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Originally Posted by Southernlocs  How do you get the scary pups use to the bell? My dog is terrified of the bell so i manually place his paw on the bell to ring it. |
I'm not really sure. PrincessDiana is having that same problem. I suggested to her to cut a tiny hole in a tennis ball (slightly smaller than a jingle bell so it will stay in) and shove the jingle bell into the ball. Then, maybe you could play with the ball/bell combo with your dog to sort of desensitize him to the bell sound.
Or you could just do simple reward training. Start small....jingle the bell slightly, give a treat. Over and over and over. Then, when it seems like he's waiting for the bell so he'll get a treat, jingle it longer or louder. Then when that's good, use his paw to jingle it, give a treat. Over and over. Pretty soon, I'll bet he understands that if he jingles the bell with his paw, he gets a treat, and hopefully the lure of the treat will be enough to overcome the fear. I would use either tiny bits of chicken or tiny bits of cheese as a treat (they are both really enticing treats!)
After he's jingling the bell himself to get a treat, you'll have to pair it with taking him out each time, so that he understands that jingling the bell means he's going out to potty, and then gradually start treating the pottying outside and not the bell. Pretty soon he'll understand bell means outside potty means TREAT!!!
Good luck!
Good luck!