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SUMMARY
Want your dog to tell you when it’s time to go to the bathroom? Over the past several weeks we’ve been examining how to coach your dog. Today we’re going to look at another advanced “trick” that you can teach your dog that can really help you out. Let’s dive in and learn how we can coach your dog to ring a bell for you when he needs to go to the bathroom.
The Tools
To start off with let’s take a look at the tools you need for this behavior, the bell. There are a couple of different options. One option is to buy a specially made “doggy doorbell” from your local pet store. If you don’t want to spend the extra cash you can also make a bell out of virtually anything your dog can ring their paws with – cowbells, jingle bells, wind chimes. All of these work great. Hang the bells next to the door, in a place where your dog can reach with his nose.
The coaching
Similar our previous post on The Sneezing Game this trick is a more advanced trick. It will work best if you have already taught your dog how to “target.” If you have, great news! Start by having him target the bell. When he hits is say, “Outside,” and as a reward, let him go outside! (Tamar explains Targeting in her book “30 Days to a well-mannered dog”. It’s easy).
Once he’s learned that, you are halfway there. Halfway because your dog will ring the bell when they want to go outside, but not necessarily when they need to potty. Now let’s work on connecting the idea of ringing the bell specifically to potty time. This part is easy! Everytime your dog rings the bell, put a leash on and take him outside. Keep him on a leash until he finishes. You can then release him and let him play, but only after he goes potty. If he doesn’t go within a few minutes, make sure to bring him back into the house and try again later.
After a while, your dog will begin to associate the ringing of the bell with going outside to go potty and will ring it on his own. This is one of the few times you don’t need to make a big deal with treats and praise. In this case, going outside is its own reward (praise and reward after the the Potty takes place).
The final step is to stop using the leash (if you have a fenced outdoors area) and just let your dog outside. Make sure you only do this when you’re sure he really understands the idea that the bell means potty time. If he backslides, ringing the bell every fifteen minutes because he wants to go outside to play, you can reintroduce the leash until he figures it out again.
Having trouble with coaching? Take a look at some of our resources (they go into much more depth) or stop by. We have top notch dog coaches that can work with your dog to quickly move them along Tamar’s own Loved Dog system. This is the same system used For over 25 years by many of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, Ellen DeGeneres, Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, ryan Seacrest, and others.
