Bell ringing

[Vicky loves Chachi]

Chachi is 6 months, I can say with confidence that he is potty trained. He rings the bell every time he needs to go and has not had an accident for months. At first when he use to ring the bell constantly we would take him right out since he was learning. Well now he is ringing the bell for attention. Whenever we r all busy cooking dinner , doing homework etc and not giving him direct attention he starts to ring the bell over and over. We don't have a fenced in yard so we have to take him on leash to his fenced in pen. He doesn't always do anything and sometimes he squeezes out a little pee because we tell him to. We sometimes leave him in the pen for our sanity but he starts to bark wanting to come in and a few minutes later he rings again. He does not have UTI. He only does this when he's bored. We give him lots of love and attention but sometimes we r busy and he needs to play on his own. My husband works from home some days and he would love to have Chachi out of his crate sitting next to him in his office but Chachi constantly rings the bell so in the crate he goes.
What can I do to reduce this behavior?

[Robin & Josie]

All I can tell you is that Josie started playing this game almost right away and we just stopped using the bell. It's still there but we don't encourage it. At almost 7 months we just know when it's time to take her out and it's not very often at this point.

You might try taking it away and reintroducing it later when he's older? I'm sure others who have had continued success with the bells can tell you how to deal with this manipulative behavior :)

[Helga, Nimbus, Sierra, Clooney]

Nimbus, almost 4 months, does that too. Especially when I'm cooking dinner. And then I run all the time because he really might have to go.

[Ashley & Roux]

I am going through the exact same thing with Roux. He is actually ringing it right now, even though I let him out 10 minutes ago. If I know he just went out, I just ignore him and he will eventually find something else to do. It's rather annoying, but I don't want to take the bells away as it does help us.

[Missy]

Chachi is doing the same as our Teddy.  Teddy is almost 8 months, and he started doing this constant bell ringing at 6 months. He loves being outdoors and want to be outside and he does want me to be out there with him.

Since I know he is potty trained and I keep my fingers crossed he won't potty in the house for spite, I tell him no and he must go play. Sometimes, he does the ring the bell and move to another area of the house. I have found that if he really needs to potty, he will ring the bell and then come touch my hand and make sure I follow him to the door. I try to keep a mental note of when he last pottied, so I am prepared to call his bluff!  Teddy will even sit down by the door and wait for me I have noticed if he really has to go.

We use the antlers and goat cheese chews as a treat for these independent play times. Try to look for interactive play toys and such as these are smart dogs and they need that extra stimulation!!

hopefully they will grow out of this!!! I am nervous at staying outside in the winter!! too chilly for me! lol

 

[kristine & Auggie]

Auggie was playing the same game so I put our bells on the outside of door so he could let me know when he was ready to come back in.  We have a pretty small house so it is easy to see him at the door.  But maybe time for you to lose the bells.

 

[KLN]

I'm with Robin, I'd take them down if you are comfortable that he's potty trained. Finn was doing the same thing and it was driving me insane. I took the bells down and was a little concerned he might have an accident but it didn't phase him. We are on a pretty good potty schedule but if he needs to go he just barks at the back door (and not constantly like he was ringing bells!). I think some of our doodles just have really outgoing (oh and maybe mischievous, ha) personalities and if there is any type of temptation they are going to take it...constant bell ringing being one of them! Finn has a very playful personality so anything he can turn into a "game", he will. I would take the bells down and make sure for the next few days that yall are on a pretty routine schedule of going out and I bet he gets the hang of telling y'all (in his own way that you'll soon figure out whether it's barking at the back door, staring at you, etc) that he needs to go out. Good luck! And keep us posted.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Yup...we've created monster bell ringers! Add Enzo to this list. I usually get her out, UNLESS I know she has just been out. If she has, then we just re-direct to a toy or something. Hesitant to take them down just yet.

[DJ & Chance]

Chance does the same thing.  He will furiously ring the bells it he wants my attention.  If I know that he doesn't need a potty outing, I redirect him.  For example, I will toss him a favorite toy.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

The bell has worked quite well for us.  What we did with Hurley is after he learned the significance of the bell and decided it was entertaining the ring the bell whether he needed to go out or not he took control of the game.  When he rang it we took him out to do his business.  If he did not do his business within 3 minutes or chose to play instead we took him right back in.   About 15 mins later we would take him out to play with no correlation to ringing the bell.   We would then not take him out every time he rang the bell.  But every couple of hours when he rang it we would take him out to see if he needed to do his business. We always praised him a lot when he would do his business when we took him out.  He stopped ringing it for fun and took it more seriously after a bit.  To this day he only rings it if he really needs to go out and he is 23 months old now.  We even put in a doggie door this past summer but I close it at night and when we are going to be gone as I don't want him going outside when we are not home because of the coyotes primarily.  However, if the door is blocked and he needs to go out he rings the bell.  

We started the bell at 3 months.

[Christy&Riley]

Add Riley to the club. Never got the bell thing and then started banging it around for fun. Took it down as it was definitely not working. We know it's time to take her out when she goes to the door, looks back at us and whines.

[Shanen Sadowski]

Maslow has NOT mastered the bells yet, so I'm sure this conversation will be very helpful just a bit down the road.  Since I've not experienced it, I can only throw a suggestion out there.  If you know that there are certain times (like when you're prepping supper or the whole family needs downtime) how about being proactive and filling a kong or something so hie'll stay busy.  Then you could reward his quietness with a trip outside afterward?  Just a thought. :) Thanks for all the great tips everyone! I'll keep them all in mind for future use!

[Vicky loves Chachi]

Thank you all for your responses. I am very hesitant in taking the bells away completely so i have been removing the bell for short periods when I know he had recently gone potty. He is doing better. I have also put him in his crate when I know no one is available to take him out and he should not need to go. Seems to b working.