Poochie Bells Question

[Oliver]

We brought Oliver home on Sunday (11/9) and he is currently 8wks 5days old. Today he rang his poochie bells for the first time to go potty! I RAN to the door and took him outside and he immediately went to his potty spot and went! WOW! So then I gave him a treat once I had him sit for it when we got back inside and gave him TONS of praise.

A few minutes later (or seconds?) he rang the bells again and looked at me across the room. So...I took him outside, but of course he didn't have to go. I still take him out whenever he rings the bells, right? Even if I know he doesn't have to go potty?

[Tamara & Giada]

WOW........fast learner. Yes, I would take him out each time:) My puppy use to ask to go out just to eat snow, but that is how she realized...."hey if I go to the door, she'll let me out....cool!!"

[Oliver]

lol....while I'm proud...he's done it about 20 times since I posted my question LOL but that's ok! :)

[Adina P]

When I got tired of hearing the bell rang, I would just close the baby gate that led to that area if I knew he definitely had had enough pees and poops.

[Adina P]

Sounds good to me! Puppies will abuse it at first and for a while… But the novelty will wear off eventually :-)

[Sam]

Must say Ollie used his like crazy at first but now he doesn't bother - suppose that is our fault as we have stopped encouraging him to use them.

We actually made our own version when the Christmas bells started appearing in the shops and my father in law laughed when I told him what I was doing but he had to admit it worked (at first......)

[ClarkP]

Keep requiring it. I won't let the dogs decide they want to go out unless at least one of them rings the bell. I don't respond to waiting at the door, nosing the door knob, little woofs, big woofs, etc, etc. If they do any of those things, I do direct them to the bell. If they want to go outside, they know they have to ring the bell. So they do.

As far as puppies abusing the privilege... it IS annoying but keep letting them out every time. They must learn that this is their way to communicate "I need to go out". When I taught Cass to use bells, I lived in a third floor walk up apartment with no fenced yard. So imagine that abuse! I had to leash her up and go with her... waiting for her to do whatever she wanted. Silly abusive puppies.

Some times I haven't been fast enough. I have gone to let Thule out after she rang and found a little pile of Thule barf right by the bells. "But Dad!... I tried to tell you!"

[PoochieBells]

Hi Sandy-

Sounds like Hattie likes her bells! We do recommend that if you know she does not need to go out to potty, that you ignore the ringing. It will not keep her from ringing the bells when she needs to potty, if she does potty each time she goes out. However, it will keep her from ringing when she just wants to have some fun! Hope that helps.

Jennifer - PoochieBells

[Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran]

I would, at least at this age. You want to reinforce the bell thing.

As they get older, though, you don't have to give in.....there are definitely times when Casey and Zena (our rat terrier) will hit the bell out of sheer boredom.

[GBK]

LOL Meredith, sometimes they are way too smart for our liking. Mine did the same thing, it sounded like Christmas all day long. Finally gave up on the bells, couldn't take it any longer :)

[sbis0oszc95r]

Another thing on potty training...we made this mistake early on.....we didn't have treats on us when we went outside to make sure our puppy "went" and by the time you get back inside and treat him.....they'll have forgotten why they're getting a treat.....

[Leslie and Halas]

I've heard that if you wait until you get inside to treat them, they associate the treat with coming inside. Then they start to ask to go outside, but not necessarily to go to the bathroom. They just want to go outside, so that they can come back inside to get the treat. I always took training treats outside with Halas, and that worked really well. As soon as he went, I'd tell him good boy and give him the treat. It got to where he'd poop a little, run to me for a treat, and then poop some more in a different spot.

[2m42srv7vi6sq]

Yup! That's how Cealeach learned to poop in about 20 little spurts! LOL

At 10 1/2 months, she still sometimes looks for a treat after pooping. I surprise her, once in awhile and still give her one. I also still praise her when she poops when I ask her to.