But even if you’re not a black belt in karate, you can still learn a basic karate kick. Here’s how I learned it. The key to this trick for me was figuring out that I was supposed to lift a hind leg. A clicker or some marker word that means a treat is coming is essential. My human had to click while I was lifting a hind leg, but the trick was that I had to be aware that I was lifting my hind leg. Otherwise I couldn’t perceive that the click was associated with that

Howdy Ya’ll! Like I promised, today I’m going to demonstrate how you to can perform one of the death defying stunts as seen on my Christmas Video: A Jack Russell Christmas.  Actually I’ll start with a potentially delicate one that can also be used for household clean-up tasks. You saw in the video where I put a toy and tissue paper back into a bag. This trick is just a variation of my daily chore of cleaning up my toys. Here’s how I learned the trick. First of all, I already knew fetch so the part about picking up an object and

Now that you’ve seen my Christmas special and are in complete awe, I’ll give you a little recap of my death-defying stunts. Then in the next 3 blogs I’ll actually show you step-by-step how I learned some of them.      Jonesy      First of all, remember how I was practicing my jumping skills? That’s because leaping was very important. I had to leap on and off the bed.      Jonesy      Leap onto a cat tree (and then down in order to get off!)        Jonesy        And then leap onto and off of

It’s a two-day countdown to my Christmas special video and I know my fans have lots of questions about it and about how to become a superstar actor.  First, I have to tell you, it’s not for everyone. Acting is very demanding. Our recent shoot lasted 10 grueling hours. Here are some of the activities I had to endure.       Jonesy         For one, I had to do a bunch of tricks to earn treats (most of which was my regular kibble!). I think I ate enough for full day and a half! Do I look

As you probably know by now, my first full-length Christmas webisode, “A Jack Russell Christmas,” airs next week. I’m practically a star already! Rightly so, because not only did I have to act, I had to do my own stunts too! And let me tell you, the action-packed script required me to be in tip-top shape. Luckily for me, I’m already in Jack Russell Terrier shape. Here is my workout regimen in case some of you want to copy it so you can look as fit as me. Every day I get 7 miles-worth of running. My human keeps me

My general rule of thumb is that we should use methods that focus on rewarding the correct behavior, starting with steps the dog can easily perform and quickly moving on to steps that are closer and closer to our goal behavior.