# Bell ringer



## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

So Ted is definitely a bell ringer. Hubby brought him outside this morning and thats it. Pee pad be gone he wants out and he goes over to the door scratches on the screen and then rings the bells!!! How amazingly smart is this little guy. He also has mastered sit and come, although come is just a suggestion to himound:


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Good job Ted!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

lise said:


> So Ted is definitely a bell ringer. Hubby brought him outside this morning and thats it. Pee pad be gone he wants out and he goes over to the door scratches on the screen and then rings the bells!!! How amazingly smart is this little guy. He also has mastered sit and come, although come is just a suggestion to himound:


Yeah Lise ,I hear Canadian dogs are more advanced ..ound: 
Happy Canada Day. :canada::canada::canada::canada::canada:


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## HavTam (Jun 23, 2012)

My puppy rings the bell too, however, she has figured out this is also a way for her to get outside to play. She does this constantly, even 30 seconds after we just come in. She came from a farm and loves being outside. I'm getting ready to "bail" on this idea of the bell, but she hasn't developed any other way of letting us know when she has to go potty. 

From those more experienced, does this get better? Has anyone used the bell for a year or more? Thanks!


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## mamacjt (Aug 23, 2011)

I have always "bell" trained my dogs. It works wonderfully!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

HavTam said:


> My puppy rings the bell too, however, she has figured out this is also a way for her to get outside to play. She does this constantly, even 30 seconds after we just come in. She came from a farm and loves being outside. I'm getting ready to "bail" on this idea of the bell, but she hasn't developed any other way of letting us know when she has to go potty.
> 
> From those more experienced, does this get better? Has anyone used the bell for a year or more? Thanks!


Lily looks like a darling. Here' a method for discriminating between potty breaks and play time. http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1171 I agree with the article in that you should have the dog somewhat trained before you rely on bell training.


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## RickR (Feb 15, 2007)

Max is bell trained. He caught on right away.
Bessie will not ring the bell!!!!


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

Ted is pretty good, although I think he sometimes squats for a second once he goes outside to make me think he has peed again. So far we have been up15 minutes and he has rang the bells 5 times. I paid attention to them twice!


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## HavTam (Jun 23, 2012)

Thanks for the posts everyone! I agree Lise, sometimes we have to ignore some too


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## Tuss (Apr 22, 2012)

davetgabby said:


> Lily looks like a darling. Here' a method for discriminating between potty breaks and play time. http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1171 I agree with the article in that you should have the dog somewhat trained before you rely on bell training.


thanks Dave, I've been clicker training my dog and she's about 90% reliable with housebreaking so I might try training with a bell. However, it says to click but no treat. this goes against what I'm being taught in clicker training (click is always followed by treat).


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## Dory (Jan 4, 2012)

Yay for Ted! I started putting Quincy's collar and leash on him to go out and do his business and so far so good. I was going to hang up bells, but I totally forgot to buy some. He has no interest in the pee pads so far and has been whining to let me know if he has to go. He's also been dragging his leash/collar to me when it's time. Only one accident his first day and that was my fault for not keeping him out long enough. I take his collar and leash off inside the house, so unless we're going out to play in the yard or go potty, that's how he's associating out to pee. We've been working on fetch and sit today - so much fun and so smart!


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

Yay!!! I watched Tillie like a hawk and had her almost reliable before I added the bell. She caught onto the bell right away also, (within a few minutes of me showing her the bell, she went over, sniffed it, it jingled and I threw a little party while opening the door!)
Tillie still uses the bell and is 2 yrs old, I assume she will always use it and that is fine with us!!! After about 6-9 months she mostly only rings it to go potty... unless she wants to invesgate something outside... THE hardest and most important part (for us) was ALWAYS, ALWAYS opening the door when they ring the bell. In the begining you do NOT want to confuse them by 'ignoring' the bell sometimes... that is how accidents can happen, because even IF they did JUST go potty, who's to say they don't have to go again!?? It IS exhausting, annoying, time intensive, BUT for us, it was well worth it to a have a FULLY housetrained dog!! There were times (when I was sick or something) where I would just prop the door open and let her go in and out on her own for a while.
And be sure you are going out with him, saying "go potty" WHEN he is actually going potty so he knows what those words mean! 
SO happy to hear how wonderful things are going!
How much does he weigh? He looks so tiny compared to most of the puppies we've seen lately! My Tillie was also very small!!


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

*Training*



TilliesMom said:


> Yay!!! I watched Tillie like a hawk and had her almost reliable before I added the bell. She caught onto the bell right away also, (within a few minutes of me showing her the bell, she went over, sniffed it, it jingled and I threw a little party while opening the door!)
> Tillie still uses the bell and is 2 yrs old, I assume she will always use it and that is fine with us!!! After about 6-9 months she mostly only rings it to go potty... unless she wants to invesgate something outside... THE hardest and most important part (for us) was ALWAYS, ALWAYS opening the door when they ring the bell. In the begining you do NOT want to confuse them by 'ignoring' the bell sometimes... that is how accidents can happen, because even IF they did JUST go potty, who's to say they don't have to go again!?? It IS exhausting, annoying, time intensive, BUT for us, it was well worth it to a have a FULLY housetrained dog!! There were times (when I was sick or something) where I would just prop the door open and let her go in and out on her own for a while.
> And be sure you are going out with him, saying "go potty" WHEN he is actually going potty so he knows what those words mean!
> SO happy to hear how wonderful things are going!
> How much does he weigh? He looks so tiny compared to most of the puppies we've seen lately! My Tillie was also very small!!


I have to go out with him, we do not have a fenced yard. We live on a river, so not allowed to put fences up. Then bell ringing this am was after he had gone out twice, once for a pee then once for a poo and as soon as I brought him in he was at the bell again, then I brought him back out and in and he turned round and rang them again. All the rings were in a span of about 20 minutes if you count the minutes we were outside too. He is a clown for sure!
I weighed Ted with me on my scale and I think he is about 3 lbs! How much did Tillie weigh at 10 weeks?


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

*Smart*



Dory said:


> Yay for Ted! I started putting Quincy's collar and leash on him to go out and do his business and so far so good. I was going to hang up bells, but I totally forgot to buy some. He has no interest in the pee pads so far and has been whining to let me know if he has to go. He's also been dragging his leash/collar to me when it's time. Only one accident his first day and that was my fault for not keeping him out long enough. I take his collar and leash off inside the house, so unless we're going out to play in the yard or go potty, that's how he's associating out to pee. We've been working on fetch and sit today - so much fun and so smart!


Sounds like Quincy is doing amazingly too. How very smart they are. I mean I read that they were, but wasn't ready for them to be "that" smart!


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

lise said:


> I weighed Ted with me on my scale and I think he is about 3 lbs! How much did Tillie weigh at 10 weeks?


I wasn't blessed to get Tillie 'young', I got her at the ripe 'old' age of 14 weeks!  She was 3.5 lbs at that point...


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

*Size doesn't matter*



TilliesMom said:


> I wasn't blessed to get Tillie 'young', I got her at the ripe 'old' age of 14 weeks!  She was 3.5 lbs at that point...


So I'm curious what does Tillie weigh now? Teds Mom weighs 9 pounds so I'm assuming Ted takes after his Mom.


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

She hasn't been weighed in ahwile, but she leveled out around 7 1/2 lbs at 7 months and then by a year she was 8 1/2 lbs, I think she has filled out a bit, so I'm guessing she's a little under 9 lbs  How big was Ted's dad?
Tillie's parents were 'normal' size at 11-12 lbs, she just happened to be small.


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

*Dad*



TilliesMom said:


> She hasn't been weighed in ahwile, but she leveled out around 7 1/2 lbs at 7 months and then by a year she was 8 1/2 lbs, I think she has filled out a bit, so I'm guessing she's a little under 9 lbs  How big was Ted's dad?
> Tillie's parents were 'normal' size at 11-12 lbs, she just happened to be small.


Teds Dad is average size also. He was so friendly when we met him. I would say he was probably about 11 lbs.


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## Murphysmom2011 (Apr 24, 2012)

We started with the bells the minute we brought Murphy home at 10 weeks and it works really well for us. I had asked our breeder if I should get pee pads. She advised me to just start with the bells. We did have a few accidents in the beginning, but Murphy caught on really fast. I agree with Tammie, you need to let them out every time they ring. Sometimes Murphy wanted to play - we would not treat him if he did not go potty and that seemed to stop the excessive ringing.

The nice thing was when we went to the coast at Christmas. We brought the bells along and hung them on the door of our vacation home. Murphy did not have one accident in the vacation home as he knew where the bells were.

The funniest thing is that occasionally in the evening he will drink all his water and then ring for more. He will ring the bell and when you go to open the door, he will back up, tap your leg and then look at his water dish. I guess he knows that we will take care of anything if he rings those bells:biggrin1:


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

There is never end to their intelligence, is there?


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

LOL, just wait till he starts out smarting you... ha ha

about a yr or so ago, Tillie would ring the bells, my son would get up from the floor to let her out and Tillie would run over and steal his PENCIL! LOL every.single.time. hilarious!
Finally my son got smart and took the pencil WITH him to open the door when she rang the bells... so when Tillie ran over to grab it she was VERY confused when she couldn't find it! ound:


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## misstray (Feb 6, 2011)

TilliesMom said:


> LOL, just wait till he starts out smarting you... ha ha
> 
> about a yr or so ago, Tillie would ring the bells, my son would get up from the floor to let her out and Tillie would run over and steal his PENCIL! LOL every.single.time. hilarious!
> Finally my son got smart and took the pencil WITH him to open the door when she rang the bells... so when Tillie ran over to grab it she was VERY confused when she couldn't find it! ound:


HA HA HA!!! That's hilarious!


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## lise (Sep 1, 2006)

TilliesMom said:


> LOL, just wait till he starts out smarting you... ha ha
> 
> about a yr or so ago, Tillie would ring the bells, my son would get up from the floor to let her out and Tillie would run over and steal his PENCIL! LOL every.single.time. hilarious!
> Finally my son got smart and took the pencil WITH him to open the door when she rang the bells... so when Tillie ran over to grab it she was VERY confused when she couldn't find it! ound:


ound:ound:


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## BennyBoy (Apr 25, 2012)

lise said:


> So Ted is definitely a bell ringer. Hubby brought him outside this morning and thats it. Pee pad be gone he wants out and he goes over to the door scratches on the screen and then rings the bells!!! How amazingly smart is this little guy. He also has mastered sit and come, although come is just a suggestion to himound:


 That's fabulous! Way to go!


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