Bell training

[Cori, Cali, and Riley]

Riley is my second doodle, she's an 11 week old Irishdoodle. We never bell trained our mini labradoodle and she was so easy to potty train, but decided to try the bells for Riley. We were so surprised how quickly she picked up on it. Literally day 2 she was ringing them. Then at the beginning of this week she got sick. She got a stomach bug, possibly from something she ate. The vet put her on 2 meds plus very bland canned food for a couple days. It cleared right up, but she's still on meds to be sure. I am not sure if the meds could possibly be making her go potty more, but she's had several accidents and refuses to ring the bells. Seems weird that she would regress. All weekend she'll go to the door but not ring, so if we don't see her run over there she'll go potty by the door. She's also just stopped playing all of a sudden and pee on the floor, whereas last week she would go ring her bell. Do you think maybe we should see how she does once she's off the meds or is there a reason she stopped ringing the bells? I know she's still young, so I am not worried she's still in the potty training process, just seems weird she has regressed. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance!

[Vivian & Mojo]

My 7 month old doodle was about 90% potty trained, not with bells but he would go to the door when he needed to go out. Last week he got sick with a tummy thing and the vet put him on 2 kinds of meds. He also started peeing on the floor like Riley, stopped playing and suddenly peed. Maybe its the meds perhaps. Today he is better and I've been really watching for signs that he needs to potty and so far no accidents. I did buy the bells and am going to start using them I hope hes not too old to learn.

[kristine & Auggie]

Maybe Riley has associated being sick with the bells.

[Karla Lamont]

I have never heard of bell training.  Can you explain the procedure?  My pups are 11 weeks and are starting to go yo the door, but we still have many accidents!

[Cori, Cali, and Riley]

Hi Karla-

If you do a search I think there are other topics regarding bell training.  Basically you attach a bell to the door or somewhere your dog will associate ringing it when they want to go outside.  We attach ours to the door so when Riley has to go she rings the bells.  It only took her about 2 days of us ringing them saying "Outside ring your bells!" for her to catch on.  Now she rings them herself so we can hear her and know she needs to go.   The good news is after we stopped her meds she did go back to ringing the bells.  I will warn you though, she rings them constantly whether she has to go or not- half the time she just wants to go outside to play.  We take her out every time though to be consistent with ringing the bells.  These are the ones we bought: http://www.amazon.com/PoochieBells-Potty-Training-Doorbell-Chocolat...  But I know some people have had success making their own.  

[Karla Lamont]

Thanks for the info!!!  I can already see that with 2 pups the bells will be ringing alot!!!  So glad Riley is back to her old self!!