[StardustInVegas]

"Oh No, not another housetraining question!" Sorry y'all.

After one month and half, Stardust has finally got the idea down to go potty outside she gets chicken. She hasn't had an accident for over 2 months...until now.

We leave her in our Den as her crate and all her toys are in here. We have to keep her separated from the cats because she still has a habit of chasing after them and getting into things that we don't want her to get into. Now it has becoming a little too hot in this room because the door is closed.

So, we solved that issue by putting up a baby gate that we had that's just beyond that in the hallway to allow the air to circulate.

Since then, Stardust had two accidents (within two weeks since putting up the gate). I think she is just a little confused on top of the fact that we started to wean her off getting the chicken every time. I also have been stretching out the times between potties...from 3 hours to 4 hours. Sometimes I wait until she "asks" to go out by sitting by the door, which usually occurs in the afternoon when she pooped out and just sleep longer than 4 hours.

My question for you is how do I train her to ring bells for when she has to go outside? Should I go back to give her chicken every time she potties?

I really want to try to avoid closing the door as it can get hot in here very quickly.

I just feel like I have taken one small step back. So, I just want to make sure that I am doing the right thing. Thanks for any suggestions

 

[peppy264]

Personally I would just stick with the normal program, see the various housebreaking threads here. An actual crate might be better than a den, as in a den you can pee at one end and sleep at the other etc.

I wouldn't complicate things by messing with bells.

Keep rewarding her for doing it outside. Doesn't have to be chicken can be 'good girl', kibble, whatever.

 

[StardustInVegas]

Personally I would just stick with the normal program, see the various housebreaking threads here. An actual crate might be better than a den, as in a den you can pee at one end and sleep at the other etc.

I wouldn't complicate things by messing with bells.

Keep rewarding her for doing it outside. Doesn't have to be chicken can be 'good girl', kibble, whatever.

LOL - We have a living room already, and we call the Family room the "Den". Her crate is in the small bathroom (very small, and we never use the toilet, so it's all hers. She hasn't had an accident at all in her crate. Sorry for the confusion.

We do "good girl", and make a big show if she goes outside. I just don't know if it's just a coincidence. We weaned her off the chicken a couple days or so before we put up the gate. So I'm not sure if the two has anything to do with it, or the gate itself is just confusing her, or maybe I pushed her to hold her potty for 4 hours instead of the normal 3. that's why I'm not sure if I'm doing too much all at once.

 

[hulkamaniac]

There's nothing wrong with a bell. You're not harming her in any way shape or form and it's not too difficult to train. Basically, you have to break it down in two parts - ringing the bell, and ringing the bell to go outside. Get the bell and put it on the door. Then train her to ring the bell on cue. (You may have to use peanut butter or some other lure to get the bell ringing behavior. Personally, I'd use a clicker.) Once she has that behavior down, then every single time you go outside whether it's for business or for play, give her the cue to ring the bell and immediately open the door. The dog will eventually put together that when she rings the bell, the door opens.

The bell isn't going to make things overly complicated at all.

 

[peppy264]

I have this vision of a dog growing hitting the bell 50 times a day and the owner jumping up and saying 'Yes Boss, Right Away Boss'. Are you sure you want to do that to yourself? I mean during housetraining you want to let them out quickly when they may have to urinate, but when they are bigger its not necessary, the dog can wait until it is convenient for you. Picture yourself sitting on the couch, relaxing. Ding a ling. Ding a ling. Ding a ling. LOL.

 

[hulkamaniac]

If you don't want to let your dog out then get a dog door and train them to use it. I don't see what the big deal is. Either your dog will prefer to stay outside or they'll prefer to stay inside. If they keep going out repeatedly, I'd just leave 'em outside for a while.

 

[RottieMomx3]

have this vision of a dog growing hitting the bell 50 times a day and the owner jumping up and saying 'Yes Boss, Right Away Boss'. Are you sure you want to do that to yourself? I mean during housetraining you want to let them out quickly when they may have to urinate, but when they are bigger its not necessary, the dog can wait until it is convenient for you. Picture yourself sitting on the couch, relaxing. Ding a ling. Ding a ling. Ding a ling. LOL

This happened to me! My griff was trained to use the bell, which everyone loved the trick and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He would ding it constantly to go outside (this was after all the training was completed). We weaned him off the bell after a few years and he is fine now, he just goes over to the door. It did work very well though. If I had to train another little dog I would use it again.

 

[RonE]

I've had two bell-trained dogs and I'd poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick before I'd have another one.

Some people lke bells. I don't.

 

[Squeeker]

We did the bell thing, and I thought (and still think) it was a great tool.

Libby started to abuse the bell at one point. She would ring to go out to pee, or to sniff, or to check out that squirrel... and it got very frustrating. So, Libby had to learn that if she rang the bell and went potty, she got to sniff and chew and check out squirrels. If she didn't go potty within a minute or two, she was brought inside and crated for 5 minutes. When she was let out of the crate, the bell didn't work for 5 minutes, even if she rang. Worked like a charm.

When she got older and we knew she was able to hold it, we faded out the bell. Now she goes outside on our schedule: 7 AM, Noon, 6 PM, and 10 PM. If she really has to go off-schedule, we can tell.

However, I think you had a good thing going and the problem is that you changed too many things at once. I would go back to treating every time the dog goes outside, and reducing the time back to 3 hours. Work at that level and then change one thing again.

 

[hulkamaniac]

This happened to me! My griff was trained to use the bell, which everyone loved the trick and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He would ding it constantly to go outside (this was after all the training was completed). We weaned him off the bell after a few years and he is fine now, he just goes over to the door. It did work very well though. If I had to train another little dog I would use it again.

I've considered training Zero to use the bell. I know with Brutus it would be a lost cause. Zero will go to the door when he needs to go outside. The problem is if no one happens to be in the room at the time or no one is home period. Then he pees in the house. For him, a bell would be useful I think at least when I'm home.

 

[skelaki]

A good thing about the bell is that you can hear it even when you can't see the dog standing at the door. Of course the ringing, especially if you have a dog that likes to keep you running to the door can be a definite negative.

 

[winniec777]

I've had two bell-trained dogs and I'd poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick before I'd have another one.

Some people lke bells. I don't.

Agreed. Thought I liked bells. But then she rang the thing for potty. And to go outside to see bugs...birds...frogs...leaves blowing...if it moved, she rang the bell. Got rid of the bell. She pees on a schedule. We're happy and bell-free again.

 

[hulkamaniac]

I'm the type who would get sick of it and just leave the dog outside at some point. Problem would be solved. My dogs can't see outside from in the house though so it may not be an issue.

 

[nikelodeon79]

Luna is bell trained and it was ridiculously easy. Previously, she let us know she had to go out by sitting silently by the baby gate. We hung up a bell, and EVERY TIME she had to go out, we rang the bell with her nose. She just gradually figured out ringing the bell = going outside to potty.

YES she does ring the bell at other times (just wanting to go outside to play). We learned to interpret her body language to figure out if she actually has to go or if she just wants to go out to play. During training, it is important to let them out EVERY SINGLE TIME they ring the bell, regardless of whether they hit it by accident, have just gone out, etc. After that, you can be selective about when to let them out.

 

[LilOllie]

Bell training sounds like a great idea although I have a feeling my cat Jaxon would see it and go crazy with it. He already loves jumping on the kitchen table and hitting the fan cords that dangle down. ha.

 

[peppy264]

What is fundamentally wrong here it that you have the dog ringing the bell to tell you to let him outside. You should be ringing the bell to tell him to go outside. Are you the house owner or the doorman?

 

[nikelodeon79]

Bell training sounds like a great idea although I have a feeling my cat Jaxon would see it and go crazy with it. He already loves jumping on the kitchen table and hitting the fan cords that dangle down. ha.

I thought the same thing with my two kitties but so far they've left the bell alone. *crosses fingers*

What is fundamentally wrong here it that you have the dog ringing the bell to tell you to let him outside. You should be ringing the bell to tell him to go outside. Are you the house owner or the doorman?

IMO the whole "The human must be dominant at all times" thing goes too far sometimes. It's not the dog telling you what to do, it's a notification technique, plain and simple. "Mom, I have to go potty." Okay, so we'll go outside. It's no different from scratching, whining, barking, etc. (except it's a lot less annoying). My pup just sat there and looked at me expectantly. I personally wanted a bit more notification.

 

[hulkamaniac]

What is fundamentally wrong here it that you have the dog ringing the bell to tell you to let him outside. You should be ringing the bell to tell him to go outside. Are you the house owner or the doorman?

Well, currently Zero lets me know he wants to go out by going to the door. He goes to the door and I let him out lest he pee on my floors. I guess I'm in the wrong there.

Brutus goes to the door and if I'm not watching him at the time he will bark until I let him out. Again, I'm clearly in the wrong here. I should just ignore them both I suppose.

 

[LilOllie]

What is fundamentally wrong here it that you have the dog ringing the bell to tell you to let him outside. You should be ringing the bell to tell him to go outside. Are you the house owner or the doorman?

I would hate to be your pet... do you just ignore your dogs when they have to go potty? That just seems silly unless you want them to make a mess on your floor.

 

[RottieMomx3]

IMO the whole "The human must be dominant at all times" thing goes too far sometimes. It's not the dog telling you what to do, it's a notification technique, plain and simple. "Mom, I have to go potty." Okay, so we'll go outside. It's no different from scratching, whining, barking, etc. (except it's a lot less annoying). My pup just sat there and looked at me expectantly. I personally wanted a bit more notification.

Ditto. It worked great for potty training my griff. He even tried to potty train us to go outside. If you are sitting on our toilet in the back part of the house, you can see the back door where we let the dogs out to potty. For along time, if my griff saw you using the toilet he would ring the bell and give you this look with his big brown eyes. It was so funny. I have no idea what gave him the association of us using the toilet and him ringing the bell but he would do it everytime if you didn't shut the door (its in the back part of the house, so who cares if the door is open).

Anyway, it is a useful tool to have in your tool box. I don't feel that I am a doorwoman, I feel I am helping my dogs accomplish the goal of potty training.