CRAZY Bell Ringer

[Karen P]

I know this has been brought up before, but I am looking for some new insight.  Chewie (5 mnths) has started to ring his bells all the time!!  He has not had an accident in over 5 weeks.  It is to the point that we have been "pretending" not to hear him when we know that he has just been out and does not need to go.  He is using his bells to get attention (which he is not lacking)  He knows someone is supposed to come when he rings.  Everytime we leave the room he is ringing the bells.  My DH has about reached his limit. How do we only respond sometimes.  Has anyone that has bell trained their dog taken them down?  If so, how do they let you know?  Chewie really never barks.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've lived with housebroken dogs for 52 years now, and we never had bells. Or accidents. Not even any barking. The dogs just naturally sat or stood by the back door when they wanted to go out, and somebody saw them, or just remembered it was time for the dog to go out. There's usually a rough time schedule that develops, too, once they mature. The need isn't so urgent, and if you know when they last went, it's pretty easy to know when they might need to go again. This only applies to mature dogs who are solidly housebroken, though.
I've had friends who used the bells during puppy taining and then removed them when the dog was trustworthy in his housebreaking. They had no problems with accidents.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Take the bells down - Peri started this around 4 months also and we have not used the bells since then (almost 10 months old now). After one week of ongoing ringing (when I knew she just wanted to go outside), we removed them. We know she needs to go out now when she barks at the door - and we know her schedule now.

[Karen P]

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I am going to try it without the bells and see how it goes.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Chewie should start letting you know he needs to go out in other ways. Keep us posted!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Yes, keep us posted as I was considering starting the bells with my 13 month old, as his cues to go out are very subtle and shortlived. We have had a few accidents when we weren't super viligent, especially when we first moved into this house in Sept and now hoping to be moving to another home in the next few months and don't want accidents again. He never has really verbalized needing to go, just a quick look at the door and then a look over to us and then we sort of knew the "look" and would let him out. Otherwise he really doesn't go over to the door much, so that's the only sign we get.
So I guess watch Chewie for his own signs now.

[Sheri & Murphy]

Murphy does this sometimes too, especially at dinner time or if everyone in doing something. I think they don't know what to do so they want some attention... I usually give him one of his toys or his bone and then he seems fine. Now that he is two he is starting to entertain himself on his own more. Be thankful he has a method of communicating.:o) The tricky part is figuring out what they want?;)

[BG and Gavin]

LOL Our friends say "wow, cool you have trained your dog to ring a bell to go outside." I say "no, our dog has trained us to open the door when he rings a bell." Without fail our guy always has to "go" when I am on the corded phone!

[Susan Crespo]

My dog is 6 months old and he uses the bells. For a while he was ringing them all the time just to go out and play. I started to ignore him when I thought he didn't really have to go and then he would go in my dining room Uggh...Now we're back to letting him go whenever he rings the bells. I don't allow him to play though. If he doesn't have to go I bring him right back in. Now the bells are working much better for us.

[Cami Jacobs]

I have trained three dogs to use the bells since we live in an apartment and have to take them out on leashes. Our apartment has a funky lay out and the door isn’t in a place where you can see the dog if she is next to the door but I can hear her when she rings them. When the ringing started to be only for attention we started to ignore at least once and if they rang again we would take them out. Like Susan, I don’t let them play. It’s business only. After a while that seemed to solve it. I also think it resolves itself with age. We eventually took them down, probably when the youngest was a year old. At first she started ringing the blinds on the window which is right next to the door. Now she just sits by the door. But like Karen said we have a schedule that we follow so most of the time they don’t need to go. We still get fake outs every now and then. It’s usually when my terrier sees a squirrel out the window or a speedy looking cat. But for the most part they grew out of the crazy ringing period.

[Karen P]

Thanks for the advice !!