Jack not listening

Dear forum members,
as you can see I am new on this forum and would like to introduce myself. My name is Alex, I am swedish and I own a 1 year old parson jack russel with long fur.

Anyway, back to the issue. My dog has grasped the basic commands of sit and come. However, when outside in the garden without his leash he ignores me if something more interesting comes to his attention: ie birds, cats and even neighbours. Today, for example, he was outside with me and he just ran up the drive way and went into my neighbours garden. I went inside and got my shoes to get him. When I retrieved him it was evident that he knew he had done something bad as he layed on his back etc. How do I get the message accross to him that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and if this happens again how would I go about punishing him (methods etc).
In the hope of a few replies I thank you all!
Yours Sincerely,
Lantz

It is likely that your dog does not know what it did wrong, just that you are coming towards him and your bodylanguage says your angry with him.
To get a dog to come with 100% reliability, right when you call him, is very difficult to do. It is better to save the come command for emergency situations and come up with a different command for coming inside, maybe like come along, or house now.
To teach a dog to come to you you need to make coming to you way more fun than whatever is going on outside. Use lots of treats, praise, excitment, games, anything that makes your dog excited. No matter how long it takes him to come to you you still need to praise him excessively, Never, ever, ever, punish a dog that has come to you regardless of how long it took him to get there, if you do then you just told your dog if you come to me play time, fun time, etc., are over.
Another tactic that works pretty well is to yell for the dog and then run away from it, they usually will follow to see what the heck you are doing. If he comes praise him and make a huge deal out of it. I have also used a fake play bow by squatting down, slapping my knees, jumping a bit. This makes your dog once again go "hey what the heck is going on? This looks like fun". I have had great success with that.
Training for come is a time consuming process that takes a long time to perfect. You can work with your dog on a long lead, put them in a sit, wait, and then call him to you, if he doesn't come gently tug on the leash repeating the command and praise excessivly when he comes to you.
THere should never be any negative, or punishing behavior associated with the come command if you want it to be reliable.
Good luck!

I agree with Adrienne. Make sure you make "come" his favorite command by giving him lots of praise and treats when he obeys you. Also, if you know he won't come to you, don't tell him to come--go and get him. If you keep telling him to come and he keeps disobeying, he's going to think he doesn't have to obey that command and you'll have to change it to some other word or sentence.

Terriers are also not very good off-leash. I have a JRT mix and we trust her off-leash at times, but it took a lot of training when she was a puppy to get her that way, and I'm still weary of letting her off-leash.

BTW, welcome to the boards!! Be sure to post pictures of your boy!

I missed the part that the dog wasn't confined in any way. That is an awful lot of freedom for a young dog whose world is just starting to broaden. It is kind of like letting your young child outside unsupervised. Dogs can run real fast, even "bolt" if they get startled or scared. Your dog could inadverdently run into traffic.
If I wasn't 100% sure that my dog was reliable and knew it's boundries I would not let it out off leash. It is an unsafe situation for your pet. Until you have taught your dog what is expected and he knows and follows the rules on leash I would not let him out off leash unless you are far away from traffic and know he will obey commands.

Thanks for the replies guys...i usually keep him on a leash but there are no cars outside our house so he is pretty safe when it comes to that matter. I will post pics of him shortely. Thanks again!Lantz

Hi Lantz,

We have a Border Collie mix... I understand the energy crisis.

Until you decide what to do with your guy. There are some games we play (because walks are just walks for a BC)

Instead of feeding him kibble in a bowl, put little piles around the house and teach him find it. (Important to remember where you put these)

Go outside teach him wait and then call him to come to get some kibble. Do this 35 times in the morning. He sounds brilliant, you'll have him hooked in no time.

Put some sticks (Or toys) in a big pile on one side of the yard. Teach him to move them to the other side, he gets a peice of liver for each one moved. (Eventually you may advance him to get a jackpot at the end, instead of standing the dolling out one at a time.)

Also, there is good reason to see a Border Collie vet. BC's have trouble with certain medications.

I hope it all works out for you. It's not easy to place a pet with rescue or take them to a farm. Good luck!

-Maui

I posted this in the wrong place. Oops. Sorry. -M