He needs to associate the bell with going outside. If you have stairs that you have to go down or something to go outside, place it at the top of the stairs. Otherwise, yes I would place it at the door - just make sure you can HEAR it. We have a 2 story townhouse and I can hear the bell all the way upstairs in my bathroom. Obviously, if you are confining him he can't ring it - but put it by the door that you take him out, if that is a place he will have access to eventually. Get him used to ringing it now. You can teach him the word "bell" and after a week or so you can place him in front of the door and say "bell" and encourage him to ring it himself. If he does, then you can be pretty sure he's got it!
Also, there will be a point where he will be ringing the bell for everything. Loki is ringing the bell right now because I just put my shoes on and he knows we are going in the car and he wants to go NOW. But, the way to discourage that is to ONLY take him outside when he rings the bell. The bell doesn't mean "Oh, do you want water/food/attention?" It means POTTY. So even if he was just out and now he is ringing the bell for water, take him outside FIRST and then wait a few minutes to get whatever else he needs. The ONLY thing he gets when he rings the bell is a trip outside! |