How Do I Train Him to Ring a Bell?
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| We actually did this with our Murphy.
We have a sliding glass patio door that leads to our back yard. Murphy wouldn't let us know either. He'd just go over to the door and and wait a few seconds...if we didn't notice...Niagra Falls 
Anyway...Our dog trainer mentioned the bell trick. I ran to the store and bought a sleght bell christmas ornament and hun it on a peice of twin. The we tied that to the frame on the blins on the sliding door so that it hung about 6 inches above the ground. Then everytime we let murphy out, we kicked the bell with our foot/leg to make it jingle. After a week or so he was nudging it hiself to get out. 
One warning we got from the trainer was to actually make him go outside when he rings the bell...even if you know he did it inadvertently. That way he know that if he rings the bell he goes outside. THat way they don't turn it into a game. All in all, it was pretty quick and easy. Having him ring the bell has been a real life savor for us. Hope this helps! Good Luck! Murphy's Dad |
| That's Clyde to a tee-- the silent sit down, wait a minute and then whiz all over the place! Cool, that's exactly what I wanted to hear that it isn't a ridiculously difficult process! I hope Clyde will catch on that fast too. I also got the jingle bells. Unfortunately I'm out of season for bells so I had to go to the craft store and I'll be fashioning my own.
Thanks so much. I'll let you know if it works... I'll be praying. I'm so tired of touching pee  |
| I'm sure you'll both do just great! He'll be ringing the bell in no time at all. Just be consistant...our trainer said that was the key. Everytime he goes out side the bell rings...if he does it or you do dosen't matter. And everytime he rings the bell...he goes outside. If you are consistant he'll catch on in no time flat
We wish you the best of luck!!!! Let me know how it goes! |
| I can't wait to hear how this goes... it sounds like fun to train and seems to be a very useful thing to teach.... |
| Day One of Bell Training
Rang bell every time we took Clyde out. Seemed confused as to why we were doing this. Showed slight interest in bell once. Other already housetrained dog Lucy looks on with interest. Results Lucy now rings the bell when she has to go out. *sigh* Lol. I guess I know it works. Unfortunately that one already had a perfectly good signal. I think she'll just be adding it her repetoire though. She just seemed anxious to see what all the excitement of the bell was about. Hopefully Clyde will model her too. I'll continue with the updates! |
Smart Lucy  |
| Funny.... Lucy sounds like a smart girl, hopefully it will rub off! They do tend to train each other. Dancer is my smart pup, Sky is...well.... we call her Tonka puppy.... LOL |
| We did it back arrround 3 months ago...I seem to remember a fewdays worth of blank stares from muphy.
I bet having lucy get it will be a good influnce! I bet that will make the process easier for you! hmmmmmm......maybe that whole "training each other" thing could be a good argument to get another pup??? naaawwwww I don't think my wife would go for it lol |
| What a cute Clyde and Lucy story! Can't wait to hear how the training goes. |
| Pavlov's dogs in the making... Lucy now runs to the door immediately upon hearing the bell. I don't think she even has to go! This excites Clyde and then he doesn't want to go. It's nearly impossible to separate them though but I'm going to have to try. However, don't mistake that for a lot of love between them-- it's simply mistrust, like what's he or she gonna do to my toy/food/stuff while I'm outside. They remind me quite a lot of me and my sister
On the plus side, we did get a nudge this morning to the bell from Clyde. We let him out and he went #2. I don't know if it was his intention but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I have the bell on the doorknob now but I think it might be confusing to him to hear it going in and out so I'm going to move it and see if that helps. The saga shall continue... |
| How is the bell-ringing training going? |
| It's slow going. Out of habit, I'm proactively asking him if he needs to go outside and I don't think I'm giving him a chance to do it. He's hit the bell about 3 times and when let out, he went. However, I'm wondering if it was more of an accident that he hit it. On the plus side, we haven't had any accidents either so it's hard to complain!
I'm going to keep doing it and hope that he will start ringing it on his own. The last couple of days, rather than just hitting it ourselves, we've started to gently take his face and bump his nose on it so he starts to realize that he can do it too! Lucy, of course, figured it out right away and if we don't respond to her barking to go out fast enough, she goes by the back door and rings the bell until we get up! She's just being a smart-aleck, I know it! I don't discourage it because it's good modeling for Clyde but Lucy knows she doesn't need to do it! |
Wow, maybe I spoke too soon. I'm home sick today and Clyde, without provocation, has rung the bell on 4 separate occasions. All 4 times he went when let out and all 4 times also appeared to be on purpose, like he knew what to do with the bell! I'm thrilled but I don't want him to hear me or he'll pee on the floor to prove me wrong  |
| I've created a monster! In the last couple of days, it finally hit him how it worked and now it's non-stop. It's snowing today (after 80 degree days last week--welcome to Michigan) and he loves the snow so he keeps ringing the bell to go out. All but the last time, he's squeezed out the tiniest bit of pee but he finally went dry the last time so I told him to quit crying wolf. He just wandered over to the bell and I yelled out, hey what did I tell you about crying wolf? And he just hung his head and walked away. He knew he was done! Now he's chosen to taunt Lucy-- loudly and mercilessly. Maybe I should let him go outside... |
| Jill-
Are you referring to Clydenstein
Heard you were sick, hope you feel better. Holly |
| Or Frankenclyde, whichever you prefer
Actually the change of weather brought on a serious migraine. I get them a lot and I can't seem to shake this one. The first 2 days were really severe-- to the point whee I have to stay inside in the dark but today is better. I'm at least functioning again. Thanks for the well wishes nonetheless! |
| this is great! my fiance and I were just talking about getting him to use a bell. first we need to keep him from chewing it! |
| And it worked too! I never thought it would and it's been a godsend. The only thing that really stinks is that if I'm upstairs and he's downstairs and rings, I can't hear it. I know he's ringing it though because the couple of accidents that have occured were right under the bell.
We did it just like someone suggested in one of the posts. I got one of those adhesive hooks and stuck it by the door and hung some bells that I bought at a craft store on it (finding bells this time of year was harder than it seemed like it would be!). At first I had it on the door handle but I think it was confusing for him to hear the bell every time the door opened rather than just when he went out. He really seemed to catch on after that. I thought Clyde would eat it too but it helped to keep it just within his reach so he could hit it with his nose but not really be able to get his whole mouth on it. he learned fast that eeverytime he touched it, he was going out. Some days I think he learned too well! Good luck! |
| That's awesome, quite an accomplishment. Now I want to try it with mine...lol..... |
| I bought my bells from a party store, just look in the wedding section. Their always in stock! We're going to try one bell and if we can't hear it across the house we'll add the second one. |
| Are they the jingly kind or the kind you ring? I specifically wanted the jingle kind at first so it would be really easy to nudge and get a noise. Good find on the wedding bells though-- I never even thought of that! |
| And my husband thought I was crazy for wanting to teach Mojo to use a door bell to get back in. He either barks or jumps up on the glass. I'm afraid he'll go right through it. Sounds pretty successful. Will have to rig up something for him to push. |
| I was wondering if anymore of you have tried the bells, or any other specific training to get your dogs to let you know they need to go out?
My dogs still NEVEr let me know in any way that they need to go out. Most of the time we just stick to a schedule and everything is fine, but on days like today, my husband and I are off, we had a long busy day yesterday and so we slept in a bit, so there were accidents when we got up. It was not that late, about 9:30 am, but that is at least 2 hours later than normal. Abby had an accident, and then peed outside when we took her out, and had another accident inside about 20 minutes later. Sky didn't have any accidents, and went outside when I took her out, but Dancer refused to pee outside (it's rainy) and promptly peed in the kitchen before I had a chance to put her back in her crate. Abby I can understand, her puppies seem to be growing by leaps and bounds, her belly seems bigger every evening than it did the same morning, so I am guessing it is just pressure on her bladder. I would still love it if they would all learn some way of letting me know when they need to go out! LOL |
| Willowsprite-
This site has a good article on training with the bell and the faq section is good too. Our guy has been really good at letting us know he needs to go out so we did not follow through with the bell. Good luck with the training! www.poochie-bells.com |
| Willowsprite,
I've had the bells up since this thread was first put up and Spike honestly could care less about the bells. As with your dogs, he's great when he's on a schedule but I don't fully trust him, and the only one who actually uses the bells to ask to go out is the cat.  |
| Willowsprite,
Have you tried the bells already and they didn't work? It barely took 2 weeks for Clyde to get it and he's no genius so I'm assuming if he got it, anyone could! We kept to his schedule and rang them each time he went out-- just a quick tap as he was just about to go out the door. That worked fine until we got the dog door. We haven't had an accident since the dog door was installed and he just goes out on his own-- which tells me he knew all along that that was what he was supposed to do. I'd say the dog door was the best decision ever made. We just bought one that was integrated with a storm door so the regular door can still be closed as normal for security purposes. We don't leave it open at night and he just waits until the door opens no matter how long it is. He now has full run of the house everyday with no accidents or destruction. |
| No I haven't tried the bells.... I was thinking again of giving it a shot, so I think we will. I love the idea of a dog door, but since we're only renting I'm not sure if that's a route we want to take. We'd have to buy a whole new door and have the dog door installed in that and then put the other door back whenever we buy and move out. I guess that's not really much of an expense.... hmmmm... maybe.....lol |
| I think ours was only about $360 installed, and well worth every penny. I got the biggest one they made (dog door wise) but since your dogs are smaller, you might be able to get away with the one one size down. You can even buy a cheap storm door and buy the dog door separate and install it yourself, you'd probably save a lot like that. Then again, bells are about $3! When we move I have every intention of removing and bringing it with us-- unless Clyde keeps getting bigger annd can't squeeze through anymore. We got the one for 100 pounders and it's getting a bit tight these days. I may have to shave his sides... |
| Where did you find a door with the dog door built in? I tried to do a Google search and was unable to come up with anything like that. That sounds like a great idea since I rent also and would rather just change the door out than cut into the existing door. |
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