Glad people suggested the bell method, Lola is bell trained and to me it is the best way to go especially if you have a larger house or several levels because it is hard to see a dog standing at the door when you are not near, plus I do not want to encourage barking. I am cheap and made my own set which is a good thing since I have home bells, travel bells and bells at my parents house, plus over time they get caught in the door and smashed so I replace them about every year. As soon as we go someplace new and Lola sees the bells hung up she is so relived because she knows where to go to go potty, I even hang them on hotel doors. Mine is a long ribbon with about 8 jingle bells on the end. We started when she was a pup. We always go out the front door so at first I would say Lola go potty Lola go potty and then I would ring the bell. Then we would go outside and normally she would potty, when we came back in I rang it again and said Lola went potty. After about a week I started holding her paw and lightly using it to ring the bell while saying Lola go potty, lola go potty, after about two weeks I was upstairs in my office and low and behold I heard the bell ring. If they are very young when you start this they might want to play and bite on the bells, or if they are older and really like being outside you will go through a stage of just ringing the bell to go outside for fun or a treat, for me since I know when Lola did what and when I would either ignore the bell or after she would come in I would tie it up for a few hours so she could not ring it right away. Sometimes it funny, I know she can really hold it so if she rings it during a good part on a TV show I might not let her out right away, sometimes she will forget she rang it yet other times you figure she really has to go because she really starts banging the crap out of, LOL that's when we hit pause Good luck and stick with it because it really is a good method. |