Telling us he needs to go outside

[sanford8916]

We have jingle bells on our door handle, Lou Lou already knew to use them when we got her at 4 1/2 month. That is what her first owner taught her. Now our 6 year old dog does it too!

[black and brindle]

I've read about teaching a dog to "touch" (a target) and teaching touching a string of bells to go out. The reason we haven't done it is that our older dog wants to go out - a lot - for other reasons to (eg to chase deer or squirrils that have wandered through the yard) and I'm afraid we'd become a noisy, jingly household if we provide bells. On the other hand we're having the same problem with our puppy, where he mostly goes outside but doesn't know how to ask. We potty him at least every 3 or 4 hours except at night (he goes through the night - yay!) but he's still having rare accidents.

How do you get them to limit their jingling to potty breaks?

[sanford8916]

Lou Lou did ring the bell alot for about a month. But most of the time I could tell if she really needed to go outside or if she justed wanted to go outside. We told her to go lay down or told her no.( I know that that could confuse some dogs though, so I am not sure what to tell you) She only rings it now when she needs to go potty.

[critter crazy]

Our Bloodhound mix, at 4 months learned to scratch the door, to let us know, now at 1 1/2yrs old he still oes this, bu because it is a glass door, mostly he does this because he sees something he wants to chase. Now if he has to realy go out and potty he comes over and licks my arm! He has learned this all on his own, not sure how to go about and teach this.

[lizbud]

My RB dog Buddy would bark & then run to the back door with tail wagging
like crazy. It was perfect for me because I always knew what he wanted.

Next dog Smokey, does not ever bark or stand at the door. he just comes to
stare at me. I tried saying "potty?" to him and then he goes to the door.
Maggie just follows Smokey whenever he goes.

[dukedogsmom]

Duke comes and looks at you. All you have to say is "You want to go potty?" and he gets all excited. I taught him the word potty at an early age.

[lizbud]

Duke comes and looks at you. All you have to say is "You want to go potty?" and he gets all excited. I taught him the word potty at an early age.

I think it's a great idea to use a word, like," potty" or whatever word you
chose to signal the action you want from the dog.When they finish outside
you can say "good potty" & treat them (puppies usually).I think it helps to
use that one word to get the reaction you want from them.I used that same
method that you did Valerie.

[lisahumphreys882]

Duke comes and looks at you. All you have to say is "You want to go potty?" and he gets all excited. I taught him the word potty at an early age.

That's exactly what Benji does. He just stares. I just mouth the word "outside" and he barks and turns in circles. And if I turn around and say the word outside he'll jump at me or paw my leg. Usually he comes and stares first and if I ignore him he'll go and paw at the door. Sometimes if he really wants to go out, he'll paw at any random object that happens to be there. Now it's almost to the point that we can't say "outside" if we're not meaning it for him because he'll here it and come stare and bark.