How to teach puppy to go to the door when he needs to go out

This article will show you how to train a puppy to go to the door when he needs to go outside to relieve himself.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a bell, preferably a jingle-bell
• string
• a free weekend

1. tie a jingle bell (or other suitable bell) to a string, and then tie that to the doorknob of the door you want your puppy to use. Bell should be low enough to the ground that puppy can hit it easily with his paw.

2. EVERY time you take you puppy out to relieve himself, lift his little paw and make him hit the bell. You physically hold his paw to do this. Take puppy out a lot, once every 2 hours at least. Open door IMMEDIATLY after he hit the bell and take him out.

3. WATCH carefully; ABSOLUTELY ANY TIME he hits the bell, even on accident, with any part of his body, take him out.

4. After a few days of this, start trying to ease up on the physical prompts to ring the bell. Try just pointing to the bell, or raising his paw towards the bell and letting him finish.

5. The bell serves as an attention-getter for the dog. Most puppies will figure the "ring the bell, go outside" thing out fairly quickly. You can leave the bell there, if you choose, but I found that once my dog consistently rang the bell I was able to remove the bell and he still went to the door. At that point you'll have to be sure to immediately let him out when he goes to the door so he makes the "door=outside" connection.

Tips & Warnings

• I've only done this with puppies, but if you have a smart but older dog it will work. Given how cheap a bell and some string is, it's worth a shot!
• Try to avoid allowing any accidents during this training time. Ideally, ALL doggie peeing and pooping should happen outside, after hearing that bell.

[Elizabethknows]

on 6/10/2008 great idea. Can this work with a older dog? Let me know thanks.

[amandals20]

on 1/27/2008 The bell is a great idea!