How does your dog tell you that he/she needs to go?
 

Sophia will bark at us. Then we ask do you want food? do you want water? do you want to go outside? And she'll bark at which one she wants.

Brody, we're still working on house training. He hasn't had an accident in 12 days, but I think it's just because we're being proactive and taking him out before he goes inside.

I'm trying to figure out whether Brody will learn to tell us, or if some dogs just rely on you sensing that they need to go!!

Thank you!!

:D Harry's reached the point where he'll come and find me :thumbup:

Of course, I'm normally in the kitchen, slaving away (;) :D).

Suddenly he'll sort of land on the back of my knees (he's quite the little teapot, so I usually crash into the oven at that point!) and then he'll rush to the back door...looking round and checking I'm following him - little terror! :D Sally + Harry x

Peek A Boo will look at me until I see him, then runs towards the door. He'll repeat this until I see him. Tinkerbell learned from him, but she'll bark at me. Finny has started to go towards the door, I think she's still leary at times about going outside... she will go with Tink. Sapphire is mainly PeePad trained, but she does enjoy just being outside. The other day when you were here, I walked her, but she didn't pee till we came back in the yard! IDK!

Haha! That reminded me... I went on vacation for 4-5 days when we first got Tink, we got her in April, I vacationed in September... when I got back and first came in the door, she ran and jumped at me so hard she knocked me completely down on the floor! And then showered me with kisses! I call her Tinkermoose now...

We trained Toki to ring a bell (a privilege which she abuses! lol) and she does sometimes ring it to use the bathroom but most of the time she just loiters by the front door and looks at us. She'll throw in a couple of growls if we don't get the picture or notice her haha We haven't had accidents in I don't even know how long (it seems like a few months) so we're doing pretty good in the housebreaking department!

My sister's older yorkie has a little potty song-and-dance routine (I've seen her stand on her back to legs and flail her front paws while growling/whining) if she's gonna bust but otherwise she just waits until we take her out...she can hold it a pretty good while but still gets to go out regularly so she doesn't usually have to let us know.

Joel will just stand at the door and most of the time I see him and if I dont then he'll whine to me.

I think your Brody will catch on, what got Joel to go to the door was if he even went a couple feet from the door I would say "oh you have to go potty" and I would take him out, even if he was just walking around,lol but he caught on quick:)

Morgan will whine at you and then he goes to the door

Georgie stands at the sliding glass door and whines. If we don't hear him he will leave us a present:eek: we don't get upset with him we know he tried to tell us.

Max will run to the door and repeat until I notice most of the time. When he has an accident, he'll run and jump on my lap and shower me with kisses. That's how I know when I have to go hunt it down. LOL!

How did u train her to ring the bell? i just saw one of those in walmart and wanted to try it but i thought it would be hard to train bentley on

It seems like running to the door is most common!

I tried the bell training... I think it was starting to work, but then Sapphire became totally freaked out about it and would run the other way, so I stopped using it. I may bring it out again and she if she can at least tolerate it. Plus she mostly uses the peepad so if the other 3 catch on, that would still be a good thing!

I do wait for one to tell me they want out, but alot of times I'll just go ahead and let them out and tell them to go potty, usually I make sure they go out about every 3-4 hours. Especially after nap time, playtime, and grooming too.

He barks at the door. Obnoxiously. lol. He does like one loud YIP and it always scares the crap outta me.

What I did was just every time I took Toki outside to use the bathroom, I'd use her paw to hit the bells that are hanging by our door...sometimes I'd also just kick the bells myself as we went outside...she picked this up over a couple of days! Very quick! We probably started this when she was 4 or 5 months? I honestly don't remember but I wanted to see if she would take to them and she did!

Like I mentioned before, sometimes she just rings them for attention but other times Toki will totally body check the bells when she means business lol. I guess it's kind of like your dog is training you with the bells but once you know the potty schedule, you can spot the fake outs :)

Howie just gets up and stares at me or just walks around, I already know something is up if he isn't laying down

Ellington whines, and gets louder and louder. However since having him neutured, he is much happier to wait longer periods of time, and doesn't seem to need to go outside as much.

When Columbo was a puppy, I wanted to get him a bell, but he came up with his own solution. Our back door has a window that goes mostly to the floor, so the blinds hanging on them also go almost to the floor. He bumps the blinds to make them rattle until he gets our attention.

I wish Hope would tell us when she has to go. I've been taking her out about every 3-4 hours but if I get busy and forget she will just go to her pee pad which I'm not complaining about. I think she's going to be one that I'm just going to have to keep an eye on for signs. She's the quietest dog I've ever seen. Rarely barks at all! Is that normal?

Exactly Lola is bell trained with a stand of jingle bells on a ribbon I made myself. Frankly to me it is the ONLY way, and why everyone does not do it this is a mystery to me. My house is several levels and I can not always see the door or see Lola standing by it, so she rings the bell and I can here it in my office or while watching TV. I then take her out on a retractable leash, if the weather is bad I stand on the porch if it is nice I will walk her around the yard. I am lucky because she sleeps through the night and then I am up for close to two hours in the morning before she needs to go out, however if I need her to go out sooner then I just take her out on the leash and she goes when I say go potty. if I spend a few more min. out there she will normally poop, but if I am not going anywhere i just bring her in and we go back out either when she rings the bell or in an hour and then she poops. Having her on a leash lets ME control the schedule, she knows the leash and walking around the front lawn means potty, not play. It is normal to go through a period of ringing the bell just to go outside, but since Lola goes out to do her business on a leash and not to play I think that stage did not last that long. The bell also makes travel to other homes easier because Lola knows wherever I hang the bells is her exit to a potty place. Even in fenced yards we use the leash for potty, my sisters yorkie, Lucy potties off leash and my sister never knows what she did or when she did it because she can't see all over the yard. We argue over this all the time, Lola is not yet two and just about never has an accident while Lucy is 5 and will be let out, then we leave for two hours and when we come back home she will most likely have gone on a pad my sister still leaves down or on a throw rug. My sister thinks it is easier to just open the door and let Lucy out, she thinks putting on the harness and leash and then holding it while Lucy is outside to be to pain, heck I would rather put the leash than clean crap and pee off the floor:p My sister lives in NY and I am in MI, when I travel back home no one has a problem with Lola staying at their house because she does not have accidents, however with Lucy it is a different story and my sister (thankfully) will not bring her to my house because I don't have a fence and because of all the accidents. I can bring Lola anywhere and it does not matter if they have a fence or not. From experience the leash and bell combo is the best potty training method out there.

telling me when he needs to go potty is one of the things i can't seem to get miles to do yet.. i just take him outside every 3-4 hours, and if it will be more than 4 hours before i can take him out again, i confine him to his enclosure in the den. we rarely have accidents on this schedule, but every once in a while i'll midjudge when he needs to potty and he has an accident on the floor.. which upsets him as much as it does me

i've thought about trying potty bells, but i also have two cats and both of them love to play with bells, and i'm afraid they will ring with them constantly.. it seems like the bells would have to ring exclusively when i'm taking him outside for him to make that connection.. or does it matter? anyone have cats and use potty bells?

Sprout has never told us in any way that he has to go, but over the years upon years of having him we just sort of 'know' when it's that time for him and let him out. He has a certain walk when he has to poo - similar to a full diaper-walk on a toddler. lol He's a clockwork dog - same times every day.

Bella is trained to potty pads and she doesn't tell us when she has to go - she just goes. However, she's definitely vocal about when she's already gone because she waits around for potty treats. She has now started adding new things she knows to her "after poop encore" such as sitting, laying down and "sitting pretty" for her potty treat. :rolleyes: