Bell training
Thanks, Val  |
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| yes me too. Darcy does nothing to let us know |
| Here, I'll write you out the training that we did:
Put a bell next to the door that you want the dog to go out, making sure it's at a height that the dog can reach, but not so low that he just plays with it. Every time you take the dog out, tap the bell. As long as the dog hears it ring, it doesn't matter how you do it. Within a week or so (depending on the age of the pup), the dog will start ringing. However, EVERY time he rings, you MUST take him out so he makes the association that ringing the bell means outside. This will get annoying but, bear with him, it'll stick. The dog will figure out that the bell gets him or her outside and will fool you continuously. But you will know when he is lying as you get to know him better. I have 2 bell ringing liars. |
| Thank you for some great tips....I am really enjoying reading the messages on this forum..for a 1st time OES pup mom, I think this will be an invaluable tool to our success.
Thanks again, Val |
| We did bell training exactly the way ButterStotch described it. Callie figured it out in no time! (Lambda, on the other hand, is still only somewhat consistent) For us, the bell is so much better than the scratching or barking alternative.
One hint would be not to put the bell on the actual door. If you do this, then everytime you open the door for some other reason, the bell rings and that might confuse your dog. Good luck! Let us know how it goes!  |
| Thanks for the great ideas...but, of course I have a few more questions.
I assume I can retrain my other 2 dogs, Pearl, my OES (9 yrs.) and Cosmo, my Beardie (4 yrs.) to use the bell method. Is there any thing different I should do as far as training these older dogs?? Generally, they will stare at me and then when they catch my eye, bolt to the back door like a herd of sheep.... I'm kinda thinking, if I get the two bell trained before I get the puppy, it may be easier for the pup to "catch on". I guess it doesn't matter what kind of bell I use, does it? And I should place it as close to the back door as possible, maybe on a piece of ribbon so it hangs about nose level to the dog(s)??  Do most dogs tap it with a paw or nose it??? Just curious............... |
| Both the boys just hit it with their nose. Or, they'll walk by and rub it with their whole body just to make it ring extra long.
I never even taught Bear how to ring the bell, he learned it from watching Clyde. My oldest girl Lucy never uses it though. Never has and probably never will. Clyde was the only one I cared about doing it since he was the silent one. I'd try it the same way with your older dogs but it might take awhile for them to switch exclusively to this method if they've been doing something different. Clyde caught on fast when he was a puppy even though Lucy never did it with him so I think it'll work fine for you either way. Oh, one more thing. Make sure the pup knows where the bell is. Get him to at least make eye contact on it once or twice when you first start introducing it so he knows where the sound is coming from. I have ours on a hook next to the door. It's a couple of those bells that you'd get around Christmas time. Jingle bells, so to speak. |
| Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much...
I will keep you posted on our progress. |
| How cool is that...I want to try. I wonder if it matters that we have a doggie door. I guess I can teach them to ring before they go out. My poodle won't learn...she is 10+ and doesn't do anything she doesn't want to. |
wendy58 wrote: How cool is that...I want to try. I wonder if it matters that we have a doggie door. I guess I can teach them to ring before they go out. My poodle won't learn...she is 10+ and doesn't do anything she doesn't want to.
I'd cover the door up while training with the bell. It might confuse things with a little one. Well, maybe you could combine the 2 and ring the bell as you teach him to go through the dog door. That might work. |
| Update on bell training;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
I placed this string of Christmas bells on one of the legs of my sofa table so it would me nose high. I showed Pearl, my 9 yr old OES and began giving the command "Paw it" and "Paw the bells". (Pearl is my trick dog....she knows so many tricks. When she came to me as a rescue when she was 4 months, she would stretch her front legs and then her back legs. Needless to say now I can say, Pearl s-t-r-e-t-c-h.....Perl back s-t-r-e-t-c-h!!! ITS VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!!) Anyway, I digress...sorry..... So this morning, when I got up, as soon as my feet hit the floor, I ask Pearl..."You want to go out??" Paw the bells." And before I got to the back door, I could hear my Christmas Bells chiming. I think this is working.... so when my new pup comes, Pearl will help me house break her. Thanks ---I will keep everyone posted... Val |
| That's cool that Pearl caught it right away. But, on a side note-- noses don't scratch walls and puppies aren't gentle! |
| hey- hold old was your dog when you tried this with your OES? S'more is 6 months old- is she too young yet?
She does good in the house, but occassionally she will stand by the door and if no one sees her, she doesn't bark or cry, she just stands there and pees  then I have to clean up after her
Holly |
Princess S'more wrote: hey- hold old was your dog when you tried this with your OES? S'more is 6 months old- is she too young yet?
She does good in the house, but occassionally she will stand by the door and if no one sees her, she doesn't bark or cry, she just stands there and pees then I have to clean up after herHolly I think we started Clyde around 5 months. I know he was pretty young, it may have been sooner. We were going out of our minds since he wasn't a barker or a scratcher. He'd just stand by the door and if we weren't around to see him, he'd turn on the old faucet! |
| just read about the bell training earlier tonight. Am starting it tommorw! |
| Our oes we lost at 6 years old, when she wanted to go out the garden would come in the front room climb on the sofa and stare at you sort of 6 inches away from your face. Whereas yorkie just barks... |
| Stella is also bell-trained about 80% of the time. She has been getting better and better about it. Sampson rang the bells yesterday for the first time, and I just about did cartwheels (he's just under 5 months old). As far as the ringing the bells just to go outside thing goes.... if Stella rings the bell, but does not go to the bathroom outside, I bring her back in and she goes to her crate for 5 minutes. After I let her out of the vrate, she usually leaves the bells alone until she really needs to go potty.
I agree with one of the other posters that if you can train the to NOSE the bell rather than PAW the bell, it's much better for the walls. |
| I reason Pearl is using a "paw" instead of her nose, is because she knows the paw command ---I taught that to her years ago for "giving five" and for "touching". She has been taught to do this very lightly and gentley for therapy.
I felt that teaching "bell" and a "nose it" command would be too much to learn at one time and I wanted the bell training to be jump started. Since I used the paw command, I did not place the bell close to a wall. I have the bell on my sofa table. My living room table legs cannot be scatched since they are made of metal. I just wanted to clarify this ...Many dogs know "shake" and it does make the training go faster because you don't have to teach 2 different things. Just make sure you don't place the bell close to anything that can be scratched. Val |
| I think if it's working for you having her to paw it, great, but I think to some dogs it might be confusing since you're giving a command with one meaning but want her to draw something else from it as well. The idea of the bell is just to condition them to learn that a ringing of the bell goes outside. If the dog naturally paws or noses the bell, I think that's fine but I don't think it's necessary to teach a command for the bell. The noise enough, associated with going outside should be plenty. I'm always a fan of simple first! |
I was cleaning the floor near my back door yesterday and accidentally bumped the bells... Sampson was in his playpen and started whining, but I thought he just wanted attention (I didn't associate the whining with the ringing of the bells), then I bumped the bells again... next thing I hear is a little spurting stream...  
Note to self: Do NOT bump the bells unless I am prepared to immediately take Sammie out  |
LOL, that'll teach you!  |
Wow, there is so much to say in this topic! 
First of all, if you want to teach them to ONLY ring the bell when they need to potty, you have to write a schedule to see when they potty and only make them ring the bell when they also potty. So, ringing the bell means going to potty, not going outside. Do you know what I mean? If you have more then one dogs and you know which one learns faster, you teach that one to ring the bell and he/she will help you teach the rest of the gang.
Older dogs can learn new tricks! Puppies can focus for a shorter period of time and you have to make the training sessions fun/games and not too long. When you think the puppy is done, turn around and step away from the training area and if the puppy comes after you and sits down and stares at you, that means he is NOT done. When they don't pay attention to you, that's when they are tired.
Oh, and don't forget: Dogs learn by association! And training your puppy should be as soon as you bring him/her home. Don't wait until 5-6 months. The sooner the better.
Ps: If any of you need a sample of a potty schedule, let me know and I can send them to you. |
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