Teaching Puppy To Ring Bell

[Guest hankodie]

Hope this is the right place to post this. I would love to start teaching my 14 week old golden puppy how to "ask" to go outside. I work from home and our house doesn't have a doggy door (we're doing renovations so I don't let the dogs have unsupervised access downstairs where the yard is). Our other dog has learned to ask to go out by standing at the top of the stairs (which is blocked off by a gate) and barking once or twice. This is something she has picked up on her own.

My puppy on the other hand is a little less vocal and is a bit more reserved and he hasn't quite learned how to "ask" yet. I would love to be able to teach him to do this by ringing a bell to be let outside.

Is this a behaviour I can start teaching him even though he's still young? He's doing well with his other training - we're practicing basic commands and recall every day using a clicker.

Any suggestions/advice on what steps i need to take to start teaching him this?

[LisaCC]

I was thinking of starting the same thing with Nova. I've already taught him to target my hands and other things like coasters, so I thought every time he wants to go outside I will ask him to target the bell in my hand then let him out, and slowly just have him target the bell.

[minimax]

I have a bell that someone gave me when I got my first pup, and the instructions on the back of it are basically about ringing the bell everytime you take pup out to the bathroom, and then as Lisa says, working on targeting the bell as you take them.

Similar concept to peeing on command, or any training - repetition and reward.

[Guest hankodie]

Thanks for the tips :) What's the easiest way to go about teaching a puppy to target? I tried to click + reward when Hank touched my hand with his nose but I found that I was accidentally rewarding too many behaviours for him to get what I was trying to do (like licking my hand, headbutting it, etc). Is it just a matter of waiting for & rewarding the precise behaviour I want?

[minimax]

Thanks for the tips :) What's the easiest way to go about teaching a puppy to target? I tried to click + reward when Hank touched my hand with his nose but I found that I was accidentally rewarding too many behaviours for him to get what I was trying to do (like licking my hand, headbutting it, etc). Is it just a matter of waiting for & rewarding the precise behaviour I want?

The instructions on my bell thing say to rub something yummy smelling on it, so it encourages the pup to go near it, and to reward when they ring it on their own. However that's not a correct general targeting method :laugh:

[Weasels]

I've not done this but I'd be careful using a reward other than going outside to teach the behaviour, in case they start overusing the bell to get food or attention!

Is it just a matter of waiting for & rewarding the precise behaviour I want?

Yes :)

[Staff'n'Toller]

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001b/bell.htm

There you go. :)

[LisaCC]

Is Hank a pawing dog? Does he like to paw at you or other things? Nova does it heaps, and used that to my advantage, When he was 9wks I was able to put my hand down and wait for him to touch it with his paw, click and reward, he picked it up super quick. Now if I want him to target something else, I put it in my hand first then slowly move it to the tip of my fingers, then on the floor etc.

Edited September 12, 2013 by LisaCC

[Guest hankodie]

The instructions on my bell thing say to rub something yummy smelling on it, so it encourages the pup to go near it, and to reward when they ring it on their own. However that's not a correct general targeting method :laugh:

That's a good idea but knowing Hank he'll attempt to eat the whole bell a couple of times before catching on :laugh:

[Guest hankodie]

I've not done this but I'd be careful using a reward other than going outside to teach the behaviour, in case they start overusing the bell to get food or attention!

We had this issue with our older dog for a while until we started only rewarding her heavily for doing business outside and nothing else, she did persist for a while there so I'm anticipating Hank going through the same phase :laugh:

[Guest hankodie]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I tried a combination of all the suggestions and managed to teach him "touch it" this afternoon I didn't have a bell handy though so I used the lid of a jar. He was crazy enthusiastic about pawing at it after being rewarded so we had to go slow but he's catching on :laugh:

[Lollipup]

Does he paw at or go to the door when he wants to go out? You could attach it there if he did.

I had a client that wanted to know if their tiny mini poodle pup could ring a bell when he needed to go out to toilet as they didn't have time to take him out every few hours. They also queried whether realistic to teach him to use a loo and flush it. The little dog was only the size of a good poo!

[Guest hankodie]

Too funny lollipup :laugh: A friend of mine has has taught her cat how to use the loo and flush, the cat even has it's own bathroom!

Hank's problem is he doesn't really know he's supposed to ask to go out, I sort of just pick up on it whenever I see him sniffing/pacing around. He has started quietly sniffing around the top of the stairs (that lead downstairs into the yard) but he doesn't really tell me he needs to go. Maybe I need to praise him more when he's outside?

[hankdog]

I have one if those counter bells that I fastened onto a board. Just normal clicker training, first for looking at, then moving towards etc until he pawed it. Easier than targeting a hanging bell probably.