When it comes to training a dog it is very important that your dog makes eye contact with you. Just like humans you know when someone is paying attention to what you are trying to say, by making eye contact with you, this is the same when it comes to dogs. If your dog is not looking at you when you are speaking to him/her then chances are good that they are not listening to you. This is important when training a dog you want something that tells you that the dog is truly listening to what you are trying to teach them.


Here is something that you can do to insure that your dog is making good eye contact with you and is ready to begin training.

First try and point to your eye and say watch me, if the dog does not even turn their head to look at you then you might want to try and reward them for this. Get a small treat that your dog likes and hold it between your thumb and index finger and draw a line for the dog’s nose up to your eyes and say watch me. Chance is good that the dog will look in the direction of the treat. Keep repeating this and even try and hold the treat up there for 10 seconds and then go longer because the longer the dog looks at you the better chance you have of holding their attention. Once it seems that the dog is getting the idea that when you say “watch me,” means to look at you, you can lose the treats and they will still focus on you because they know there will be a reward when they do.

The best thing that you can do for yourself while training is a dog is to be able to get their attention and hold it for long periods of time, this will keep your dog from wondering off and going into their own little world which can make it very hard for them to train.

Max of course has a keen sense of smell and so anything that has a smell that he likes is something that he will find rewarding. To some these smells can be gross like the trash can or dirty socks, but to a dog that might be just a day in heaven. If you do not catch a dog doing these unwanted behaviors right away they will continue to do them as they think of this as a way to get a reward for free. Dogs do not put a label on a reward like humans do. Humans think that a reward for a dog is them being able to get a dog treat that they would not normally get, but this is not true for dogs.


The best thing you can do is catch them doing this unwanted act and stop it right there. Do not yell no at the dog, this will only scare him or her and they might continue this behavior just not when you are around. Instead try making a noise that you can use every time they are doing something that you do not want them to do. They will not become scared of you if you use a sound like shhh to show that you do not like what they are doing.

Once they leave the item alone then you can give them a different type of rewards and praise them for the behavior that you are looking for. You have to make sure to catch them in the act because it does no good to yell at them about something that they did in the past. They will not know what you are yelling at them for and might revert to hiding from you.

It is best to give praise for a job well done and so when they leave the item alone give them a better option than getting these unwanted rewards for themselves.

Last night was Max’s second night of training. He actually did better on walking around the store with me when he did not see any other dogs, but once the dogs began arriving he started barking all over again. He just kept going and going and would not do all the things that he has learned at home. He is doing great with the clicker training at home and he could sit and wait and all of the things that they were talking about last night, but he would not show it by looking at his behavior. I told one of the ladies there that he did not bark at home, well because he does not. He never makes a sound unless he hears something outside and she acted like she did not believe me. I could not blame her because of the way he was acting it was hard to believe it myself. There was another Jack Russell at the class as well last night and you could see that mine had never spent time around other dogs compared to that Jack Russell. It made me kind of sad to see the other dog being able to go around the other dogs without barking or snapping at them, but Max he was not having it. I am not sure but I think he was looking for some kind of attention from these actions because he would have never done this before. Like I had stated in another part of my blog he was around my mother’s dog and never did any of this.


He went on so long during the class with his barking that the trainer thought that it would be best to put a muzzle on him to calm him down and give the other dog owners a chance to hear what she was talking about. I do not like muzzles, but I thought it was in the best interest of everyone including Max. He had the muzzle on and I felt so sorry for him because he was crying the whole time, but I tried not to show it the best that I could because I did not want him to get a reaction out of me. He did start to sit once he got the muzzle on and he was listening to me a little more, but when we went for a walk around the store customers that were walking around looked at my dog like “he must be a biter.” It made me feel bad for Max because he does not bite at all, but there was nothing that I could do.

Loose Leash

Last night the thing that we were suppose to learn was how to get our dogs to walk on a loose leash. I thought that would never happen with Max. He was normally the one that was pulling me around by the leash. Last night there was a change in him though. She gave us each a section to walk down and told us to practice by ourselves on how to get our dogs to walk on a loose leash. When he was not around the other dogs he did this perfectly. I learned how to stop and let him loosen the leash himself before I started to walk with him again. The trainer even said that she saw great things from him when he was walking, but once he saw her dog, that she uses to train the other dogs he went crazy and stopped listening to me again and even found a way to start barking through the muzzle.

Needless to say I am feeling less and less confident about Max learning to be around other dogs, but we

Shall see. There are 6 more weeks of training and if he does not get along with the other dogs, then I will just feel like it was a waste of the money. Right now the only thing I can say is that I get the papers that explain what the training in tales for the night like a direction sheet, but that could have been given to me without having to find a babysitter and spend money on that and the training classes as well. I am hoping that he will come around so I can view what the trainer is showing us. Oh and because of Max’s constant barking I have no idea what we will be learning next week.

Well time has finally arrived and Max has started his way on learning technical training, instead of what I have taught him at home. I have been training him the basic commands like sit, stay, wait, and lay down since he was 8 weeks old. My husband and I thought it was best for both of our sanity if we put Max in some really training classes and get him out and socializing with other dogs that are around the same age as him. He has most of the commands down like sit, wait, and lay down but when it comes to the call back he does terrible he only returns when he wants to and this is just not working for us. I thought also it would be best if he could learn his in home manors since this is something that he sometimes does poorly with. So Each week I will be reporting back on how he did in his class for that week and what we learned, in hopes that it might help some other Jack Russell owners out. There are 8 weeks to the classes so I am hoping to see some improvement in Max.

Week 1:

Ok well here is the first start on trying to get Max to be a well behaved dog. We went to the class and another dog was graduating. I hope to see Max there at the end of it all, but do not know if we are going to have to do some extended training past the 8 weeks.

We went in to the circle that they have for all the dogs, which is pretty much like a pin to keep them in a specific area. Max saw the Pit Bull that was in the class and right away started barking uncontrollably. The trainer just told me to keep covering his eyes and that if he could not see the other dogs then he would know that he needed to stop barking to do so. I found this to be quite an ordeal because he would not even stop when I did this, instead would stop barking when I had his eyes covered and then start barking again and soon as I let him see the other dogs. The barking was bad and I am not quite sure why these dogs got a rise out of him, but my mom’s dog he could be around and he would never bark. The trainer after seeing what a hard time I was having told me to turn Max around and have him face away from the other dogs kind of like a time out. This seemed to work a lot better for him then the covering his eyes thing did.

The trainer then instructed us that we were going to be taking the dogs for a walk around the store on a loose leash. In my head I was thinking this not going to work because I can see Max nipping at some of the other dogs, so instead the whole time was on a tight leash, and pretty much running in place. I was a little disappointed because I had never seen him act this way, but I knew that this is a new place with new dogs and so I could not expect for him to act perfect otherwise I would have never needed the training classes.

Clickers and treats were then handed out and she showed us how she wanted us to load the clicker to give our dogs a better understanding that when we clicked the clicker they would get a reward. Everyone else’s dogs were clam and doing exactly what the owners were wanting them to do, but Max was still barking away. The trainer told me not to worry and that next time he will be use to this and less barking will be going on.

So this week is mainly loading the clicker and teaching Max when I click the clicker he will be getting rewarded for whatever he is doing at that time. So far he is doing a lot better at home.

When your Jack Russell is a pup you will not be able to get them into dog training classes until they are at least 8 weeks old and are up to date on their shots. Also there is the factor of price when it comes to dog training. It is always a good idea with this breed of dog to get started on training the first day that they arrive in your home. You cannot coddle this breed of dog because they will learn that it is easy to manipulate you to do what they want. Training these dogs does not have to be a harsh form like swatting them with a newspaper or even yelling NO at them all day, instead there is a kinder gentler way to train these dog when they are puppies.
First rule never yell at your dog by name, if you say their name in a angry tone they will associate their name with angry and then when it comes time for you to train them the call back or getting them to return to you by their name they will refuse and instead do the opposite of what you want them to do.

Also never hit your dog in any way this will only have a negative response. In time after you do this to much to them you will in turn have an angry dog that will destroy anything that resembles something that you might have hit them this, or even worse them attacking you.

Jack Russell’s are a show dog; they love training and do not mind doing it one bit if you show them love when they have done something that you have asked of them. It mainly comes down to how you would like to be treated would you like someone to swat at you and scream at you all day for something you have done wrong, doubtful.
Potty Training- When bringing you pup home for the first time, the thing that you should have planned out is where you want them to potty outside. You need to before even stepping one foot in the door take the puppy to the spot that you want them to use as their own personal restroom. This will give your puppy the idea of where they need to go every time they are outside. Jack Russell has a high sense of smell and they use their nose for everything. Once they go potty in the spot that you allowed them to they can smell this and will continue to do this over and over again without too much trouble. You must make sure that you always take them to this spot because if you do not them they might make a restroom out of your whole yard. This is also why it is very important to use pet cleaner on the rugs if the dog has an accident because they can pick up on were that spot is and continue to do this in your home. (I will explain more later in the blog.)

Dog Treats And A Clicker- Clicker training is a great way to get these dogs a good start. Clicks are a plastic box with a bendable piece of metal inside, when you press down on this metal it will make a clicking noise. I do want to warn you that clicker training only works if you are willing to do the training part. You cannot press on the clicker and have the dog do exactly what you want it to; they do not know what a clicker is you have to show them. When you click the clicker make sure that you have plenty of treats. You will click the clicker and then give them a treat and keep doing this until they recognize that you clicker give you good things to eat, this is called loading the clicker. Some people get worried about this because they think that if you use this method that you will have to constantly give your dog treats, but this is not true. Once the dog gets the idea of what you want them to do, you can slowly wean away the clicker and then the treats and they will still follow your commands. Dogs are like humans they need rewards to make whatever you want them to do worth it. Say for instance if you work you probley would not want to work for free instead you do it to get a paycheck that is your reward, a dog feels the same way. You can practice loading the clicker and then once they know what you are going to do click the clicker and wait awhile before giving them the treat, this teaches them to be more patient in the long run, but also teaches them even when they have to wait a reward will come. Also some things that you can teach your Jack right away are sitting, you will tell them to sit and once they do you can click the clicker and reward them with a treat. I found some other ones that Max really responded to were sit, lay down, down, and up which is jumping up for a treat. He started doing these when he was 8 weeks old and so as you can see they are very intelligent dogs, but they need your guidance. Use the same words for everything you train them because if you go off of that, you Jack Russell might get confused. So say you use the word down to get them off the couch, and then you must use that every time because if you even say get down they may become confused as to what you are telling them.

Proper Training MUST start when they are puppies.