Toilet Signals

[greenman73]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anybody has trained their pup to 'TELL' them when they need to go to the toilet.

Our 17week old JRT Bailey is going ok with his toilet training and won't poo inside, but we think he has become somewhat dependant on us to tell him when he needs to do a wee. Sometimes he will sit at the door to go out, but only occasionally will go on the carpet without warning.

We keep a close eye on him for the signs if he needs to go, but it's times like when we are cooking dinner or our attention is diverted from him that he seems to relieve himself regardless.

Bailey sleeps in our room on his own bed at night and will 'tell' us if he needs to go out by jumping up and whimpering.

A technique would be great to teach him for the other times.

Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

[Luke W]

I thought about training my dog to ring a bell when he needed to go. I decided against it for a few of reasons:

1. It somewhat discourages the dog to 'hold on' until I'm ready to take him out.

2. It only works when I'm home and the dog will stress, ringing the bell in vain when I'm not home

3. The dog might start ringing the bell to go outside even when it doesn't need to go

4. The ringing of the bell in itself might become a rewarding behavior

I take the following approach...

I take my dog outside at regular intervals, I know how long he can hold and when he normally goes. I've taught him to go on command. If I take him outside and tell him to go, he goes. That gives me a few hours of security.

Our accidents are becoming a rarity. We've had no wee in the house for at least 2 months and only 1 poo in the same time period. And the poo was my fault. He's 6mo old.

[ZEPING]

ive trained my puppy to ring a bell when he needs to go but it is kinda getting a bit annoying he will ring it when he doesnt need to go toilent but just want to have a bit of a run in the backyard

[Teebs]

Crate train, when you cant watch the pup, put it in a crate.

my dogs both bark/cry to go out - when i got them i crate trained,when they were in there, if they barked or cried, i would pick them up, and take them outside, wouldnot play, nothing. Gave them 10 mins, and back in - i did this for weeks, all hours of the night with my Bull Terrier.

Hard work, but now they know that if they cry or bark, they get taken outside - At night if i am asleep they will bark at the back door, if i dont hear them they come and poke me with their noses

My dog has never had an accident inside, he is now 5 (he has gone to the loo inside once, but he was VERY sick and not his fault), my staffy is a different story

[ZEPING]

WOW i just seen the above thread!! yeaha your right i regert it now!!

but its a cool party trick!

[Teebs]

if my dogs cry to go out, even if they dont want to goto the loo, they still go out, i dont lock them inside all day, they are free to come in and out as they wawnt

[TerraNik]

Jedi rings a bell to go outside. We don't have a dog door, so I wanted him to be able to let us know that he needs to go out (for whatever reason - I don't care if he wants to go out there to play).

Some of the concerns Luke W raised are valid, however we overcame most of them:

1. It somewhat discourages the dog to 'hold on' until I'm ready to take him out.

- We didn't have this as a problem. Jedi rings the bell and he will wait until we come. Sometimes I don't get downstairs for about 10 minutes or more and he just waits for me.

2. It only works when I'm home and the dog will stress, ringing the bell in vain when I'm not home

- This doesn't matter for us - the dogs aren't inside when we're not home.

3. The dog might start ringing the bell to go outside even when it doesn't need to go

- You can train this out of them by only praising when they actually go to the toilet, however for us we didn't care. We wanted Jedi to be able to tell us that he wanted to go out. I don't care WHY he wants to go out. It just increased the communication lines for us.

4. The ringing of the bell in itself might become a rewarding behavior

- Often dogs will ring the bell A LOT in the beginning, but you can easily discourage it. We took the bell away when he played with it, we didn't let him back inside if he was going in/out/in/out/in... He soon got the idea that if he was out, he was out for a while!

[Melissa4]

One of my dogs wee on a special training mat and the other dog just piddles EVERYWHERE. I dont know how to get the little one to stop just squatting. If I bring him ourside he goes on command (go on mike do a wee wee... no joke) but he seems to just have an endless supply of piddle.the other one piddles occasionally in the kitchen or if he gets really scared by something - but he doesnt signal to go outside - he just piddles on the mat...

I have my self a conundrum

I sometimes wish dogs were like cats.... piddle in a litter or meow to get out... nex to no training required. My dogs know its naughty - but still do it :D

Edited September 24, 2008 by Melissa4

[Guest june.andnovas]

how do you teach a dog to ring a bell? is it the type they would pick up in their mouth and shake?

something i could be interested in teaching my pup.

[TerraNik]

I taught Jedi to "touch" (nose target) and then just applied it to the bell. So he has a 1" jingle bell hanging at the door and whenever I wanted to take him out I would make him "touch" and then let him out. If I was carrying him out I would ring the bell myself. He just learned bell ringing = door opens. Sometimes he would play with it for fun and we would make him go outside (even though that was not his intention!) so that he learned that no matter why the bell was rung, he would have to go outside! Now he doesn't play with it!

There's a video on YouTube of Jedi ringing the bell... It was while we were teaching him to ring the bell - now he doesn't need the command and rings it freely when he needs to.

[greenman73]

Thanks to everyone who replied. A bit of a mix of ideas.

I think the idea of a bell is good, however Bailey already learnt that when we say 'Do a wee', it means he gets to go outside. So he sometimes goes out and just wants to muck around.

Something to think about.

[Luke W]

How to Train Your Puppy to Ring a Bell to Potty | Karen Pryor Clickertraining

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1171

[GotAnyBlacker]

Poppy barks once to go out. I don't think I taught her that, she just does it.

Daisy just goes and stands quietly at the back door and if I don't notice her she comes and looks at me and then walks back to the door and then keeps doing that till I let her out.

I usually just wedge the back door open so they can all go in and out.

Having your dog ring a bell sounds hilarious! I'd love to see a video of them doing that

[Luke W]

Poppy barks once to go out. I don't think I taught her that, she just does it.

Daisy just goes and stands quietly at the back door and if I don't notice her she comes and looks at me and then walks back to the door and then keeps doing that till I let her out.

I usually just wedge the back door open so they can all go in and out.

Having your dog ring a bell sounds hilarious! I'd love to see a video of them doing that

http://au.youtube.com/results?search_query=dog%20ring%20bell

I actually bought my dog a bell before I changed my mind.

The bell is one of the one's that sit on the desk at hotels - and you tap the button on the top with your hand.

Don't know what I'm going to do with the bell now.