Crystal,
We started by just ringing the bell ourselves every time we took him out to pee, on our way out the door, and said "yay! good boy! outside!!! you wanna go outside!?!?!!!!" after a week or so of this, we started making him do it with his paw - he wasn't thrilled about it, and acted scared of the bell, but we did it every time anyways. then after a week or two of that, we started switching it up - sometimes we'd ring it for him, sometimes we'd make him ring it. this was about the time we were getting frustrated thinking it would never happen because he acted scared of the bell. then one day (coincidentally happened to be the same day we expanded his roaming area a little), he just went over and rang the bell. we rushed over, told him how wonderful he was and had a little party, all the time saying "outside! outside! yes! good boy! outside!!!" then took him out and he peed, which promted (as usual) another party and a special treat that we only use for using the bathroom outside. He's probably 95% good with potty training now, thanks to that bell... hopefully he can keep it up! Our fingers are crossed.
To everyone else,
Thanks for the ideas. You know, it really would be neat to have another pup here - I'm envious of some of you who have puppy pairs sometimes. And then I think to myself, WHAT!?! LOL, I don't know how anyone can handle two young puppies at the same time - I have my hands so full with just one, I can't imagine! :-) You two-puppy people must have nerves of steel, require only two hours of sleep per night, and have eyeballs in the back
and sides of your head!
For now, we're going to stick with trying to keep him busy, and (yay!) he finally got his shots today so there will be lots of running around outside and tiring him out now. We're also getting him accustomed (hopefully) to the neighbor's dog, so that'll be kinda like him having a sibling, though the sibling is a cairn terrier who weighs about four times as much as he does.
I figure he'll learn eventually that the bell isn't necessary for attention, and so long as he isn't peeing inside, I'm pretty sure I have no right to be complaining, lol.
I may block off the route to the bell sometimes if he's really wearing on my nerves, but like MauiGirl said - this too shall pass.
Lauren & Nikko