Ringing the bell to go outside turned bad

[Obedience & More]

Positive training techniques in use....

A friend of mine needs help so I am posting for her. She has a 12 wk old Aussiedoodle. She had successfully trained it to ring the bell when it needed to go outside, and this was very successful. She used treats, I understand she would hit the bell with its hand and then take it outside, when he pottied he got a treat.    However, the behavior has not become a catchall, he rings the bell when he wants, to go outside to sniff, pee, wants water, wants to play, everything, thus making it impossible to discern what the cause is.       

I train as a hobby and have given her my best advice. She has tried taking him outside every time he rings the bell, with no treats except when he potties. She has done this till the hinges have fallen off (figure of speech). Still he rings for everything/nothing. She has stopped all rewarding in general when ringing, and even ignoring it, only taking him out when he rings and she knows its about the time he goes potty. 

I have asked she just remove the bell all together, that he would probably just go sit by the door b/c he knows that's where he goes outside from, but she is worried that will confuse him. So other than removing the bell, does anyone else have suggestions on how to retrain this behavior?

Thanks in Advance.

[Cynthia, Elvis & Pink]

I have had the same problem - my 8 mo ALD would just ring it to go outside.  This doesn't seem like it would work but I wrapped the bells around the door handle so she can't just ring them by walking by - she needs to make a special effort.  It has gotten much better in that she mostly now only rings to go potty.  I tried hanging them down again but she started ringing them all the time again.

[Alexandra Meir]

I totally get positive training and the reasons for it. But the only thing I've found that works when my dogs ring the potty bells for something other than pottying is that I take them outside each time. Give them the chance to go potty, if they don't go they get put into their crates without anything fun for a few minutes when they come back in. She can also choose to remove herself from the presence of her dog for a few minutes if she doesn't like the idea of crate timeouts.

The idea is to basically take away the attention the dog has a chance to get directly following the undesired behavior.