Meet Tucker, our now 10 month old rescue puppy. When we got him last July, I had forgotten how messy it was to potty train a dog.
Bell Potty-Training for Dogs
A few weeks in to our adventure with said puppy, I was about ready to pull out my hair. I was growing tired of the accidents in the house, and taking him outside every 20 minutes or so to try and avoid “presents” on my floors.
I knew we had to go through this, and it was only a stage, but I wanted it to end as quickly as possible. Two of my friends who had also recently gotten puppies were telling me how they used a bell to train their puppies to “tell” them when they needed to go to the bathroom.
Both friends also told me how quickly their puppies picked up the idea, and that within a week or so, each puppy was using the bell to let folks know they wanted to go outside and having fewer and fewer accidents.
Honestly, if I didn’t know both of these ladies really well, I would have thought they were delusional – how could their puppies make MAJOR potty-training progress with a simple bell and a week’s worth of time? It seemed too good to be true!
Bell Potty-Training for Dogs…IT WORKS!
Still doubting a simple bell could train our puppy, I dug out a couple of Christmas jingle bells, tied them to a length of ribbon, and hung them over the door knob of the door leading to our garage. “This seems too easy, but it’s worth a try,” I thought. Each time we needed to let Tucker out we would take him to the door, say “Tucker, go potty,” and gently put his nose to the bell until it rang. We would then tell him “Good boy,” give him some lovin’, and take him outside. We did this each and every time we took him out. The first few days, he tolerated the whole procedure, but didn’t seem to really get it.
By day 5, however, he was already beginning to ring the bell himself. After about a week, he was ringing the bell with his nose each time he wanted to go outside, and we had almost no accidents in the house…hallelujah!
It just amazes me how easy this whole process was. I will admit that it almost works TOO well sometimes; as the weather improves, Tucker rings the bell, and keeps ringing the bell, until he is let out to play. To me, it’s a small inconvenience for a dog that can easily let me know when he wants or needs to be outside.
You can make your own “Bell Potty-Training door bell” with a jingle bell or two and ribbon. Just be sure to make the length of the ribbon easy for your dog to reach with his/her nose.
Or, buy one at your local pet store, or online retailer like Amazon.com.
Have you tried bell potty training your dog? Share your experience with other readers in the “Your two cents” section below.
