Using a bell..

P.S... My husband and I are laughing just imagining ... if this works, and we have friends over for dinner, and all of a sudden, you just hear "DING!" ... and I clear my throat and say "Would you excuse me, our lady needs to take a tinkle".. HAAAAHahahaa....
 
 

I don't see why it wouldn't work.  We have hanging bells by the back door and Roxy rings them if we don't notice her staring at the door.  Sometimes, it seems like it is a very angry ring, like, "Don't you stupid people notice me standing here looking at this door?  What is wrong with you!".
 
We trained Roxy to ring her bells just like you're doing.  Let me know if you ever get to use that line when company is over.  That will be priceless!

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Roxanne - sounds like a great idea! And it isn't as if she could abuse that any more than any other bell you might give her.
 
I also did the bell thing for the puppy days. Worked absolutely great. We eventually phased it out, as Lucy learned to communicate with us by looks for when she had to go out, but the wind chime that we used really got us through the tough "I have to pee every hour" times. Let us know how it works out!

SHE DID IT!!   YAY!!!
 
She really did it! She got herself all psyched up (the bell sound startles her), but we've been putting her foot on it (DING!) every time we take her out since yesterday, and tonight she finally did it, and I praised her and took her outside and she pee'd!! She just hit it with her foot, slapped it once and DING! I love it...

This will definitely help because my husband works in his office and he has a hard time getting her signals. Plus the sound is so loud that you can't deny what it is.

Yay, Jänku!!!
 

Janku- you are so smart!

SHE DID IT AGAIN! Twice now tonight, and this time it was for a POOP! Youpi, good Jänku! I was just sitting here and I heard DING! Hehe... it's so funny.
 

Awww, good girl!

I tried the desk bell with Dakota when he was younger.  He could ring it alright, but he viewed it as more of another play toy.  He'd carry it through the house, plop it on the floor, and start ringing, pushing, and chewing.  After that, I just made some hanging bells.  Now when he wants to go outside, he'll ring the bells.

Hello Roxanne

Let me share a few thoughts and experiences on that topic.

Teaching a puppy to give a signal to go outside is a common, but questionable, house training practice. While appearing reasonable and useful at first glance, encouraging dogs to give such a signal may conflict with the objective of training them to hold and eliminate in accordance with an arbitrary schedule. One major aspect of all training is impulse control, something bell-training is quite the opposite to.

One should not forget that need-to-go-signals depend on the owner being present to respond - a state of affairs that care rarely be maintained on a consistent basis. An all too common unfortunate outcome of such training is the development of elimination problems later. Unable to get the owner's attention with the elimination signal, a dog often times simply proceeds to eliminate somewhere it ought not to, thereby reflecting the previously established pattern in association with the need-to-go signal (give a signal, then eliminate).

Furthermore, many dogs rapidly or over time learn to extend the signal into a oh-this-gets-me-outside! signal, prompting the now well trained owner to go outside for purposes other than the dog's elimination.

While it might be cute and fun, this is not something you should pursue training. Have the dog on a age and health appropriate elimination schedule. That will ensure that there are no accidents after the proper training has been conducted, with the added value of the dog having to control and regulate its impulses.

I would suggest to you to train your dog something else but very much related: train it to eliminate on cue. This is easier as it sounds, and puts you in command - not the dog - and I am sure it will make at least as great an impression on anyone witnessing it (in fact, on anyone having some idea about dog training, much more so).

Have a great weekend and my best wishes to you and your pup. []

sure!! bell training is a common thing to do! i use a single jingle bell on a ribbon that is nailed against the wall by our back door. it works some of the time with our dog. i have never heard using that kind of bell, but if it works, to each his own. []

We taught our lab mix to ring the bell when he was a young pup, and that got him to let us know when he had to go outside.  Now, he's better at getting our attention and doesn't worry as much about the bell, but will hit it when he wants to go outside and screw around chasing his little brother or a ball.  He really won't ring the bell to pee or poop, but to mess around.  He will get our attention in other ways when he has to go outside for real.