My Yorkie Bichon Mix

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!!

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

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…

My niece Addison loves our dog Jack.   She is always playing with him and giving him treats for doing tricks.  This past summer we were having a brunch over our place and while Addie was holding one of Jack’s toys, he grabbed it and started pulling.  Addie just wouldn’t let go and the video below is the result of what happened.  I crack up every time I watch it!

I don’t know if this is a Yorkie trait or a Bichon Frise trait, but Jack is always putting his smaller toys underneath our couches.   If that was all he did, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem but he then digs like crazy trying to get them out.  This digging rips the underside of the couch apart, which is not fun.  What is fun, however, is watching how determined our dog  is to get what ever is under the couch out.  Jack sometimes even  forgets that he has gotten the item out and continues to bury his nose under the couch looking for it. Short term memory apparently doesn’t run in dogs.

Here is a video of what happens when I pick the couch up. Watch what Jack does.  So cute.

He would just not stop.  Even after frantically exploring under the couch he was still convinced something was under there.  I ended up tipping the couch over so I could take a closer look and it turned out that there was a toy IN THE COUCH!  From the past digging, Jack had torn a hole in the under side fabric of the couch and he managed to get his toy stuck in there.  If you watch the video closely, you can see him stick his head into the torn area of the couch, he knew it was there.

One of Jack’s favorite games is “playing” fetch.  In our condo we have a loft….so we play by throwing his favorite toy up onto the loft and Jack will run up the stairs like a bat out of hell and grab his toy.  It works best when the toy is a squeaky toy because you can really get him revved up by “squeak squeak squeaking” it in his face.  One thing you’ll see, that I find hilarious…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.

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.

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 pokeing 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 too often.  I’d say that he’ll probably have an episode once every 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 Jack 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 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.

This is one of the first videos we took of Jack.  I’m not sure if all Yorkie Bichon mixes are as curious or cautious as our dog, but it’s funny none the less.   He approached many of his other toys the same way in the early days. Now he isnt so afraid of them and runs around with them in his mouth, while pushing them to the ground to make them squeak.