Potty Training
 

I have a 4 month old male puppy, I adopted him 2 weeks ago from a family who didn't have time for him, they started him outside and decided to bring him in on puppy pads, I don't want to use puppy pads, I had a yorkie for 13 years I lost 2 months ago, to heart failure and she rang bells, so I'm trying to teach him the same, but i'm having a hard time, I am not home all day everyday, I work retail and crazy hours, he isn't in his crate more then 5 hours because my mom gets home and will let him out, but its going on 2 weeks and I feel like I'm not getting anywhere, he went to the bells once on his own to poop, but he's had accidents after that, What should i do? UGH i feel like he will never learn and its frustrating... I need help!

My 2 pups are trained to ring the bell to go out, so I understand how great that is for potty training. The only thing I can think of is, if possible, take a few days off work in a row (or more) and spend those days to potty train. I know most don't have the luxury to take off work, so that may not be an option. It can be hard when the training is not consistent, but with time it will get better. Good luck!

How long did it take you to train your dogs to ring the bell? I have the bells by the door, but I am inconsistent with ringing them. Did you have to ring them yourself for your pups to pick up on it or did you train them to ring it themselves? We've been working on the potty training for about 2 months and I'm getting tired of going out every hour lol. I think I might shed a tear if he learned how to ring a bell to tell me to take him out. :)

ringing bells
 

He has rang the bell twice to go poop, I've had him 2 weeks, it took my yorkie i lost maybe 4 weeks until she started ringing them herself, I take there nose or paw and make them ring them, with my help so he knows he needs to learn how to do it, when he goes out and potty i then give him a tiny treat, if he doesn't potty, no treat... the only thing with sophie was she would ring them because he wanted to just go out and sit... but she was so smart, if we didn't come right away she would hit the bells louder and louder after awhile she would come unplug our tv, or slam a door... she was very smart, I'm having a hard time with tucker, but he's also a male and a teacup/toy so he is smaller and needs to go more often, when i had sophie my mom worked from home... but now we both work out of the home and I'm a full time law student it makes it hard to be consistent with taking him out... i have learned to take him to the same spot each time and same door, the bells hang from.. i also have pee spray the helps them want to go where i spray it, which i got from walmart... i also use that in his pin on his puppy pads when I'm gone so he goes on the pad and not his blanket if he needs to go... but he refuses to go in his crate, he will hold himself all night.. its just when he's lose in the house he tends to have accidents.... just keep up taking there nose to ring the bells... thats what I'm doing for tucker and thats how i taught sophie when i had her...

I did pretty much the same thing that Lgrand said with the bell. I did ring it for her for the first couple days since she was a little scared of it at first, and then every time I took her out I would make her hit the bell and say, "let's go potty" every time. You could also try giving a treat right after making him hit the bell. Then he would associate the bell with a treat and want to do it on his own, and then as he becomes more consistent slowly stop giving a treat every time. I did the treat method with my second dog, a Shih Tzu. He loved to eat, so this worked very well for him. He was only 9 weeks when I got him, and was potty trained in 3 weeks.