Teaching A Pup To Indicate That She Need To Go Out - How?

[UltimatePup]

Hi

Our pup has been quite good with learning to go outside to do her business, but she's not yet 100% reliable and much depends on us correctly estimating the timing and reading her rather subtle signals. How can we teach her to indicate more clearly that she needs to go out?

We have toyed with the idea of hanging a bell on the door and teaching her to pat it, but at the moments she's chewing and hanging off everything that dangles or flaps (or, frankly, anything that remains motionless for too long ). I think the bell might end up dinging all day long, or just get broken.

Thanks for your tips.

[LizT]

My Cavaliers go to the door and paw the ground, this indicates they 'want to go out" problem is they sometimes also do this 10 minutes after they have come back in from toileting becuse they decided "they want to go out" again. I tell them off then and say "you've just been" and they sook and go sit down.

In these instances I'm glad there is no bell.

[stef_07]

How old is she? It might just take a little more time.

If your pup is still chewing, you may need to wait until she has stopped teething until you teach her with a bell. Or you could get a button one (like a front door bell)

step one.

First you need to teach her to ring the bell. By pushing the bell or button with her nose. Start small and encourage her to sniff it. Say "yes" and reward. Then build up from there until she starts to push it reliably and make a sound. Adter this point, do not reward if it doesn't make a sound. Once reliable, you can introduce a command such as "bell"

step two.

What are you doing at the moment when she goes out? Do you say something like 'do you need to go toilet'?

When she needs to go, go to the door and Say whatever it is you say. Then ask her to 'sit' next to the bell and command 'bell'. She she rings it say 'yes' and let her outside.

Repeat. Over time phase out the 'sit' and then the 'bell' command and let her do it by herself.

Do not try to race through the steps. Make sure each one is reliable before moving onto the next. Hope this helps, ask any questions if you get stuck.

[tlc]

We have bell hanging on the door and to teach we tapped paw on bell then out to the loo. Did this about 3 times and my girl just caught on, the next night she was ringing it on her own. My OH was shocked she picked it up so fast.

I think the biggest thing to teaching the ring is make sure the dog needs to go so they make the association between the ring and the out to toilet, hope that makes sense.

I never used treats to teach any of mine toileting. The bell doesn't get Rang for anything other than toileting apart from the occasional ring by Tully to let me know the cat wants to come in

I used this method for one of mine as she didn't indicate she wanted to go out and would sit by the door and if I was in another room and didn't see her sitting there she would wee at the door. The other 3 ring the bell now too but never taught they just caught on from Tully using it.

Give it a go what have you got to lose, I swear by it, especially good for the middle of the night if one needs to go out, they ring the bell and I wake up. Too easy!

[TerraNik]

My guys use a bell, but yeah - if your dog is going to chew that's probably not a good option.