Ringing the Bell to go in and out safety tip.

[Baylee]

Our dog does this I just changed the rope on his bell because of what happened to my neighbors dog. I was using a necklace style lanyard. I guess my neighbor did something similar and it went well for a long time until one day the dog got his paw caught in between the strands and could not get it out. The dog has been terrified of bells since. So if you use bell for in and out change to a one strand hanger for safety and to avoid possibly losing this valuable communication tool.

[PopTop]

Very good hint.
We started one Christmas season and used the large bells on a leather strap sold during that time of year. One thing I did check was how they were "hitting" the bells and that the slots in them were not big enough for a toe nail to get caught. We found with the strap that they were rarely touching the bells directly, but the wide leather strap.

Good heads up. Thanks for posting.

[OliverNW]

I don't know if this is safer, but...
We use one of the bells that sits on a counter that you ring for service or that some restaurants have in the kitchen to ring when an order is up. We thought he would use his nose to push the little button on top to ring the bell, but no... he smashes down on it with his paw. It's pretty darn cute.

[gkazimir]

May I ask where you found that? Do you keep it on the ground for him to step on, or is it mounted? I was wondering what kind of bell to use for safety and audibility if we try this...

[marley&me]

Marley rings the bells too, but we use poochie bells. They are made just for this type of thing. A little more expensive than just a homemade version but it works for us. Plus, the ribbon comes in all different colors, designs, so we have them on both our doors and you can coordinate to your room if you want. The website is www.poochiebells.com, you can buy them there or they list the stores that they're sold in as well. We even put them in our bedroom when she sleeps up there with us, so if she gets up during the night and needs to go outside, she can ring the bells to wake us up and let us know. We love them We taught her to use her nose to hit them instead of her paw though.

[OliverNW]

Originally Posted by gkazimir

May I ask where you found that? Do you keep it on the ground for him to step on, or is it mounted? I was wondering what kind of bell to use for safety and audibility if we try this...

I got the "call bell" at office depot:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...and-Call-Bell/

I leave it on the floor by the door. Occasionally when he hits it the bell slides around, but I jus kick it back into place. There were a couple weeks where Oliver thought it would be fun to play with and tried picking it up in his mouth, but you can hear when this is happenning and take it away. He now knows that it's not a toy and only bangs it to go out.

I don't know if this is particularly safe -he's never had access to it unsupervised. We crate him when we're gone and when we're home it's easy to hear if he's messing with it.