Ringing Bells for House Training

Here’s a handout I use for clients who want house training bells. Typically these are dogs who are already house trained and the owners are used to previous dogs who would bark or signal to go out. Often I think it’s easier to just take the dogs out regularly – but this is always an option.

Adding Bells to House Training

Some dogs will bark or signal to go out on their own – but most dogs need to be taken out regularly or taught to give a signal. Depending on your preferences, you can teach your dog to ring bells hanging from the door, press a button such as an electronic doorbell, or some other type of signal like a touch pad to turn on a light. There are even buttons that can be connected to a smartphone!

This training project has three stages:

1. Teach your dog to make the signal
2. Connect the signal to trips outside
3. Application of the signal.

We will be using food treats as rewards. These can be tiny pieces of meat, cheese, licks of canned food, or something else that your dog loves. If you want to progress quickly, store bought treats, dry treats, and dog food are not good options for most dogs.

Stage 1:  Teach your dog to make the signal.   

In this example, we will use ringing the bells.  

Touch your hand:  Your dog is going to learn to touch his nose to your hand. For outgoing dogs we can skip this step – but for dogs who may be a little nervous we can get a great foundation by training this skill. As a bonus, you can then use the hand target to move your dog or have him greet people.

In this video I use a clicker to signal to the dog the moment he has earned the treat. If you do not have a clicker or if your dog is startled by noises, you can use a word/signal to indicate that a treat has been earned. You might say “Yes!” or “Treat!” at the moment your dog has earned the treat.

Initial Hand Target Process:

• Hold out a flat hand
• Click at the moment your dog touches
• Set a treat onto your hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlmdkY8mgpM

Soon your dog will be eagerly pressing her nose into your hand

Touch the bells:  Hold the bells and repeat the hand touch game – but instead of clicking when your dog touches your hand, click when he touches the bells.

Bells on the door: Continue with the touch-the-bells game and gradually move closer to the doorway. Once you are holding your hand next to the door, you can hang the bells on the door.  Keep your hands close to start, but every 3 repetitions you can gradually move your hands a few inches further away.

You can then start moving your feet further away so that your dog learns to leave you to go to the bells. If you notice your dog is “stuck” – resist the temptation to move closer.  End the session (take away the bells) and try again later. If you move closer to help your dog – you are rewarding him for not going!

Optional – Add a cue: An optional stage is to add a verbal cue to your dog ringing the bells. An advantage of this is that you can prompt your dog to ring the bells. A disadvantage is that it is not necessary long-term as your dog will need to ring the bells when he needs to go out –  not just ring them when he is told.

Give your cue right before your dog rings the bell. Click when he rings. Give a treat.  Repeat.

Notice the nice loop of cue-ring-click-treat and then the dog goes right back into the cycle.

Stage 2: Connect the Signal to Trips Outside

On your usual potty trips outside, prompt your dog to ring the bell. His reward for ringing is you opening the door to the outdoors (no treat needed).   Take him out on leash. Reward him for eliminating.  

Do not go for a walk or do off leash play until after he has eliminated. If you do play or walk first, you are teaching him to ring the bell for walks rather than for a potty trip.

Stage 3: Bells are Only for Outside

When your dog rings the bell on his own – take him out. No matter how tired, busy, or occupied you are (… just kidding…kind of… use your judgement but we do want a high correlation between bells ringing and a trip outside).

You may soon notice your dog is ringing the bell a lot. If you are sure some of these are unnecessary, pick up the bells for an hour or two and then put them out again.  When the bell ringing happens, take him out to potty and then come back in – if he wants to sniff around you will only give him a minute or so before coming back inside.

Problem Solving:

• My dog is ringing the bell all the time:  See the above notes on Stage 3. Bell ringing will result in only on leash, short, trips outside and not walks or other fun.  You can pick up the bells to prevent unnecessary ringing.  

• • • If we do not take him out, we will either teach him the bells have no meaning and he may stop using them altogether  OR we may build persistence so your dog learns to ring for a really long, loud time.

• My dog won’t go ring the bells:

• • • He may not understand he can do bell ringing far away from you. Start close to the bells and do a session like in the video in Stage 2.  Gradually move further away up to the distance you need in your house.
    • He may  not want to go out. He may think it is too cold, wet, scary, or unpleasant outdoors. We need to increase the reward value for outdoor elimination and restrict indoor elimination opportunities.
    • He may not have connected the bells with potty trips outside. Give this a little more time and then check in again.

• My dog is scared of the bells:  

• • We can do training to teach your dog to be comfortable with the sound.  You can sit on the floor and cover the bells with a towel to muffle the sound. Ring them quietly then toss a treat across the room to your dog.  By following the ring with the the treat we should see your dog get more comfortable. Over time you can decrease the towel layers.You may need a few sessions at each stage.
    • Note that it may be easier to find a different type of signal!