sleeper and could get hit in the head by a brick and not wake up) that something is wrong. We put him back in bed, but 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.

Oh, and Jack LOVES chicken and rice!

A Yorkie Bichon Can Do Tricks After All

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:13:28 +0000

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu65lYDi3mw

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.

So Small and Cute! Does He look More Yorkie or Bichon?

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:20:44 +0000

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 too big on the bichon look and the white fur, but combining that with a yorkie coloring and snout ended up being quite the compliment.

Here’s the short video I promised…