Ringing the bell ALL THE TIME!
 

My 10-month-old Morkie knows to ring the bell when he wants to go outside. The problem is that the weather is nice now, so he wants to go outside ALL THE TIME and rings the bell all day long. I feel like I can't ignore it, because I want to reinforce his good behavior in ringing the bell to go outside for potty, and I don't want to risk that he actually does have to go potty. But I can't take him out 25 times a day! Suggestions? Thank you!

Julie

sorry ive got no suggestions because my pup & i are working on pee pad training...

but this is the cutest thing ever!

ive read when u take ur dog out for potty you dont play and teach the dog outside means business. so maybe when u do take ur dog out after the bell ring try not to play with the pup... not sure if this is even a solid advice but something that came up to my mind!

Julie, that is so cute. Please take a video of your dog ringing the bell. Love to see it. I know you must be annoyed but what a smart pup....:)

My advise is to have patience! Cissy is also bell trained and like your little one, rang the bell a LOT. I took her outside everytime, just in case she did need to potty - and to make sure she understood the training. As she got older she stopped the frequent ringing. I laugh and tell her she was just trying to see how fast Mom could get to the door ;) Now, she does ring occasionally for reasons other than going outside but it's rare. Usually it's when she can't have treats. The treat bag is on the counter next to the door with the bell. She rings the bell and I find her sitting staring at the treat bag. I still open the door to make sure but she looks at me like I'm "just not getting it". :p She's a sneaky little devil but knows Mom comes running if the bell is ringing. Good Luck, just have a little patience.

i had to LOL -- that is too cute! sorry, i know frustrating but trust me it is better than cleaning up "accidents" inside all day long. :(
good luck!!

I want to train my dog to do this. How'd you do it?

This is funny.

I too wanted to train mine on the bell ringer but since I work and I am gone 8 hours, I fgured that would be confusing. Wonder if you could train with the bell for outside and still do potty pads?

My 4 year old Yorkie, Gus, also has me very well trained with the bell!

We trained him to use the bell by taking him to the bell hung by the door and ringing
it every time we opened the door. He learned very quickly that if the bell raing, we ran.

Is there a special dog training bell?

I would love to help you out with that but our cat actually rings it lol. We had our cocker trained to the bell before she passed away and for about a week or so we just wandered around our house in shock I think and didn't take the bell down.

Then all of a sudden one day I hear it along with a angry meow so I come in the room and its the cat ringing the bell :eek:. We rescued him as a feral kitten years ago and long gave up the fight to keep him in 24/7 but I do try to restrict him to our patio. I keep an eye on him when he is out and make him come in with me after a couple hours.

I guess he decided it worked for the dog LOL. We thought it was so cute that we left it up, so now he rings for patio service and when its nice like it is now its an all day event lol.

If there is a special dog training bell, I don`t know about it.
I bought a pkg of jingle bells from the craft store and strung them
on a loop of cotton crochet thread and hung the loop from a hook low
enough to the floor for Gus to be able to bat at it.

Mine is a christmas decoration, like red piece of fabric with sleigh bells on it, it was the only one I could find the day I was looking for one that could reach low enough on my door.

I agree. Mine is bell-trained and did the same thing as a puppy. It passes with patience. Mine just rings the bell to potty now, but will occasionally ring it to enjoy a pretty day. I enjoy nice weather, too.:)

Too much bell ringing? Take the bells down. You can return them during the times you anticipate a real need. This works if you are home most of the time, as I am. We use poochie bells, but others use the tell bell. Or just make your own. There are utube videos showing how to train. The key is always vigilance and consistency.

I can certainly relate! Cooper is almost 3 and is completely bell trained. I'd say about 90% of the time he rings it to go potty. The other 10% he sees he left his ball outside and he's frantic to get it. Max is 10 months and rings it all day long, however he also knows to ring it when to go potty. Whenever he rings it I take him out and if he doesn't go potty right away then we come back in. I'm hoping he'll begin to understand that when he rings the bell, he needs to potty!

With Cooper I can see when he "fake rings". I'm hoping that intuition will begin to kick in with Max as well.

I also agree with having patients. The constant ringing does pass especially if you are using treats like in the beginning of training. Mine now only use the bell for potty breaks mostly. I also have the hanging bells and if they got to ringing it too much like right after they were out, I would pull them up for a little while. I think just as important as bell training or any other kind of training, is to really know and understand your baby and their habits. This way, you can better judge when they are teasing or when they really mean business. Mylee will ring to go out and potty, and ring just to go out. If I tell her "no" she will stop and find another toy or lay down, but if she really needs to go potty she will insist and keep ringing and sit by the door.

Sasha will do this to when the weather gets nicer and she's 3 years old. I usually know when she really does have to potty or if she's just pulling my leg. Normally if she doesn't have to potty, she'll ring the bell then either lay down by the door or walk away where if she really does have to potty she paces in circles and will keep ringing it repeatedly. Also, if she peed recently and then goes back to the bell and I know she doesn't have to poop, I'll just ignore her and she'll give up and walk away from the door. If she's really persistant about going back outside even though I don't think she has to go, I'll take her out but if I notice that she's just playing around, I'll bring her back inside right away and she won't get a treat (she always gets a treat after coming inside from pottying). Such little stinkers these babies are.

You can buy special training bells...but one of the least expensive ways to put up a bell is what I did. I bought a large plastic cat ball. I strung 1/2 to 3/4 inch ribbon through it and hung it from a cup hook beside the sliding glass door. Or you can hang it from the handle or knob of whatever door you use. I also have one hanging at the top of the stairs (2 story house). When the weather is nice he does ring it a lot to go outside. Also if he sees small birds on the wall out back...it is comical...he rings the "heck" out of the bell and then comes to look at me to make sure I heard him. If I ignore it, he does it again....

The bell is good and bad. It does work for potty, but they do figure out quickly that it is a way to the backyard and sunny weather! Can you blaim them really?!:)

It gets better eventually :D lol, I am remembering when AprilLove first caught on to the bell, she had me jumping up and running to the door every 15 minutes for what seemed like months!!!! and i posted about it here, too. hahaha. But it really wasn't months, hehe. I used to kid about how well she had me trained.... now I don't kid about it... she HAS ME TRAINED :D
But in all seriousness, you will start to learn the signs and know when your little one is just doing it to make you open the door. What I did start doing back then, was when she really went, I would give her a treat. When she rang it, we went out and she just wanted to play, no treat. She is 5 now, and very well trained. But she does have this nasty habbit of ringing the bell just as I have.. um.. sat down to do my thing in the bathroom. hehe :D

:animal36 How cute, I will have to go out today & get a bell, that is just awsome. I hope that I can get my tow to use it. :animal-pa:aimeeyork

I have special bells that were designed to hang on the door and even have a little bag holder attached.
My boy doesnt understand that he is suppose to ring the bell....its been 2 mths, and he is 5 mths old. But he sure knows when the bells ring, the door is open and he flies down the stairs. But, My problem is its a nice little gated area for him to go out on his own..and he won't go out without me. Occasionally i can sneak back inside. Is this normal?

Also when i do go, even for 20 min...he goes crazy when i come back in like I have been gone a week! Crys,jumps,is frantic to be all over me. Has anyone had this issue and how long does this "phase" last. It stresses me out!

One of my "owners" trained her Abbie to ring the bell to go potty. When she finished pottying, they would come back inside, and Abbie got a green bean for doing potty!....sooooooooooooo, one day they notice Abbie going to potty an awful lot...like several times in an hour...come to discover, she was "fake peeing" just so she would get a treat!!! She was squatting, looking over her shoulder to be sure one of them witnessed the act, then she would "finish" and come bounding over, so they could give her the green bean!!!!! Tooooo cute!!

Columbo rattles the blinds on the back door to go out, but every once in awhile, if he's tired of waiting for someone to eat dinner, he'll rattle the blinds and then stare at that person. He likes to beg and apparently, he keeps track of who has eaten and who hasn't.

Ugghh! Louis has that same problem. He understands to ring it when he needs to go.....as well as ringing it when he wants to play. He loves to play with the cat so he rings the bell often. It can get annoying after a while. Eventually I hope he grows out of it.

Tibbe goes around in fast circles after staring at me to tell me he wants to go outside. When I was housebreaking him, he soon learned to fib about the need to potty as an excuse to get out and enjoy the outside and stared/circled A LOT - many times a day. I just started ignoring him or telling him no when I darn well knew it wasn't really time to potty and he soon figured out that the jig was up as when he really did badly need to go out to actually potty, if I ignored him or told him no, he would get pretty frantic and keep going around in circles and start to bounce off the couch with his paws, even whining a little sometimes. So with a well-housebroken dog, their frantic attitude of going to the door, looking at your desperately and not taking no for an answer will let you know they aren't fibbing and must get out before going right in the house. So his fibbing didn't last all that long as he learned I wasn't buying what he was selling!

So hang in there, remove the bells or just ignore them or tell her no when she is fib-ringing and she'll figure it out. Funny thing is, when they get older all that passion to get and stay outside diminishes quit a bit and they stop even trying to fib.

Mine does the same and I even tried to ignore him because I knew it was a fib so the brat yanked the bell ribbon off the wall and brought to me... So for now I just cave in and let him out nonstop lol