Well I say little because Annie's spirit is so sweet, she seems little. But she's actually a very tall and lanky jack russell terrier.

Her ears stick straight up and her tail, un-docked, seems to just get longer and longer. She wasn't the classic looking jack russell we hoped for, but her face is beautiful, unless, that is, she flattens her ears out...then she looks a bit like Yoda.

We picked her out of a litter of 8 rolley, polley pups. We chose her because when we picked her up she gave out the most adorable growl you ever heard, and is a signature of a strong personality we thought. But if you've raised any jack russells, you know they all have strong personalities.

My Annie is no exception. From the start she exemplified the wonder and extraordinary character that is the jack russell creed. The only thing that matched her character was her incredible propensity for showing affection. Annie is like a little girl who wants to please and make her parents proud.

But this was not entirely the case at the beginning.

Oh my goodness, that puppy would pee, it seemed, every few minutes. And she was only 5 weeks old (the mother had died is why we had her so early) and she didn't understand anything yet. So it was quickly becoming her habit and comfort to relieve herself anytime and anywhere! And I wondered, with this pattern being set, how in the world would I ever get her housebroken?

Luckily we had a little unused room that we could put her in at night that had wooden floors. Lots of newspaper was spread there and for weeks it was a daily mess to clean up, and I still thought to myself...this will never teach her to go outside...how am I ever going to get her trained?...she's just so little and helpless, how can she learn such a big dog lesson?

Then lo and behold I started to notice that Annie, getting bigger now, was not using her newspapers at night. Plus she was going to the door when she needed to go! It was a matter of some weeks, but after our taking her to the door every time we saw a squat coming on, she seemed to pick up on the desired response and sweetly complied.

So my advice to new jack puppy owners with too much pee pee going on is if you don't have a little room to put them in at night, get a crate, as well as a lot of newspaper. As it turns out, these dogs don't like getting their space trashed and will hold it til morning...at least after a little while. And take them to the door every time you see them squatting, even if you're a little too late.

Most important? Praise and praise them when they do their stuff. Jack Russells love that attention and understand when they've been adored, and are eager to please mom and dad.

But if you're having trouble with not just housebreaking your dog, be it Jack Russell or any other stubborn breed, but any kind of dog training need, let me give you my favorite training ebook. It's Dove Cresswell's Dog and Puppy Training Tutorial.

Dove is a well known Hollywood North trainer with all kinds of credits to her name, but the best thing is that you can download it in 2 minutes, punch play, and sit back and watch what is a fun and easy to follow VIDEO tutorial.

By watching Dove as she trains her own dogs, I was able to train Annie to fetch, shake hands and sit up...and all in one afternoon!

You can find Dove's course here... http://www.jack-russell-terrier-pictures.com/trainingk9.html

You'll find a taste of Dove's expertise with a free lesson there. Then you'll see what I'm talking about. There's just not another dog training course out there like this one.

While you're there feel free to browse the rest of the site...it's all about Jack Russells as well as some pictures of my Annie getting pretty big now.

In any case good luck in all your dog training endeavors.

Trisha Adams is webmaster of a really neat site that is all about Jack Russell Terriers.

www.jack-russell-terrier-pictures.com