12 replies to this topic

[Bobby's Mommy]

My mom always used a bell (still does on even her adult dogs) for potty training, but I had almost forgotten about it until somebody reminded me. My guy is four months old today, but I started him about three weeks ago. I have a sidelight next to my front door, and I simply pinned a big jingle bell at the bottom where he can reach it. He took to it in about a day and a half and has been diligent about using it. Granted, as a just in case, I have a wee-wee pad at the front door as well, but he's very good about ringing the bell and then sitting there waiting for one of us to come and let him out. I remember being warned by a couple people that Havs can be hard to potty train, but he's been a gem. About 99 percent of the time, he's doing exactly what he should be. Hims so smart! <3

[Leeann]

Just wait till the Hims so smart realizes the bells get him outside when ever he wants and not just for potty, he will then become Hims so little stinker

[Bobby's Mommy]

Oh, hims already there, Leeann. No dog has to go every 15 minutes. It's funny, the othe night he rang it and I did what I swore I wouldn't do -- ignored it. I don't want to train him to use it and then ignore him. However, I was in the middle of eating, and I had JUST let him out 10 minutes before. So I ignore the first ding-a-ling. A minute later I hear, DING-A-LING-A-LING-A-LING-A-LING-A-LING!! Okay, all right already! I let him out, and he pooped. So... I guess even he understands that if he really, REALLY has to go, be an insistent little nuisance.

[Christy]

Don't worry the let me out every five minutes usually only lasts a couple weeks, unless you got a Marley.

[Suzi]

My sister and I bought bells about a mo ago and tried to train four dogs. So far zoey is the only one who will use it . she has a very soft ring just puts her little nose up against it way cute. I realized the other day I would just love it if they would just bark at the door. I wounder how to train to do that?

[Bobby's Mommy]

I know you can eventually train to bark at the door, Suzi. The two we had before (Amber, who we lost in September and Casey our Maltese who is on borrowed time) never really need to bark because my husband smokes outside and goes out every couple hours. If they ever needed to go out at a time different than that, they would give intense looks or some other signal. My mom's dogs always use the bell, even as older dogs. I figure eventually Bobby will either go to barking or won't need to due to the smoking husband. The fact that he "gets it: at such a young age warms my heart. I kept hearing, "Good luck potty training your hav." But I hear the same about Maltese, and growing up, we've never had an issue with our Maltese. My Casey was a basket case when I got him because he was a rescue and I was his fourth house by the time he was 16 months. He wasn't easy to train, and it took a while, but between me and my Goldie mix, we got it done.

[Amanda]

We are training Brisa on command and taking her out like crazy and will hopefully add in the bells in a few weeks. There is no doubt in my mind she would ring the bells nonstop or eat the bells right now!

[apololaceymom]

Leeann, on 18 February 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

Just wait till the Hims so smart realizes the bells get him outside when ever he wants and not just for potty, he will then become Hims so little stinker

Lacey rings the bell to go out too, and you are 100% correct Leeann, she rings them to go our for play time too. For some reason, she does it when we are eating!!! I have started to ignore that, and if I know she just went potty, I ignore her too....

[Barbara]

Huggie knows how to ring the bells all too well! He does ring them when he needs to potty, but he also rings them when he wants the door open for any other reason, to play outside or if he hears birds or an airplane or a dog or gardeners or..... well you get the idea. I usually ignore him if he's just gone potty unless he's persistent about it (which he always is if he really needs to go!)

Eli has never rung the bells, maybe because I open the door often enough when Huggie rings them.

I bought these bells at Nationals in July from the Havtohavit store. Here's the link http://www.havtohavi...roducts_id=1121
The only problem, other than your dog ringing them for everything is that Huggie once caught a nail in one and pulled the bottom bell off. Probably my fault for not keeping his nails short enough. I guess it didn't hurt though because he didn't lose a nail or even make a sound when it happened but I saw the bell on the patio right after I opened the door for him.

[Bobby's Mommy]

With my guy being only 4 months old, I can't easily ignore too many ding-a-lings. You just never know. Now, if he just went out, he probably doesn't have to go again -- but he HAS done it before and peed the first time and 10 minutes later had to poop.

The bell I got was a ping pong ball-sized jingle bell at Michaels. I am fortunate in that I have a sidelight, so I just pinned it to the bottom of the sidelight curtain. Cost: $1.

[Ann]

We have bells too, I love them. Gracie rarely rings so if she does we let her out immediately, she doesn't mess around. Same with Scooter. Murphy rings if he sees a squirrel, a bird, a kid in the yard behind ours, a cloud, a leaf, or even dust!!! Often he'll ring and someone will call out, "Stop faking Murphy!", and he'll give up and walk away. Poor Murph.

We're working on teaching Teensy by ringing the bells as we go out and saying 'potty'. She'll go on command it seems but we've been able to watch her very closely, she gives great clues that it's time so that sure helps, and she's doing well. I can't wait for the first time she rings though.

[Bobby's Mommy]

Bobby was ringing within 48 hours. In the beginning, we had a couple accidents -- at the door, which I considered a good thing -- because I think he was walking NEAR the bell without really setting it off. Most of the time, he walkes against the bell as opposed to hitting it with a paw or a nose, but he's done that, too. He's so cute when he does it -- rings the bell, then does one of those "lazy" sits where he's on one hip, leaning against the door, waiting for one of us to come let him out. He's really VERY good at it. Though some of the rings are just to go out without the potty, I'm willing to put up with that for now until he can give another sign when he's older. My other two dogs have never really had to use any real signal for going out as my husband smokes outside. Granted, they WILL give you "that look" if they have to go out and you're not headed that way, but eventually the bell will be phased out.

[Havanezer]

We got bells for Whitey. First we tried peanut butter on the bell to get him to ring them - but he didn't catch on it was for potty - he thought it was for peanut butter - lol. Now he actually will swat the bells with his paw - but not always - he resorts to a plain old bark if he wants to go out most of the time. But once in a while, he does ring the bells!