I trained Abby to ring bells and spent a lot of time outside on false alarms,but now she is almost 2 and stopped going outside every two minutes.
I started out with large jingle bells and a handful of treats and played the game every day. Next I tied the two bells together and played some more. Then we attached them to the baseboard near the garage door with a thumbtack-The bells hanging from the doorknob seemed to be too scary...- and played some more, this time opening the door everytime she rang them.Step by step over a month- it worked great.
I even caught Ziva ringing them last week! (she thinks its a bit below her
!)