housebreaking with or without bells?

[Rosemarie Panzitta]

looking for pros and cons to bells for housebreaking

 

[Linda and Murphy]

We trained Murphy with the bells. Now he usually just stands in front of me, staring.  IF I don't get it (or I'm not paying attention), he rings the bell and gives me this look like "NOW"

[Kris & Brinkley]

Since Brinkley is our 1st Doodle I will use Sammy the lab who is 8yro. The bell works very well he rings it to go out & he will ring it to let us know he is out of water, something he figured out on his own. I have a busy household & we aren't always able to catch on to them letting us know without the bell.

 

I can't imagine trying to go bell less in a busy home but a quieter home it would prob work.

[Chelsea and Bailey]

I believe in the bells 110%!! We got Bailey at 8 weeks and didnt have them right away and that was awful- peed anywhere and everywhere ( I also understand she was young) but honestly we got the bells 3 or 4 days later and she immediately started catching on.  Within 2 weeks she fully got it.  It has been over 2 weeks without an accident, which is amazing because I swear at the beginning I was getting to my wits end with 10-12 pees in the house a day (on carpet!) . If it werent for us switching the door we used to take her out and her UTI I believe she wouldve been completely taught in 5 days.  I know it sounds crazy, but doods are so smart and she knew bells=outside, and she LOVES being outside!

[BG and Gavin]

Gavin uses bells and I really like that he does.  It was handy as we were training him between house and cottage and wanted a consistent signal.  Sometimes he rings just to go outside, but that's okay.  He likes it outside and our yard is fenced.

He is the quiet type.  When we go to other's homes, he is always in the room where the people are and if we lose sight of him, we will find him staring at the door to outside if he has to "go." 

I can't think of a con.

[Kris & Brinkley]

I can think of only 1 con, if you get a cow bell or a rough edged bell it can scratch the paint off your door.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

We did not use bells and still had great luck training both pups. Good luck!

[Stella]

We use bells.  Hartley used to go and sit by the door waiting foe us to take him out, but if we were in a different part of the house we wouldn't know.  So, we started to use the bells.  My DH taught him how to use them.  We held a treat on the far isde of the bells so he had to stick his nose through them to get the treat.  As he did this, the bells rang and we said the word "bell" and took him outside (on a leash) and encouraged him to go potty.  Every time he say by the door, we would say "bell", he'd ring them and we'd go out.  He then went through a phase of ringing them all the time, because he wanted to go out and play.  We got around this by always taking him out on a leash and telling him to go potty until he associated the bells with pottying only.  Our second dog learned from Hartley!

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

We housetrained Tara without bells. Or I should say she housetrained US! LOL! She probably could have benefited from bells though because she had to come up with her own ways of letting us know she needed to go out. Early on, it was winter and she would touch our coats on the coat rack because we always but one on to take her out. Later when the coats were put away she started touching her leash which was hanging by the back door (could easily have had bells there instead). If we were somewhere we couldn't see her touch the leash she would stare at us and do a low growl to get us up and moving.

We intentionally chose not to use the bells because we had friends whose dogs rang them continuously to go outside and chase squirrels!!  But a dog can use any "I need to go outside" signal to  try to get outside to chase squirrels so looking back it was probably not really a valid reason not to use them.

 

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

We do fine without the bells. Ollie scratches at the back door and gives a 'woof'. Then he patiently waits for us to take him outside. I didn't want to bother with an added complication while potty training him. Luckily he did really well.

[Michael Gurley]

If Sunny was my only dog and I was the only one trying to train her, I would have used the bells. However, we already have a dachshund in the house who was trained 12 years ago without bells. Sunny really caught on by watching Reba. Reba barked at the door, so she got let out. Sunny learned that if SHE barked at the door, she would be let out.

 

I would have loved to try using bells, though!

[Leigh & Allie]

bells definitely!! When Allie was a puppy, I would ring the bells everytime we went outside and said "ring the bell". She did go through a short stage where she would ring the bell to go out just to go out, but she outgrew this. She now just rings the bells when she wants to go potty. I love it because I do not have to try to "read" her. She follows me everywhere so if she is not right next to me I know I will be hearing the bells shortly. I love it and would do it again with another puppy.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

I tried to teach Coper the bells but she wasnt interested. She lets us know she needs to go by crying and running to the door. 

On an after thought, I like NOT using bells as no matter where you are in the house, your dog can tell you she/he needs to go.... or anywhere else (such as a friends house, in a store etc)