Practicing the sit command is very important. You should do this through out the day. I use Joey's breakfast meal for training purposes because he was gaining too much weight with all the treats, but they will usually only perform if they want something. Sitting has to be firmly imbedding in their brain. If I were you, I would feed a small amount of the breakfast food, and put the rest in a little pouch, go to another room and call him, and ask him to sit, say, "YESSSS!" when he does, and reward with a piece of his food, keep doing this using the remaining food. Training has to be done regularly in order to be effective. Do this for several weeks and he should be coming regularly when you call. Always make him sit before any food is given. For bird chasing, penny's in a can makes a loud noise followed by a loud no. If no pennys are available clapping your hands together followed by a No, might work, but chasing a bird is instinctive and they probably can't catch it anyway, but I would not allow my dog to go to the neigbor's yard, could you put up a fense? |