# House training..bell, crate..??



## MichelleS (Oct 31, 2016)

We will get our Havanese puppy Nov 26. She will be 10 weeks old. Our dog (Shetland Sheep Dog) was 2 years old when we adopted her from a Sheltie Rescue Shelter so she was already house trained. She had 2 accidents in 11 years...once when we left her alone way too long and another time when she had a sick tummy. Sooo she prob spoiled us terribly. We lost her last year due to illness.
Does anyone have experience with training with a bell by the door and was it successful? My husband loves that idea but also wants to get a crate which I am not so fond of. I would rather not use puppy pads. He is in the military and of course has a 2 week trip just a few days after we bring our puppy home. I am a part time pastor so I am home a lot so that's not a problem. We can take her to church with us when we do have to be there and keep her in a kennel in the office. We had a few puppies while I was growing up (Poodle and Pomeranian) and we just always kept them in eye sight and took them out a lot.
Thanks for any advice.


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

There are a lot of variables here and you will get a lot of opinions. I will tell you what worked for us.

Ricky NEVER did get the hang of the bell because we, the parents, were never committed to it. We tried pads and that didn't work. What did worked for us is to take Ricky outside every hour and we rewarded him with a treat and lavish praise when he was successful. This process took about three months of being consistent with him to become 100% reliable. Today, it seems like a distant memory. Ricky hasn't had any "accidents" in over 2 years.

Ricky's Popi


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## MichelleS (Oct 31, 2016)

Ricky Ricardo said:


> There are a lot of variables here and you will get a lot of opinions. I will tell you what worked for us.
> 
> Ricky NEVER did get the hang of the bell because we, the parents, were never committed to it. We tried pads and that didn't work. What did worked for us is to take Ricky outside every hour and we rewarded him with a treat and lavish praise when he was successful. This process took about three months of being consistent with him to become 100% reliable. Today, it seems like a distant memory. Ricky hasn't had any "accidents" in over 2 years.
> 
> Ricky's Popi


That's how we always did it when I was growing up. I did get her a crate and some treats for rewards. Our 17 year old daughter is on board with helping so I will have back up while the hubby is on his work trip. We are all so excited about this puppy...it won't be to hard keeping an eye on her.


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## Barbara Levy (Apr 22, 2016)

I did both pee pad and bell training. Loki was pad trained by the breeder. After going outside, he decided he much preferred going in the grass to the pad. I work so I worried about him not having a "legal" place to go between dog walker visits during the day. I left a UGoDog in his expen - I wanted him to associate the plastic with a place to go rather than a soft pad. I started bell training the first day. I just used his paw or nose to ring the bell EVERY time I took him out. He figured it out quickly. 

He turned 7 months yesterday and hasn't had an accident in a long time. He had been in his expen during the day but this week I started leaving the door to the expen open and baby gated him in the family room and kitchen for the day. He has been so good. Not one accident. He has used the pee pad a couple of times during the day so it working as I wanted. 

You will get lots of different options/opinions here. You just need to do what works for you but be consistent about it. 

Enjoy your new puppy. Post pics.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Whether you decide to use an indoor potty option is completely up to you. However, experience has shown that small dogs with an indoor potty train faster and have less accidents than those whose owners want them to ONLY go outside. But either can work. B lls seem to be somewhat dependent on the individual dog. Some like them and use them easily, others, like my Kodi, seem to find them aversive, and actively avoid them. But most dogs eventually develop their own "signal" so it doesn't matter that much. Bell training, if you use it, should be introduced AFTER the dog already understands to go outside to potty.

As far as crating is concerned, Whether you plan on using an indoor potty or not, EVERY puppy will learn faster, have less accidents, and most importantly, be SAFER, if you have a way to confine them when you can't give them EYES ON supervision. I've always felt that a crate was TOO. Confining, except over night or in the car, so I prefer an ex-pen for day time puppy confinement. Even now, when my dogs are either adults or adolescent, they are confined to a single room when we are not home. They are happy there, and I know there is nothing they can get into that will harm them.


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