The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

http://poochie-pets.net/Training.html

Emma is 15 months old and not housebroken (I've had her for 3 weeks). She understands the concept of pottying outside IF we take her out, but she doesn't ask to go out. She's crate trained and doesn't potty in her crate, so I think it's just a matter of teaching her to ask. I'd love to hear your success stories.

My friend took a brick and put a wireless door bell on it. The dogs learned how to use their feet to ring the bell. It works wonders if they are traveling as they place the brick by the door and the dogs let anyone know it is time to go.

We have used the bells with much success. I would say Izzy go potty and ring the bells, give a treat. I did this for about a week. Then next step was to get her to ring the bells. She already knew high 5's. So I would ask her for five and take my hand away and she would hit the bells, treat and say go potty. She caught on to this really quick and within the week she was ringing the bells all by herself. She is almost 2 and still asks for treats when she goes potty. LOL

Thanks Kim! I'm ordering the bells today. Deborah: the brick/doorbell is also a great idea - but that would require a trip to the store, LOL. I'm home today and laaaaaazy.

It's the best way IMO.

I put the bells on the knob (poochie bells on ebay or their site). Each time I said to Abby "lets go potty", I'd ring the bells and open the door. I even took her paw, at times, and had her ring them. It was in short time Abby was ringing them to go out. Be warned, they will ring them to go out make a BIG U turn and right back in for their cookie...LOL The first time she rang them herself I was so proud of her. She was standing there looking me waiting for me to come over. I RACED over, barefoot, and slide in a warm puddle. I nearly broke my neck, but boy oh boy was my Abby girl proud. Thank goodness she got the sequence down after that.

Abby was easy to train once she had a way to let me know she had to go. I highly recommend the poochie bells or any kind of bell. Abby will even ring them when she sees Ava standing at the door to go out, to this day. I didn't train Ava to them because I always putting her out when Abby wanted out..worked for us.

I made my own set of bells, using some sleigh-bells that I found around Christmas time, and some yarn. Gromit learned how to use them quickly. Unfortunately, she will ring them to go out when I know darned well she doesn't HAVE to go And if I tell her "no", she just goes over to them and rings them again! I can't really ignore her, because I don't want her to stop using them when she really needs to go potty. So basically, she's got ME trained to obey HER anytime she wants to go out Cockers are too smart for their own good.

Hunter rings a bell to go out which is great because Holly lies by the back so of course you don't see her unless you're in the kitchen. Hunter also rings the bell if he's hungry because he knows I'll go to the door to let him out and his dish is beside the door and so he sits beside it.

We rescued a kitten in June and she has also caught on to the bells. She saw that every time Izzy ran the bells. She could go out and she likes going outside. So Sophie started running to the back door and ringing the bells to go outside. So these bells work for all furbabies.

We love the Poochie Bells. I have two sets in the house. One set is at the backdoor and the other is on my bedroom door. For some reason they understood the concept of ringing the bells to go outside but at night time it was a toss up so we added the second set. It has worked really well!

We started them as puppies and they have done super well. My only advice is to be consistent. I notice that if I don't reinforce the good ringing behavior, baby girl likes the dining room . For awhile too we reinforced with a treat after the potty since she was a bit stubborn. Since then, we've phased out the treat after potty and simply praise for the good behavior.

Watch out, mine has figured out that she can ring the bells for anything, including tours of the backyard! Good luck though, I think you'll love them!

Predictably, the bells scared Isabel.

Hi everybody-

So glad to hear that PoochieBells are working for you! Bell training has been around a long time, and its many users swear by it. We created PoochieBells after our founder trained her pooch to ring bells, and found that the ones she made herself were not attractive, safe or durable. Now, we have PBells!

When training your dog to ring PoochieBells, we suggest that you not use treats - then the pooch associates the bells with food rather than going out. Most pooches get the concept within a few days, though it can range from one time to longer. Just like with any other training practice, consistency is the key! You can find training hints on our website: http://poochie-pets.net/Training.html

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We have a very active Facebook Page if you are interested in joining our community of dog lovers. http://www.facebook.com/PoochieBells It is so nice to see these breed-oriented forums. Some would say that our pooches are lucky to have such dedicated owners, but we all know that it is us who are lucky.

-Jennifer

I too have to give a shout out for the Poochie Bells. I felt I had hit a wall with Mabel's house breaking, we had gone through crate training, as she was getting older, her ability to hold her bladder had developed, and she clearly knew that outside was the right place to go, BUT, she continued to have accidents a couple times a week, usually right in front of the door to go outside. She would only cry AFTER she had the accident, then I would come and let her out, but it was too late. It was breaking my heart a little as she clearly wanted to do the right thing but something wasn't clicking for her in the asking to go out department. The result of this situation was that I was constantly on guard and putting her out whenever I noticed she was in the area of the door, also any time I would hear a peep out of her I would come running, only to find out she was barking at the cat, or in the kitchen begging for a treat. So, I ordered two sets of the bells online, one for the patio door, one for the bedroom, and she took to them like a duck to water, it only took 1 day to get her to ring the bells, no treating was needed at all.

So, in summary, the bells are great for two reasons, it give the dog a clear and easy way to tell you they want out, and secondly, because a bell ring means they are definitly at the door, you don't have to go running every time she makes a sound.

Glad to say we are accident free now for two weeks, and both dog and owner are happier.

Well, I've had my bells now for a little less than 2 weeks and it hasn't quite clicked for Emma. She IS older, though (16 mos). and I'm hoping it will just take her a little while to develop a new habit (we've only had her about 5 weeks). She, too, knows she is supposed to go outside, but she doesn't give us any clue that we're picking up on that she has to go. We just take her out a lot and tell her to "go potty" and she does.

Tina, never take her outside without FIRST ringing the bells yourself. I bet she will catch on. Always give her the command "lets go potty" or whatever you say, ring the bell, and then take her paw and ring it, open the door ONLY then.

Debbie: That's exactly what I do, but she's just so "busy" all the time that I don't think her little head is connecting "bells = potty." She rang them accidentally a couple of times just by nosing them, and I made a big deal about it and went through the routine to let her out, but I think it was just that she was nosey and busy and didn't do it on purpose. We'll get there. BTW: the new food is already helping.

Oh Tina don't be so sure. She may have rang them on purpose.

I remember the first time Abby rang hers! She stood there looking at me, as if to say WELL, are you coming or not? I raced over the the door praising her while talking like a fool to her with such excitement (oh mommy's good girl, What a good girl my Abbers is....)you get the idea. I got around the table (in my bare feet) and about broke my rear. My foot plopped in a warm wet puddle and I went slipping and sliding like there was no tomorrow. She was so excited to show me what a good girl she was...look mom I did what you want. After that we worked a day or 2 on the correct sequence of things . She did get it though pretty quickly and so will Emma.

I also trained Dexter with bells i got off of a christmas decoration. He thought they were just about the funnest toy ever! So i was trotting my butt outside every 3 minutes or so, it took him about two days of running in and out to realize what the point of them were. But he was housetrained in a week and after about 3 weeks the ribbon connecting the bells broke, and before i fixed it dexter figured out all he had to do was sit in front of the door and stare a hole in my head and out he goes! I will always housetrain with bells i think it is the most effective way

Bells work for me! I use one on our patio doors and one upstairs for my bedroom door. Tasha 2 will ring the bell and if I'm not there in 15 seconds she will bark. I also take a set with me when I travel, we always get a room near an exit. This also works well when we take cruises.

Tasha like to "test" me by ringing the bells just to make sure she can get out. She's learned not to bark at the neighbors cat or someone walking by until after the door is open. Then the barking starts.

I'm loosing my hearing and soon I won't be able to hear the bells, I keep asking Gary what we can do to have Tasha let me know she has to go out. His idea for me to wear a shock collar and teach Tasha how to press the button. Yeah like that's going to work.

Gordon,,, too funny

Sorry Debbie, I just also peed my pants laughing at the visual!

The bell worked for our Toby! Each time we took him out we would say "paw", put his paw to the bell so that it'd ring, and take him out. After just a few days, he started going up to it on his own and ringing it whenever he needed to be taken out. Of course, on occasion he will take advantage and ring it when he sees a squirrel but that does not happen too often lol. Highly recommend it!

Just to update: the bells are working for us, too! Sometimes Emma will "nose" the bells, and sometimes she'll lick them, LOL. Using her paw didn't seem to work for her, but whatever! We're happy to have her tell us she wants to go out anyway she wants to do it. Thanks everyone.

Hunter rings the bell by rubbing it along his back as this is what he did as a pup.I had tried the regular type bell but his nail got caught in it so I bought a large cowbell type which was a bit heavy for a pup.

Abby will often nose the bell too.

Totally going to look into this for Kasey. He is picking up on pottying outside really well and I would love for him to have a clear way to let us know.

Gordon- Not sure how this would work, but they make doorbells you can connect to lamps so when the doorbell is rung, the nearest light to it flashes. Might work if you have a way to wire it. Tasha 2 and Gary will still hear the bell, but you will be able to see it should Gary not be home!

Courtney


Kasey- 11-6-11