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Old Dog, New Tricks
A YouTube star and her human family call Stafford home
BY ERIC ALTHOFF
When Christina Jones first discovered Chloe, a mixed terrier, at an animal shelter cage in San Antonio, the creature was in pretty rough shape.
That was in November 2018. Chloe was all of 4 pounds, her hair was falling off and she was infested with fleas and ticks. However, her sweet eyes projected a warmth that Jones immediately recognized.
“When I took her out, it was like touching bone,” Jones said at her home in Embrey Mill. “We didn’t know she had a curly tail because … her muscles had atrophied so much she couldn’t hold her tail up. She was shaky all the time because she was so weak.”
Today Chloe is healthy, spry and inquisitive. Whether it’s sniffing the fingers of a new human or watching birds outside the window of her home, she enjoys a much better life than when she was found on the streets of San Antonio.
Oh, and she does tricks, too. Lots of them. On the second floor of Jones’ home is a room devoted almost exclusively to Chloe’s trophies, ribbons and various other awards from the American Kennel Club (AKC), where Chloe competes as an “elite performer.”
With some goading from Jones – and treats – Chloe will wave, pray, “play” piano and jump through a circle made by her human mother’s arms. She can also tackle more complicated tasks such as “Order up!”, which requires her, on command, to drop a plastic donut into a dish and then strike a bell.
Jones and her family moved to Stafford in February 2021, when her husband was transferred to the Pentagon by the Air Force.
Jones said that shortly after her family adopted Chloe, she researched on YouTube how to train her to sit and lie down. Although Jones had owned dogs before, Chloe was the fastest learner she’d encountered.
“One or two times I’d show her, and she had it. It didn’t take any effort whatsoever,” she said. She soon signed up Chloe for agility course training. “I’m not very fast, so I was the one holding us back in the agility courses.”
The agility courses led to trick training, at which Chloe was also a quick study. The trophies from the AKC came rolling in, as did the accolades as a “Stunt Dog” grand champion, which required Chloe, whose extended handle is Flopdoodle Chloe Bean, to perform in a skit in front of at least five judges.
The family joined Canines for Christ in San Antonio, a therapy dog organization that does skits for organizations such as the police, Boys and Girls Clubs and nursing homes. Through that program, Jones became friends with Jill Powell, who encouraged her to get Chloe into these skits.
“Chloe has a special gift of learning lots of tricks – and her mom facilitating that,” Powell said. “She has a real passion for the next generation coupled with dogs, and then her love for God is just a really neat fit.”
How does she do it?
For more complicated tricks, such as “Order up!”, Jones uses a behavior-training regimen called “shaping.” This requires positively reinforcing several individual actions before successfully linking them together into one continuous operation.
“For things like basketball, where she has to retrieve the ball and then put it in the hoop, you’re going to teach her first to do the retrieval, and then, as she gets closer to the hoop, you’ll say ‘yes,’” Jones explained. “You keep asking for more and more until you’ve shaped the behavior to the way that you’d like it to be.”
Jones and Chloe also work with an organization called Do More With Your Dog!, an international titling program for dog tricks, fitness, shows and animal actor certification – making Chloe eligible for hire if “Madam Secretary” is ever revived.
“Christina and Chloe have a very close relationship built on a foundation of positive, reward-based training,” said Kyra Sundance, CEO of Do More With Your Dog! “This trust in their relationship is evident by the ease in which Chloe performs in new and unfamiliar places. She knows that only good things will happen.”
Jones and Chloe work with the local chapter of Canines for Christ, and they’ve also performed skits at a nursing home in
Alexandria. In addition to being a certified AKC evaluator and dog instructor, Jones directs Canines for Christ’s Junior Handler program. One person she has been shepherding is her own teenage daughter, Hannah. During skits, Hannah often serves as propmaster, setting up ring towers for Chloe to jump through, much to the delight of audiences.
“Our personal favorite is I’ll get down on my hands and knees, and Chloe will ride on my back,” Hannah enthused. “The little kids love that kind of thing.”
“They like selfies,” her mother said of children wanting to take photos with
Hannah and Chloe.
Hannah will also have Chloe jump on a pedestal behind her, as if the two are posing for a portrait. The gag is invariably a crowd pleaser.
Jones admits that asking the dog to perform on command can be a wild card. Sometimes Chloe wanders off script, but such oopsies are often the most fun part of the show.
“People’s favorite thing is when she does her own thing,” Jones said. “It’s like, whoops, but they all get the biggest kick out of it.”
Fun videos and more
Hannah makes videos for Chloe’s YouTube channel, where fans can watch mother and daughter explain how to train your dog to perform tricks. Hannah has also used editing software for such amusing videos as timing various images of Chloe to the familiar opening beats of “Eye of the Tiger.” The family has won additional praise for sketches with names such as “The Life of a Military Pet” and “If Chloe Could Be Teacher for a Day.”
However, even performers as capable as Chloe sometimes get stage fright, especially around larger groups.
“There’s a homeschool convention in Richmond we worked at last year. There was a group of 30 to 50 volunteers, and Chloe can be shy sometimes,” Jones said. “If there’s 20 people on Chloe, she’ll be like, ‘OK, this is too much.’”
The life of a military family can be challenging, particularly as it requires frequent moves. Jones is still building a local network.
“I would really like to have a bigger group here. I would love to go to the USO and things like that, but I would love to have other dogs with me,” Jones said, adding that she has taken Chloe to Girl Scout events and children’s birthdays.
Still, she looks forward to making more Stafford connections.
“I actually posted [online] in Stafford saying this is what we do, this is our ministry, your dog needs to pass these tests to join as a therapy dog,” she said. “And I got so many hits of people wanting to have us” come to them to be entertained, but “I’m like, I need help first before I can reach out and do that.”
She encourages interested parties who want their dogs to serve as therapy animals to take “good canine citizen” tests offered by the AKC and Canines for Christ.
Chloe was a finalist in the AKC’s 2022 Trick Dog National Competition. Dr. Mary Burch, director of the program, praised both Chloe and Jones for fostering a jolly experience whenever they perform.
“Christina is a highly skilled trainer who has demonstrated her extraordinary ability to take a dog with problems, and by using a positive reinforcement approach, transform that dog into a confident little superstar,” said Burch. “What is remarkable about Chloe is her joyful and extremely eager-towork attitude.”
Jones believes Chloe is about 6 years old. Is that too old to learn new tricks?
“I have books of tricks. There’s some we’ve tried that, no matter what we do, we can’t get,” she said. “I feel like we need more ideas.”