Potty Training using bells?

[Kim D.]

Hi Everyone!  Has anyone ever used the "jingle bells" on the door to train a puppy to ring it when he needed to go potty?  We are having trouble with "potty training" and I was wondering about this method.  Thanks so much!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

try doing a search on Poochie Bells, there are lots of discussions on this (I think some are in Puppy Madness group) and I think the owner of the company is a member of the site.  We have them and they work great for Bandit... it's about making the association to ring and be let out...

 

Good Luck!!

[Adina P]

Yes lots of past discussions.  Typically potty training and other puppy training issues are better for the Puppy Madness group or main forum.  This group is intended for more advanced training issues beyond puppy stuff.

[Judy Wheeler]

We tried it and it does work.  Only problem with Sammi was she would ring the bell when she just wanted to go out and play around.  I have heard the answer to that was take her out and if she doesn't potty within minutes just bring her back in.....no play.  We just decided to use the conventional method.  She wasn't an easy dog to train and several accidents, but about 4 mos something just kicked in and she started letting us know by going to the door and "woofing".  

[Cindy Breeland]

Cloe using a bell to go out because she was trained that way from the breeder. I LOVE IT.

 

[Jennifer & Kai]

Yes Kim, I have large bells on all my doors only because I couldn't find the jingle bells in May.  They hang on a ribbon and Kai uses them all the time..  In the beginning, when I would take him out the door, I would ring the bell.  He caught on really fast.  When he would just nudge it, I would take him out. Yes, there are times he just rings it to go out but I have a fenced in yard so I don't mind.  He is 17 months now and mostly rings it when he has to potty.  Good Luck!

[Renee Bogi]

Both of my dogs use the "poochie bells."  My husky was trained first and she hits it then hits it multiple times harder if we ignore her.  My doodle lightly bumps it but I try to listen for it so she will get used to doing it.  My doodle only hits it when she needs to go to the bathroom.  The husky does it when she needs the bathroom or wants to go and play.  Either way, I would rather that than scratching at the door.

[sandy b]

I love "poochie bells."  Max is almost 3 yrs old and been using them since we got him at 8 wks.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My guys are older now and on a schedule, so they really don't need to use the bells very often.  When they were puppies though they worked great for us.

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Hi Kim,  I used the Poochie bells for Charlie and they work great.  Just remember to read the instructions before you use them.  It tells you to put them on the door they will be going out to go potty.  You need to take them out a different door when they are going out to play.  Charlie was using them anytime he wanted to go out whether to go potty or play.  I moved the bells to the door going outside through the garage and he caught on right away which door to use for potty.  Good luck.

 

[Eva and Fenway]

Hi Kim, I found a trick to making these work for my young puppy..

 

I am using the bells with my 12 week old pup, and she does REALLY well with them and had picked up the ring-to-potty thing after only 1 day. I actually avoided the whole issue that some owners have had of the dog ringing to play by NOT responding to her messing with the bells for the first 4 days until she found them entirely boring and stopped ringing. I had to use 'leave it' and distraction occasionally to prevent her from destroying them.. haha. So, a total of 5 days for me to get her on the bells. 

 

Only after she ignored them for a whole day did I start the instructions in the handbook which is basically to ring them before taking her out, and having a cue word like "bells, potty!" I think it helped a lot that Fen is pretty motivated to please me. 

[PoochieBells]

Hi Kim-

 

I think you are referring to PoochieBells, our potty training doggie doorbells. You have gotten lots of great advice from the other responders to your question - we love hearing about our users! :-) If you go to the Poochie Bells website, you can learn more about our training methods, company history, and 50+styles. 

 

The basis behind our proven training method is reward the behavior you want, ignore or distract from the behavior you do not want. You want your pooch to ring the bells when s/he needs to potty - no other reason. So, each and every time your pooch needs to potty, have him/her ring the bells (however s/he rings is fine, even if you have to ring them a few times), throw a big party when you hear the sound (your praise and excitement is heavenly) and bring the pooch out. When s/he potties. then another big party. If no potty, then right back in, no party. Very soon your pooch will associate the sound of the bells with potty and your happiness. Now, some dogs turn ringing the bells into a game at first, ringing to get attention, or play. If this happens, you can ignore the bells if you know your pooch does not have to potty (just went out etc). We have found that this game idea stops quickly once the pooch sees that it gets him/her no where.

 

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions!

 

Jennifer

[Stacy, Bruno, Molly and Gracie]

We trained using the poochie bells and LOVE them. Bruno is a year old and will ring the bells to go out and no matter wherer I am in the house I can hear them. He will sometimes ring them for other reasons but when we were training if he rang them we went out, said "Outside to potty". If he pottied he got a treat if he did not he came right back inside.

The advantage I love is that when we travel with Bruno I bring them, hang them on the door he will use to go out and he rings when he needs to go out.

We found them very effective. Good luck.