Jackal 40 Tricks Video!!

I finally put together a video of all the tricks/behaviors that Jackal knows, including the ones he learned last year for my 12 tricks in a year challenge. I might do a separate video for those eventually too. Check it out and let me know what you think! I hope you can watch it. I'll warn you though it's 13.5 minutes long!


I left the bloopers in it because it makes it more interesting, not to mention funny. :D This was his first time doing most of his tricks outdoors so I was using the clicker to keep his attention. I don't regularly use the clicker on most of these tricks since he knows them so well. Some of the more recent ones I'm still working on certain criteria like duration so I do use the clicker on those. We still need to refine some of them, but he did a fantastic job in my opinion. :)

P.S. This was all done over two days. I didn't ask him to do that much in one long session!

New Favorite Picture! Storm & Jackal

Storm and Jackal had a play date with my friend's pit bull puppy yesterday and this is totally my favorite picture of Storm and Jackal ever! I'll post puppy pictures tomorrow (she's so cute!), but wanted to share this one for now. I don't know why I've never thought to get pictures of them together, but they did a perfect down stay for me to get this shot. :D

Also Jackal showed off all forty of his awesome tricks for my friend, including his difficult ones like shy and roll over, all without treats!! He's so awesome! When he did shy I did run and get him a treat for that though.

Also one last thing, we finally got a bunch of the yard sale stuff out of the living room so I have some room to shoot a video so I'll try to get his 2011 tricks video taped and posted as soon as possible. Sorry it took me so long. :)

Lazy?

Yep, this was the only picture I had of me and Jackal on the camera . . . lazy! I promise I will get the video of our 2011 tricks, but right now I'm so busy cleaning all of the clutter out of my house in preparation for a huge yard sale I'm having with a friend. So my house is a bit of a disaster area at the moment! I might try to get some video outside, but some of the tricks require indoor props, so we will see. I'll try to get it done though. Sorry it's taking so long.

A look back at 2011 & Video of Jackal's Surprise December Trick!

First a look back at 2011 and some of the fun things we did . . .

I made my first ever rope halter and some driving reins for Chrome. Click here for more details.

I was awarded the stylish blogger award! Click here for more details.



I taught Jackal twelve new tricks for 2011. One for each month of the year. Above is a video of the trick he learned for December . . . to walk on a treadmill!!! This was a huge achievement for him because he used to be terrified of treadmills. As a puppy he wouldn't even be in the room when I was walking on it. :) He also learned crawl, shy, fetch his leash, close a door, marching paws, go to bed, paws in a bucket, say your prayers, stand, recall and sidepass.



I taught Chrome to smile and it's his absolute favorite trick! Click here for more details.

I got to visit Lady, the Appaloosa pony I grew up with (she owned me for thirteen years!). I had to give her up in 2007 because I was moving to a place where I couldn't keep a horse. She now lives with a really good friend who has a bunch of horses and mules. She's happy. :) Click here for more details.

We got Muscovy ducks! They are so awesome and self sufficient. :D Click here for more details.


We got snow! I know for some of you that's an every winter occurrence, but down south we go some years with no snow at all, so it's exciting to get a big one (big for us is around a foot). Click here for more details.

I found new treats for Jackal that we both love! It's not slimy like hot dogs or cheese, it's not greasy like dog food and it actually smells great! Click here for more details.

Led Zeppelin had his very first clicker training sessions!! He quickly learned how to touch the target. :D Click here for more details.

Chrome wore a surcingle for the first time and he did awesome. Click here for more details.

My friend and I rode four wheelers a LOT over the summer and had so much fun. We even drove them to my house to introduce Chrome to them. He had fun. :) Click here for more details.

Chrome turned two years old and was so sweet and cooperative while I dressed him up lol. And cute!! Click here for more details.

Our Muscovy ducks hatched out a bunch of ADORABLE ducklings!! Click here for more details and pictures.

We did a lot of catfishing this past summer (we love fishing!) and saw these adorable minks. Click here for more details.


Jackal and I competed in our first ever competition! It was an online doggie dancing (canine freestyle) contest held by Honey from http://www.bighoneydog.com. Above is our freestyle routine. Click here for more details.

I made a longeing cavesson for Chrome and we had our very first ground driving session. Click here for more details and video.


We brought Faran home! Click here for his story and more pictures.

We started clicker training Faran to help gain his trust. He took to it immediately. Click here for more details and video.

Storm turned ten years old and met Faran for the first time. Click here for more details.

Jackal and I won the Best Costume award in Honey's Dancing for the Doggie Stars competition! Click here for more details.

I got a really cool t-shirt with an original hand drawn design from a fellow blogger. Click here for more details.

I got a promotion at work and am now the assistant manager! Click here for more details.

Chrome and Faran met for the first time (very cute video at this link) and became best friends. Click here for more details.

My husband went back to college to finish his degree! Click here for more details.

Chrome and I learned how to play Chase the Tiger. Click here for more details.

Our blue turkey hen hatched out several adorable babies. Click here for more details.

I started a new workout program on the Bowflex my parents gave me (because they couldn't use it anymore due to injuries). Click here for more details.

Chrome wore a saddle for the first time and Faran went for his first walk on the roads since coming to live with us. Click here for more details.

We finally got a new roof! Click here for more details.


Led Zeppelin let us brush him for the first time!! Click here for more details.

I turned twenty six and had a fantastic birthday out with my friends. Click here for more details.

I met two of the most awesomest (I know it's not a real word) friends, one of which has horses, so we did some horseback riding! I did find out my saddle is too small for me though. Click here for more details.

We built Chrome his very own pedestal and he loves it! Click here for more details.

I actually stuck with a workout program for more than eight weeks! Click here for more details.

Chrome and I celebrated our two year anniversary (did I ever mention I got married in 2009 too, so I celebrated my 2nd wedding anniversary also? Oops guess I have a one track mind lol!) Click here for more details.

I got the lovely blog award! Click here for more details.

I finally started my kitchen remodel! Click here and here for details.

I practiced driving a standard and had fun! Click here for more details.

I won NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row!! This was the toughest year yet. Click here for more details.

I got Chrome gelded. Scary! It went well though. Click here for more details.

Chrome had to learn to longe (didn't plan on teaching it this young because of his growing joints) to keep his incisions open after his gelding/castration. Click here for more details.


Hubby worked with Faran on picking up his hooves. :D Click here for more details.

Chrome had his first lesson in pulling! Click here for more details and a video.

Had a super fun Secret Santa party with my friends. :D Click here for more details and pictures.

Had a great Christmas!! Click here for the dog's post and here for the horse's post.

We had such a fantastic year!! I meant to post this yesterday, but I was too busy, so I decided to combine the review and new goals, but this took longer than I expected so I'll do the goals tomorrow. :) Did you all have a great year? Did you make a post about it?

Canine Exercise & Clicker Training

So I've been trying to get caught up on reading blogs because I had over 300 in my Google Reader . . . I'm down to 150 so I'm getting there. In my readings I was catching up on one of my favorites, Honey's blog, and came across this post (http://bighoneydog.com/2011/11/sydneyhome-trickyevening/) . . . and as most of her posts do, it got me to thinking. I have two (three?) high energy breeds, a Siberian Husky and a Beagle/Mountain Cur cross and I am NOT at all consistent with our exercising. Sigh. And yes, most of my excuses are selfish and lazy. Talk about feeling bad lol.

When we went to my parents house on Christmas day we had some fun with the four wheeler (yes I'm still working on getting the video ready to post) and Jackal was sore for a few days after that. He's had issues with one of his rear legs since he was a puppy and I think it was my fault for over exercising him on asphalt. So I have to be really careful not to let him overdo it, however letting him get fat and out of shape is one of the worse things I can do!! I also slacked off on my own exercise since I decided to take a break during November for NaNoWriMo and well I never got back to it. So one of the things I'm going to get back to for 2012 is exercising, both me and the dogs. I'll post more on my goals for 2012 on New Years day.

So for now, since we're all out of shape and lazy lol, I'm starting with two ten minute walks a day, one before work and one after. I also have a bad habit of marching off at a fast speed in a hurry to get done instead of enjoying the scenery and time spent with my dogs. So now when we walk we're walking in the ditches (softer on their joints) so the dogs can sniff around where the deer, raccoons, rabbits, armadillos and opossums roam around lol, because a dog sniffing is like us reading the newspaper. They love it! We can only do that in the winter though because in the summer the grass gets tall and ticks are horrible. We're also practicing at running, walking (while they trot) and walking slow (so they have to walk too) for changes of pace. So far they definitely approve of our new way of walking. :)

So anyway, when we got back from our after work walk today I decided to work on all of the tricks Jackal learned for 2011 (January: Crawl, February: Shy, March: Fetch Leash, April: Close Door, May: Marching Paws, June: Go to Bed, July: Paws in Bucket, August: Say Your Prayers, September: Stand, October: Recall, November: Sidepass and December: This one is a surprise!) so that we can start videotaping them. He did fantastic! I guess the walk got him in a training frame of mind because I could not have asked for better. :D

We've been having trouble with his sidepass . . . the way we were doing it before was having him stand in a heel position on my left and us walking sideways to our left, but I was bumping into him (or tripping lol) and his front and rear just weren't working together. So I finally turned to face him and lured his nose to his left while gently pushing his hip to the left. After clicking for that once he did it all by himself the second time!!! I was so proud of him! So even though it didn't look like he was doing well the other way it obviously was sinking it and my new method just made it click for him. I love it when a behavior comes together like that.

The other one we're having trouble with is Say Your Prayers. I'm having him do it on his little stool and he does great sitting with his paws on it (that took forever to teach), but he doesn't hold it long (I guess it's not comfortable yet) so I haven't been able to get much duration and thus can't get him to tuck or rest his nose on his paws . . . So for now he's sitting with his paws up instead of saying his prayers lol. We'll keep working on it, but it won't be finished for our video.

We worked on most of his other tricks too. The only ones we didn't cover were his recall (he's really good at this in the house so far), fetch his leash (he loves this one and is great at it) and shy (this one needs work, but the session was getting long and I was out of treats). We'll catch them next time. He's getting a lot more confident with closing the door on the entertainment center. When it slams shut it doesn't startle him anymore lol. I can probably start trying to work on another real door now. :)

Also on his Stand I have inadvertently taught him to bounce his front end in the air when he pops up out of a sit. It's so cute! I might let him do that or I might fix it. Not sure yet. :) He's also doing great on his Go To Bed behavior and he's so cute doing it! He gets so focused on me that he doesn't really pay attention to where the bed is. When he misses it and lays down I don't click so he bounces up, backs up and lays back down. I just laugh at him until he backs up onto the bed and lays down, then I click. It's so cute. I love his enthusiasm.

Anyway, sorry this got so long winded. We had so much fun and I just wanted to share. Keep an eye out for the video. I'm going to try to get it done soon, maybe this weekend. It may be a week before I get it all ready and posted though, just depends on how busy I am. :)

Busy, busy, busy!

The last of our turkeys. Our three Midget White turkeys.

Well, vacation ended on Wednesday. Work has been fine since I got back, but sheesh I forgot how incredibly boring it is there!!! Luckily it's been busy so it's not too bad and I did miss my customers. They are so awesome. :D

My allergies have been horrible!! I thought I was getting a cold, but this has been going on since around the twelfth so it's probably allergies. Normally I have three weeks of misery every spring and fall with them, but it's normally so much earlier than this. We've had a strangely warm fall/winter so far and I guess whatever I'm allergic to is blooming later. Oh well, it can't be too much longer before whatever it is dies. I will not miss the headaches or lack of sleep due to the inability to breathe lol.

I'm going to be very busy over the next few days so I don't know if I will have time to post. I'm going to try to work on getting video of the tricks Jackal learned this year, but don't be surprised if it's January before I get it posted. I also bought some small toys/treats for the critters so I should be able to get some cute pictures that I'll post when I can. I hope everyone has a great weekend, Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Be safe and have fun.

Smart Jackal

First a story from Jackal's time at my parents house. Their front yard is fenced and has a gate straight out from the front door and one to the right of the front door. Currently there is a gap in the fence to the left as well because they are extending the porch. Outside of the small decorative fence they have four acres fenced securely. So my mom let Jackal outside and he went out of the front yard through the gap to the left. After he'd run around, played and taken care of his business he came to the front gate and whined, wanting inside, so she let him in. She decided to leave the front gate open so next time he could come in using it and she wouldn't have to walk out there to let him in. The next time she let him out he went through the front gate and did his running around. When he was ready to come in he went to the right side gate and whined. LOL! So she let him in and left that one open too lol. Silly dog is such a dork.

So now that you've seen his dumb side, here is his smart side. At the end of December I'm going to make a video of the twelve tricks he learned this year, so I decided to do a practice run through. He did all but two of them perfectly because he's still learning those two. Some of these tricks we've only had one or two sessions on and he hasn't practiced them since early, early this year. :D I'm amazed at how well he retains what he learns. Good boy Jackal!!

December Training

I'm keeping Jackal's December trick a surprise. :D I am going to spend the month of December practicing all of the tricks we learned this year (plus our new one) so that we can do our best for the video at the end of the month. :) Anyway sorry for the short post, I'm so ready for some sleep. I have a really cute video to post tomorrow, so look forward to that.

Jackal's November Trick

Picture taken 5/09.

Some of you may remember that I was going to play around and see what Jackal offered for his November trick. Since I'm busy with NaNo (www.nanowrimo.org - Haven't written anything the last two days oops) I wanted something easy to teach. Well I was watching a movie on T.V. and there was a horse doing the halfpass and I thought that would be totally cool to teach Jackal! Well, actually the sidepass. So I decided to try it. I figured why not? What could it hurt?

I got him into a heel position and started walking forward with a lure in front of his nose to keep him in position. As we went forward I started going slightly sideways, sort of like a halfpass. When he crossed his feet over I clicked and gave him a treat. After a couple of times of that I started going completely sideways after just a couple of forward steps. He started to anticipate me pretty quickly, but was swinging his butt wide, so I didn't click those. I only clicked the ones where he stayed right next to me. Eventually I wasn't even having to bump into him. A couple of times he tried to spin and face me, but that was just my lure and delivery. After a few small tweaks we had a cute sidepass going. Of course it's only a couple of sideways steps. We'll have to work on having him do it without a lure and me standing up straight, but for the first session he did great!! Jackal is so much fun. I really need to review all of the tricks he's learned this year so far so I can make my end of the year video. I can't wait to show it to all of you. Start thinking of cool ideas for his final December trick and I'll add them to the poll. :)

P.S. I met a lady today who has Papillons!! The one she was babysitting was adorable! I didn't get to see her dogs because she lives in a nearby city, but maybe someday. I wish I were ready for another dog now because she has puppies, but it'll probably be a few years. I wish I'd had my camera to get a picture for you. She was so cute!!

National Novel Writing Month!!

Alright everyone, it's November again and that means I'm going to be very busy doing a lot of writing. :D If anyone else is doing it this year I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment or add me on the NaNo website (www.nanowrimo.org). Username is achieve1dream.

As far as Jackal's trick for this month I still haven't decided what to do. I might mess around with a few things and see if something comes of it. Heck I might just do some free shaping and see what he suggests. :D

Have fun writing everyone and don't worry if I'm not reading blogs or posting on mine much. November is a little hectic. I'll try to do word count updates every night. Good luck writers!!

November Trick

Okay, I know I'm getting to this early, but I'm going to be soooo busy in November with National Novel Writing Month, so if anyone has any suggestions for very easy tricks I'd really appreciate it. I'm not going to have a lot of time to work on training and I can't think of anything easy that he doesn't already know. There is a list of tricks he knows in the sidebar. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday (well almost)

Please ignore my ugly yellow stove (came with the house), unfinished floors, nasty wallpaper and lack of baseboards, door and door framing. This house is definitely a work in progress hehe.

P.S. Oh and recall won on Jackal's poll, so I'll get started on that right away. :)

Jackal's October Trick

The poll is up for Jackal's October trick. Sorry it's late. I can't believe how fast September went by. Wow.

I'm way behind on training. I'm going to get in gear and catch up though because next month is NaNoWriMo and I'll be super busy with that.

No Kisses

I worked on Jackal's trick for this month which was supposed to be kisses (a nose touch to cheek, not licking), but I don't think it's going to work. He's never been allowed to touch my face with his mouth or paws his entire life and I just don't think it's a good idea to change that. I'm the type of person who can't stand for a dog to lick me and I think teaching kisses, even as just a nose touch is pushing it. Especially since he gets a little drooly when he's been eating treats and that's gross. He was doing fine with a paper target, when I used it like I did for teaching him to close a door, but he was very reluctant to touch it when it was by my face. I don't really blame him though because he's never been allowed to before. So for this month I think I'm going to reteach stand because he doesn't remember it at all, he never was very good at it and he never knew a cue for it.

Video Update Jackal's Monthly Tricks

I posted a video here showing one of our worst training sessions to date and now I have a video update of our progress. This video was done yesterday and there was only one other session between the two videos (see here). It went much better this time! Can you believe the progress he's made in only three sessions?


I'm so proud of my smart boy. :D

Jackal's Trick Progress

Yesterday, I worked on paws in a bucket first. I clicked him once for looking at it and a few times for holding his paw over the bucket and then I only clicked if his paw went in the bucket. It took six or seven clicks before he started putting the paw on the bottom. He was switching out paws, but he's definitely more confident with his left paw. I ended the bucket training with him placing his left paw on the bottom of the bucket and staying there for a second instead of immediately jerking it back out. The bucket is elbow height so it's a little uncomfortable for him. I tilted it slightly to help out, but I want it stable so it doesn't fall over and scare him. I might need to find a shorter one.

Then we worked on Say Your Prayers. When I got his foot stool out he got SUPER excited. Like so excited he wasn't paying attention, so I grabbed some treats, got behind him and placed him in a sit, like I did at the end of the last video. As soon as I had him sitting and held my hand over the stool he plopped both paws on it!! It only took two times before he started doing it without me behind him. He started popping up out of the sit, but all I had to do was remind him to sit and then he'd put his paws up without me having to touch him or get behind him. Such a good boy! I was very happy with his enthusiasm and how much he remembered. It makes me feel better about the crappy session last time. :)

Sorry no video this time. It was a spur of the moment session late at night lol. I was too tire to set up the video camera. :)

Jackal's September Trick

Kisses won. :) That should be easy to teach since it's a simple target exercise . . . then again it's always the simple ones we have trouble with. I'm getting so far behind on them. I really need to kick it into gear. It just seems like I'm staying too busy. Sigh. I'll get started on it soon (I hope!).

Jackal's Prayers Progress Video

Okay, I normally only post nice videos of our training sessions, but our first session with learning Say Your Prayers went horrible!! The video is almost fifteen minutes long (sorry!) with very few cuts from the original footage to show how the actual session went. I was going to explain what was going on, but it's late and I have to get up at 5am so I'll write more about it tomorrow. The captions and titles explains a little. Sorry if you can't watch videos. Let me know what you think. It's pretty crappy.



Good night guys.

Jackal's August Trick Update - September Trick Poll

I'm sad to say I didn't work on Say Your Prayers with Jackal at all. I'll try again this month, but I'm going to go ahead and put up a poll with some easy options so I don't lose a month. I want him to know twelve new ones by the end of the year. Please vote on the poll and I'll try to do something soon on the Prayers trick (with video!).

My Birthday & August Trick

I had a great birthday yesterday! I spent the whole day with my husband and friends. We had a blast and I even got to ride a Ferris wheel for the first time ever. :) It was a smaller, antique one, but still lots of fun.

My parents got me a Nook for my birthday! I'm so excited! It's so great because it's small and fits in my purse easily and I can read anything I want while at work. If I finish a book while at work I don't have to carry two books or wait until I get home to start the next one. No more having to fumble with a bookmark, trying to find my page, tearing pages, etc. :D I love it already.

Also Say Your Prayers won in the poll for the August trick. You guys always pick the toughest one hehe. I'm hoping it won't be too difficult since he already offers putting his paws on things while sitting. Just have to figure out how to get him to hold the position while I lure his nose between his paws. :) Wish me luck!

Oh and don't worry I'll video tape it for you. I might need suggestions hehe.