Coming back into the house

[Carlos and Chloe]

So chloe has a bell by our sliding door that she rings whenever she needs to go out.  She'll usually ring it once or twice and just sits by the door patiently waiting until someone lets her out.  Sometimes if I don't notice or pay attention she'll come up to me and started barking but that's all fine.  However, when she wants to come in she always jumps on the sliding door scratching it and so forth.  She's pretty big at 50lbs and when she jumps up she slams into the sliding door with a nice thud.  It's a typical large glass sliding door but sometimes I wonder if she's gonna come crashing through it one of these days.  I have the secondary mesh door completely open because I know she'll just destroy that.  Is there another way to do this?  I thought of putting another bell outside but I can barely hear it from the inside when the door's shut.  I'd prefer it if she'd just bark when she wants to come in but not sure how I could teach her that.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I am definitely going to be watching tips on this! We have a balcony and Darwin loves to lay out there for a couple of hours each night. Just to see people passing, nap in the cool air, etc. Well, we don't want bugs in so we always close our screen or glass door. Usually he's cautious but on occasion he forgets and slams right into the screen or glass. I don't want him to get hurt, or break our screen... so I've been at a brainstorming. I was considering taping a piece of paper to the door at Darwin's face level. That way when he is about to come in he'll see the paper and know there is something there...

Edit: I just saw that she KNOWS the door is there, she's just jumping on it. I am not sure... maybe one time you could put shortening on the door so that when she jumps up she slides off. It might startle her enough that she won't want to jump up again.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

One way to prevent the jumping is to go out with her. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but our Lucy (nearly 50lbs) has an escort every time she goes outside. At 10 months old, I know there will come a day when we will just open the back slider and let her go do her business alone (when we can trust that she knows exactly WHERE she should go), but so far that day isn't here. I'll be interested to hear what others suggest. BTW, Lucy also uses a bell to go outside.

[Carlos and Chloe]

Actually, the few times I have gone outside with her she still goes right up to the door when she's done and jumps on it even though I'm right next to her or walking behind her lol Sometimes when I'm bbqing on our porch I'll just leave the door completely open to avoid that nonsense. Even if the entire family's outside she'll usually get bored and want to go back in the house. The only time I can prevent her from jumping is if I'm standing right at the door and open it as she's coming back from her business.

[Andrea Balanzategui]

Charlie (19 months) now waits at the back door to be let in. He jumped and scratched at first. I fussed at him and he stopped. Now he will actually wait there even if it is cracked, for me to let him in. I know what you're thinking, it must have been a really bad "fuss", but I promise, it wasn't :) it was just one of the times when we were lucky and he got the message. I corrected him and made him sit. then opened the door and invited him in.
I don't want to take us on a tangent, but am interested in how you all taught them to use the bell to go out. i have one hanging on the door, but i haven't been successful in getting him to associate it with going out.

[Carlos and Chloe]

When we first got Chloe and she was very small I would carry her out and then ring the bell every single time before we went out. I'd actually tap her nose on the bell to make the jingle sound. As she got bigger I would point to the bell and tell her to touch it. She'd just briefly push it with her nose but as long as it rang I would open the door for her to go out. By the time she was potty trained she had been conditioned to ring it every time before she went out. My bells are just dangling on some tether tied to the door so she can't miss it. Once in a while she won't bother ringing it and just sit by the door waiting. If no one notices she'll start barking.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I think if you're consistent and ring the bells EVERY time Charlie goes out, while saying the phrase, 'ring the bells, go potty', eventually he'll have that ah-ha moment and will make the association. We started Lucy on bell training the day we got her at 7 weeks old, and she understood by the 3rd day. It really was that fast. An older dog will undoubtedly take longer, but Charlie may surprise you. Consistency really is the key.

[Kristine and Charlie]

So my Charlie picked up on ringing his bell to go potty within the first week (about 12 weeks old) but he is now 20 weeks old and we have a bit of a problem. Ringing the bell too much. He comes in after going potty and a few minutes later he is ringing to go back out....to play or sniff around. Sometimes he will go in and out a few times. I don't want to tell him no when he rings it because it might confuse him that it is not okay to ring it. Our backyard backs up to the neighborhood park and if he sees or hears something/someone he will ring the bell like crazy to go out but I don't want him to because I know he is going to bark at them. What should I say to him? Also regarding the original post....Charlie sits outside our sliding door when he wants to come in. He naturally did it right away so we would just watch and as soon as he sat we would open the door. Occasionally if we forget about him then he will bang once to get our attention.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Maybe don't let her in, make her sit, if she jumps say no, if she does it again say no, sit, when she does sit say "good girl" and let her in. Be Firm and really make her sit. She will probably bark when you tell her no and actually if she is sitting and barking that is a good thing. She will get it but you will have to be very consistent. Perhaps if you put duct tape on the door , like a big X (attractive I know) it may make her stop and think "what the heck is that?" and meanwhile you can tell her to sit. Obviously you will have to be there all of the time watching and waiting until she gets it.

You are lucky she rings the bell only to potty, our Grand dog the boxer figured out that every time she rang it she could go out ( to just play and hang in the backyard, her passion) and eventually, after she was old enough and potty trained, they had to remove the bells...she was asking to go out every 5 minutes and they had to let her cause if she asked you didn't want to discourage.

Wow, our dogs are a lot of work - LOL

[Lynda Kamrath]

We have a retractable screen door that the adult dogs were afraid of. If they jumped on it, it would slam open, so they learned quickly to avoid the screen. Puppy?? Could care less if it bangs open. I think most dogs will jump on the window when they want in. I ignore the jumping (I know it is hard to do) and open the door a little and tell Harpo to sit. After he has sat for a little while, I open the door for him and praise him. Seems to be working but maybe he sees the jumping as the signal for me to come and tell him to sit. Same result, he gets the door open. He also jumps up on the television screen when he sees a four-legged animal running. My husband has been trying to break him of that habit. The Christmas tree isn't up yet, but that should be fun!