What can Jack Russell Terrier owners look forward to in training lessons held at a nearby puppy training center? These lessons, which skyrocket off to an athletic start, are good pathways to what can eventually be KC hood citizen awards. What's good also is that the classes can be as small as anywhere between two to five.

Heelwork is the first Jack Russell Terrier training stop, a dog may even want to trot along its owner. This involves, among others, started with the dogs sitting on our left, then leading off my left foot, doing turns and stopping with the dogs sitting on our left again. Other routine movements to be practiced are standing up, sitting, and lying down. Vet checks also are practiced, with drills wherein the dogs allow their body, eyes, mouth, ears, and paws to be handled and inspected. Lastly, when it is time for grooming, owners may need to bring cheese treats as a tool to reign in more squirmy pets.

There are also stay commands and recall sessions. In the case of stays, the dog is asked to stay, while the the owner-handler takes a step farther, then a few steps, growing into a few steps with 5 seconds of waiting up to a minute of waiting. Obviously the trick is to get the dog to get accustomed, or trained, to waiting. Roughly the same is done with recall, but this time with increasing distances.

The gate is yet another exercise. The dog essentially needs to be brought to the gate, command it to wait, open and enter the gate, call the dog through, and get it to sit and stay.

Dog owners will get a lot observing how their pets are trained according to schools of thought of how dogs learn commands. For instance, those who believe that the word-command ought to be taught before the behavior will teach “watch” this way. A treat will be held to an eye, then the command “watch” is given, and if the dog makes eye contact, a reward is given. By the way, to avoid confusion between watching the treat and watching “what I am doing,” some owners simply train the dog using a clicker.

As always, there is good Jack Russell Terrier training for the dog to experience in an environment with plenty of distractions. Learning may come at the price of ultimately several blocks of cheese, but soon the calm behavior and cooperation in exercises will need to be firmly in place.