Need a little HELP with "potty bells" training!
 

Bella is currently pad trained...she does VERY good at home, but is pretty confused about where she's supposed to "go" other places, especially other homes with dogs or places where a lot is going on. Because of that we are in the process of just getting started re-training her to go outside instead. I really wanted to use bells for her to let us know when she needs to go out, soooo I made some SUPER SUPER cute ones today and hung them on the door because we're going to start tomorrow taking her out at intervals to begin the transition. (Pics below because I think they're so cute!)

Ok, so here's the problem. I didn't have to even show her how to use the bells.....she LOVES to jingle them! :D and :( I think she likes to play with them, which may end up being counter-productive. As soon as I hung them, I rang them and then took her out. Just a bit after we came in, she rang them on her own, and since I wanted her to understand that when she rings them, she goes out, I took her out. Well, she has since rang them 4 more times all within 5-10 min of coming back in from being out. And she's growling and biting and barking at them.....truly having a ball playing!! I think it's cute, but I don't want her jingling them ALL the time to play and then never understand that she's supposed to jingle them when she needs to go out...or end up being the pup who cries wolf, sort of speak ;)

Sooo, anyone else encounter this problem? What do I do?? I hung the bells higher for now so that I can jingle them when I take her out, but so that she can't reach them until I figure out how to correct the playing. Please help!

Whoops! Forgot to attach the pics.... :rolleyes:

I don't have any advice for you but just keep trying. I do use potty bells. Sometimes my 2 babies ring the bells when they want to go outside for the heck of it.

We're in the process of bell training too! Lucky you, Bella already "gets it"! Frankin and Maggie are terrified of the bell and I have to force them to touch it. I think we're going to have to teach "ring the bell" and then gradually transition to "ring the bell to go outside".

I did read on there that you have to take them outside every time they ring the bell to reinforce the training. It was emphasized that once the dogs get it, they like to take advantage of it. I don't know since I haven't successfully bell trained but from what I understand, you should just stick with it and hopefully the novelty of it all will wear off. Good luck! :)

Oh yeah, they'll take advantage of it. Believe me, I know. Nikko was totally taking advantage of it, after having "got it" about two weeks after we first started doing it. It was beginning to drive us completely insane, so we started telling him "no" when he rang it and we knew he had just been out and didn't need to go... well that backfired, and now he doesn't ring it at all ever. He just walks over close to it and looks at us when he wants to go out. Nevertheless, we are still working on bell training - if we don't make him ring it when we go outside, at the very least we ring it ourselves. Hopefully someday it will work.

In my opinion, and this won't be easy, but you should leave the bell accessible. Then, just see to it that she is so busy doing something else or so exhausted from exercise that she doesn't want to ring the bell, for any reason. Then when you take her out, have her ring the bell just before taking her out or putting her leash on to go out. And if she does ring the bell some other time, be sure to take her out - but only for a couple minutes, and never for play. It also helps tremendously to have a door that is a POTTY ONLY door - use a different door in the house for all other reasons to enter and exit the building. Beyond that, I guess it's just up to what PrincessDiana said... hopefully the novelty will wear off at some point. Good luck, I hope it eventually works for all of us who are working at it right now... please post back if you make some progress or learn a helpful hint you can share with the rest of us!

Lauren & Nikko

Those bells are so cute!

We use bells very successfully with Laddy....He to tried the ringing them just to go out and play but we just put them up where he cant reach them when we first come back in until he gets his mind on another toy or food or someone and then we put them back down ...he learned real fast what they are for..we also keep a pad next to door just in case lol...on really cold days he uses pad and rings bells to let us know so he can have a treat . They are just to smart lol.:woof:. oh forgot to say just put a hook and eye on the bells and hook them up hi so puppy cant reach them when you first come in. Gl ;)

The bells you made are cute as well as functional. I'm glad you posted a picture--this is what I am going to make for Jorja.

I talked to my mom late last night, and she said basically the same thing.....that the novelty will wear off sooner or later. She just bell trained her puppy, and she said that he did the same thing. Sooo, they are back down today, and will stay that way. And she'll go out every time she rings them, even if she doesn't want to go (like that would happen...she loves going out!) I put the bells on my sliding glass door (back door) instead of the front door because that is the door we'll take her out to potty. The only problem is, I live in a duplex which has the same sort of design as an apartment....the front and back doors are both in the living room! Which makes it a little more difficult because they won't be "out of site, out of mind", but hopefully she'll get the idea soon enough! Thanks guys! I'll post again when we see how this is going :D

(Also, I think I've decided to start making and selling her "Yorkie Bells". I decided to make them because the ones I found online that used a ribbon didn't come down from the doorknob as far as I thought she'd need...she's a tiny, short little girl! So, I made them more "Yorkie-sized" for her, and I had fun making them....I love getting to use ribbon!! Look for me soon in the Yorkie Products For Sale forum if you like them!)

Oh, no! That stinks!! :( I have an idea, though. Maybe if you got a jingle bell from Walmart or Hobby Lobby and put it inside a ball...maybe cut a tiny hole in a tennis ball smaller than the bell is and shove it through...then maybe they would get used to the bell sound and not be afraid of it??? I had an old cat toy that I gave Bella a couple of months ago that I got from Petsmart (in the little "bins" they have the cheapy cat toys in)...it was a hard, clear plastic hollow ball with a jingle bell inside. Couldn't have cost more than $1, and she thought that was a LOT of fun! Of course, it didn't take her too long (maybe a couple of days or so) to break the plastic, but maybe they still have those and you could get a couple??

I would definitely buy some bells! Thor has the same issues as Bella, he is a shorty and can't even get on the couch by himself.

I love your idea Tara! I can't wait till you make & sell them. I want one!!! Hurry!;)

Update
 

Well, we have gone out 7 billion times already!! This is certainly going to be a challenge! Between seeing when she needs to go out and taking her, and her ringing the bells (playing) and taking her, we are out a LOT! I'm just holding out hope that she starts really getting it soon! :D

I was just wondering for those of you who have transitioned from pads to outside, are you home ALL THE TIME with your babies? Layla has been having potty issues and peeing on the area rug under the kitchen table, and nothing seems to help. I'm wondering if maybe teaching her to go outside now (she's 3 years old) might stop her from thinking any fabric on the floor can be peed on! Maybe she can get used to the idea of peeing inside at all is a no-no. I just feel I can't ever take her to someone's house because she will pee and poop on their carpets :(
I have heard about these bells for a long time and thought it was a great idea! The problem is I work full-time and Layla is home by herself during the day. I don't know how it could be done with just weekends for full-day training.
The pads were great when I first got her and didn't have a fenced yard at all. I do now have a partially fenced yard, and I usually put up a baby gate so she can't get out when we play in the yard. But for the purpose of using bells, I have a little deck on the front of the house through sliding glass doors. I was thinking of putting her pad and tray on the deck so she could just go out there to pee.
Any thoughts?

Ditto, ditto, ditto, for me too! I'm re-training Bella from pads to outside for the same reasons---she's a little better at my house (still has a few accidents), but anyone else's house is really confusing to her. I work full-time, though my boyfriend is home some during the day...at least at lunch. We JUST started training her yesterday really, and it was a long day! Crate training really, really helps when you aren't there! If I were you, I'd consider keeping her in a crate while you're gone. I used to think that was terrible, and still have a small issue with it, but I know that Bella can hold it more than 8 hours because she holds it all night, so it shouldn't be any different during the day. I normally leave her in my bedroom during the day, but while we're potty training, she'll be in her crate. I'm glad my bf can be home for a bit during the middle of the day because Bella has to eat 3 times a day because of her liver, and because I just think 8 hours is a long time is such small quarters (though to be honest, I don't know how much running around she does during the day anyway...I think she mainly just sleeps from what I can tell!)
I think using the bells and re-training to go outside should work just fine for you as long as you're consistent in the mornings and evenings (and weekends), and if you crate tratin her! Using a crate really is the key to success with potty training, IMO. Once we got her crate when we first pad trained her, everything got so much easier!!! And, I use her crate not only to put her in when I can't watch her every second, but also for Mommy-time (sometimes I need a few minutes to myself when I don't have to be watching her every second, so remember, putting her in her crate for a few minutes so you can sit down and have a moment is just fine too! It doesn't hurt her at all....to me it signals quiet time for both of us. Then, when she's doing really, really good, you can go back to leaving her out if that's what you want, just as long as she doesn't start having accidents again....then you have to go back to "training-mode" until she's got it again! We've had to do that a couple of times.)
As far as putting a pad on the deck goes, I've heard of people who do that.....if that's what you want to do, go for it! Just be consistent!

Thanks for the tips! And sorry for hijacking the thread :)
I know that she usually spends most of the day sleeping on my bed. She's just getting up with bedhead when I get home from work :rolleyes: and even most weekends, or if I'm home sick, she will spend most of the day sleeping (besides when I take her out for walks) because that's just her schedule!
I have never had a crate for her so I'm not sure how easy it would be to train her now. She screams and cries if I close my bedroom door on her when she's in there alone. We live in a duplex and the other half of the house has a stay-at-home mom with a newborn baby so I don't want to risk being evicted if she's crying all day :( I wonder if it would be enough to just cordon off an area for her... like living room and hallway (it's a pretty small space!) where there is NO carpet. She does not pee on the laminate floors and I trust her 100% there. So then when I am home, she can have the rest of the house too. Maybe a crate would work better... but until I own my own place I'm too worried about the noise she'll make!

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.

If you're really sure she wont have an accident on the laminate, I'd just keep her cordoned off there, then. (If she does, she may have to re-think the crate.) Her crying and screaming is separation anxiety....Bella used to do that a terribly! After some work, she's fine with being alone, as long as she knows we aren't home.....if I were to put her in my bedroom and stay in the other part of the house, she'd cry and scream too. Now, if I put her in her crate in the living room where she can see me, she give a couple of extra pitiful whines and then she's fine.

I think I will try to start the bell-training this weekend if I can find some bells! Thanks for the help!

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!

I vote scared pups need to just be forced to do it every time - hit the bell with a paw. I think that for the most part, dogs enjoy going outside, so taking him/her outside immediately after the bell ring is actually a special treat in itself - which is of course why they all start trying to abuse the bell once they get it!

Nikko was very very scared at first, but eventually he discovered that hitting it was a good thing - it meant he could go outside! Suddenly he was not so afraid of it, and instead decided to hit it every two minutes, lol.

Lauren & Nikko

:sidesplt: Yeah Im thinkin that would happen at my house too. But all the dogs would get in on the action and I might as well move outside into the driveway! hehe

update...
 

Well, we've decided to work on one thing at a time....learn to potty outside first, theeeeennnn learn to use the bells when you need to go. Between watching for signals and taking her out when we thought she needed to potty AND taking her out every time she rang the bells (which was a LOT), we were outside every 2 min :rolleyes:.....literally! So, no more bells until she "gets it" with pottying outside. But we WILL be teaching her to use them after she "gets it"!