I’ve said before that Gavin was a real handful when we got him at the age of eight weeks.  I wasn’t kidding in the least.  Mr. Dominate was a nipper, jumper, and hated the word no.  He was not a dog for the faint of heart.  But then, no Bull Terrier is. 

     He would jump at me and nip my clothes leaving me with quite the holey wardrobe.  I finally hit on a way to funnel his love for jumping into a trick he’d enjoy and would save me buying all new clothing.  I bought a Hula-hoop and began to teach him to jump through it when I said ‘hoop’ and would reward him with a treat.  He learned it quickly and loved the attention his new trick brought to him.  He enjoyed it so much he forgot about nipping.

     We’d invite Cleo the standard poodle who lives across the street over to our yard for play dates.  We didn’t have a second dog at the time.  He taught her how to jump hoops.  I had to buy a second Hula-hoop so they didn’t clang into each other trying to jump through the same hoop at the same time.  It looked like a circus act.

     After Patty arrived, he showed her the ropes and now she does good hoop jumps.  Maybe we should take the act on the road…