Poochie Bells
 

How many of you have had training succes with Poochie bells (or door knob bells)? I just ordered one from poochiebells.com and I'm excited to give it a try. Chester will sometimes run to the door, but if I'm not looking at him he'll have an accident right in front of the door. He never lets me know he needs to go out, so I'm hoping these will make a difference. Anyway, I know some of you use them, so I was just curious about your sucess!

Joey rings a bell to go out. I didn't order a special one, though. I just used a cheap one tied on a string from the doorknob.

It works great! It will automatically jingle any time you go in or out, but you can give it an extra shake to be sure that he notices it. Soon (within a few days, most likely), he will give it a ring. RUN to open the door. He may look at you like "whaaa?", but that's okay. You want him to understand that bell rings = door opens. Try to get in there and open that door everytime he rings it, even if you KNOW that he doesn't have to potty. Before too long, he'll understand to ring it when he needs to potty.

Have fun!

My mom has her bell hooked onto an eye screw with a split ring (keyring) that is screwed into the baseboard by the backdoor. This way, the bell doesn't slam against the door every time the door is opened and closed. Just another suggestion. ;)

That's actually a great idea... I had already started imagining the annoyance of the bell ringing EVERYTIME the door was opened and closed... :rolleyes:

I bought a bell from PoochieBells and I love it !! It took Otis a few days... I put peanut butter on the bell and when he licked it the bell would ring - then I would open the door and say "potty outside?". It has been great !

I've trained mine with poochie bells, too. I have them at both doors. Stitches29 also uses them.

When I first put them up, I just took her little front paws in my hands and we rang it together until she learned and I would ask her at the same time if she wanted to go potty (or whatever you say). Of course, mine looooooves to go outside, so she'll ring it to go outside and to potty. At any rate, she has been fully house broken for sometime now. :)

LOTS of cheap bells these days with Christmas sale. My dollar store has a leather strap with large sleighbells attached and a big brass ring that will fit over a doorknob. Or like mentioned above , you can hang it from a screw-in cup hook by the door.

They are a WHOOPING.... 50 CENTS right now at the dollar store after Christmas sale. If you can't get the kind with the leather strip and door knob ring, alot of dollar stores have other sleighbells and hanging bells you can use.

Bells on a string can also be easily used :thumbup:

Actually, I think it speeds up the process if the bell does ring everytime the door opens and closes.

Maybe let it ring at first. Then, if it annoys you, once your dog has thoroughly learned the bell-ringing lesson, you could stabilize so that it doesn't ring so much.

Frankly, I like for the bell to ring when the door opens or closes - I like to know when someone (namely my kids) are going in or out. :p

Yeah, now that you mention it I can see how having it on the doorknob could speed up training. If they associate that noise with the door opening, even if it's not them being let out, then they might "get it" a little quicker. Good advice!

You're welcome!

Let us know how it goes, okay?

great thread! I have debated trying this method with Daisy.

being she's still so timid, she doesn't venture out of my room alone hardly..so i dont know if she'd go to the door by herself..but its worth a shot!

Amy, she doesn't have to go out the door by herself. You can still go with her. She just learns to ring the bell to let you know she needs to go. It's preferable, *I* think, to continue going with them and rewarding them for pottying appropriately.

Oh no, thats not what I meant!! she in no way can be let out alone...she'd take off. Plus we're in the woods, so I would never let her off the leash!
I just mean she wont even go TO the door alone most times..she's still vry timid (at least when the boys are in the house playing) and gets scared easily..and doesn't leave my room unless Im right there most of the time!

Oh, silly me!

I saw this website and I wanted to see if Loki would ring the bell before paying $15 + S/H. I bought some cheap jingle bells and put 2 on each key ring. I bought ribbon and looped the ribbon around and stiched it. You could also just tie a knot. It looks just like the Poochie Bells but it cost about $3. Loki learned in 2 days to ring the bells. He would have accidents by the door because he stood there and no one would see him. Now he hits the bells if no one is right there and if he can hear them we can hear them. I like that he can HEAR the sound, so he has to hit it loud enough to make noise. I didn't even give him a treat to teach him this, I just took his paw and hit the bells and then said "YES!" "Outside!" and opened the door. I did this for 2 days and now he does it himself. He gets really excited about ringing them too! Yesterday I saw him go to the door and I grabbed his leash and put it on him and he wouldn't go out the door without going over and ringing the bell first! It was so cute. He is used to learning new things since we do obedience, but still he picked this up very quickly. We've only had them a week, so we'll see what happens!

Also, he was terrified of them at first. Then I took them off of the door and put them on a suction cup on the window next to the door.