Still working on the bell training
 

I must have a slow dog, lol. I think I've had the bell on the back door well over a month, and she'll only use it when I tell her to. Still not using it to let me know she wants to go out yet.

But I haven't given up. Just trying to be consistant in saying "wanna go out, gotta ring the bell", and point to the bell.

Don't get too hopeful
 

My dog is ten months old. We have always had a problem with housetraining her because she doesn't tell us when she needs to go out. She understands that she is supposed to go outside, but if we don't get her out in time, she has no problem with going on the floor. And now that she's older, it's just irritating. We know she can hold it for upwards of six hours during the day, but when we're home, she pees on the floor if we don't take her out. I think at least four months ago we put the bell on the door. At first, we would physically take her paw and ring the bell and praise her. Once she got that, we would tell her to ring it and she would. Now, we stand by the door and sort of look like its time, without saying anything and she does it. But she will not do it completely on her own, no matter what we do. She gets treats when she rings it and treats when she goes potty outside, but shes still having accidents at least every other day. It's so frustrating! We can't trust to leave her alone in a room because if she hasn't just peed, she might just go. I wish she would make an attempt to tell us first, but its just not working out. Good luck with your dog :)

What gets me, is I don't work. Both of mine go out about 8-10 times during the day and night.

Adonis will bark, then they both go out, but not before Venus rings the bell. I make her ring it, before I even attempt to unlock the door.

I'm just hoping one night, in the middle of the night even, she wakes me with that bell!

Just be sure that everytime that bell rings (even if it's just accidentally bumped), you RUN to open the door. Everytime you open that door - even if a dog isn't "asking" to go out - jingle the bell first. You want the dogs to associate bell ringing with door opening.

[Just thinking out loud here. I've never made my dogs ring the bells. I've just made sure that the bell jingled loudly every time the door opened and they've all caught on quickly. I'm wondering if perhaps making them ring it slows down the process? Perhaps then it becomes a command to follow only when Mom or Dad gives the command? Of course, this doesn't help you. Once you've started this way, I'm not sure that I would stop. Just thinking...]

She does associate that when she rings it, she immediately goes outside. There have been a few hopeful moments when she sort of does it on her own. If we leave the room and she has to pee, she sometimes stands by the door (not the outside door) and barks. Then, when I come back in because of the barking, I may only take one step in the direction of the door and she enthusiastically goes over to ring it. Then I of course praise lavishly and she gets lots of treats. But sometimes, I still have to physically move her paw to get her to ring it. Just hoping she catches on eventually.