How long between potty breaks during the day? and ? on potty bell training

[Melanie, Wookie and Dr. Watson]

We both work and when our oldest doodle - Wookie - was a pup we were able to get by on one visit from the dog walker a day, so that at 8 weeks she was left to hold it for about 3.5 hours at a time.  She had no issues with this at all and we slid the dog walk back a half an hour every two weeks till she was lasting the whole day.

Now we have a new pup (9 weeks) - Dr. Watson, and he can't last more than 2-2.5 hours without messing in his crate during the day, which is pushing us to have 2 walks during the day before we get home. I want to start lengthening that time, but I'm not sure what's reasonable to expect and when.  Everything I read says an hour/per month old but that doesn't seem right to me over time based on our experience with Wookie, her ability to hold it changed exponentially as she got older, not evenly.  What are your experiences?  How did you start increasing the time?

And a question on bell training.  We suck at bell training.  We have the bell on the door and we tap it when it's time to go out, but Wookie never got the bell because we would spot a signal in her behavior to warn us to grab and her and take her out asap and eventually  she would just come over and look at us meaningfully till we figured it out.  Dr. Watson is headed down this same road.  We see him start to look a little thoughtful and distracted and begin sniffing and we snatch him up to take him out and pat his paw against the bell on the way out, but I really don't think he is making the bell connection.  Does everyone start out like this and the dog eventually makes the connection, or are we screwing something up by pouncing on him as soon as we think he might be thinking about going potty without giving him a chance to consider the bell?

[Helga, Nimbus, Sierra, Clooney]

This is how bell training works: First you teach him to touch the bell with his nose or paw. When he does, treat. Then say the words "Ring the bell " as he touches. Reward. In addition, every time you take him outside touch the bell with his paw and say ring the bell. Soon he'll realize that the door always opens when he rings the bell. Later you can add the words "to go potty" to "ring the bell". Sierra, 4 months, rings the bell all the time now, and it's hard to know whether she really HAS to go or if she just wants to play outside.

[Paige and Leo]

That is how we did bell training with Leo. He is 7 months old now it was around 4 months when he really caught on. And yes he does ring to go play too. ;)

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

I think you were really lucky with Wookie being able to hold her urine that long! At 9 weeks, 2-2.5 hrs is pretty good! As your finding..... Like kids, each dog/pup is different.
Not every dog takes to the bells...but as Helga explained, having them nudge/ hit them each time you go out with the pup is essential. At this young age , you can't expect him to alert you. We took Enzo out every 45 min to an 1 hr. early on....hitting the bells each time before we went out with her. We lengthened the time as she got older. She caught on to the bells very early, but still was not housebroken until 5.5 months.

[Melanie, Wookie and Dr. Watson]

Yeah we're definitely realizing that we were really lucky with Wookie.  We always felt we were, but now with Watson we have a good point of comparison.  Not just with housebreaking, but everything.  Dr. Watson is going to get quite a few more head shakes one day when we look back on his puppyhood.  If we didn't have Wookie to help raise him we'd be lost.  Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Tina]

It takes a while for them to catch on to the bell. But eventually they do. When Peanut was between 8-10 weeks I took her out every hour, after play, and when she woke up. I also gave her water when she pottied so I could time her need to go, and no water after 7pm. After a couple of weeks she was pretty consistent and we started doing 1.5hrs, then 2hrs. 

Now that she's 90% potty trained I don't time her at all.