Bell training your dog

[Labradorks]

I think 7-9 months is long. Both of mine were trained way before that. It can be done with work and patience. I'd never do the bell because it would get eaten.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm talking 100% compliance. No accidents whatsoever, even if dog is home alone uncrated (not necessarily suggested, but it happens). I try to not have expectations or compare to other dogs, even my own, just take it day by day, and to me 7-9 months is worst case scenario, but it's not outside the realm of normal for some dogs. They are all different, but I would say that accidents, unless the dog is sick, after that age would indicate issues with training or health.

[soberbyker]

Not what you asked but I never did it BECAUSE, once my dogs figured out how to ask to go out they asked for more than just potty breaks. Sometimes, still, I can't tell if they really need to potty or if they just want out to smell the roses or roll in the snow.

This was my experience with Zeke, at first. Now I can tell the difference, he paces a little when he needs to go potty, he just stares at me (us) when he wants to just go out and sniff stuff.

As for the op ... how I got Zeke to ring the bells, when it was obvious he needed to go out to potty, I would take his paw and swipe the bells, give him a treat, and then take him out, another treat when he did his business, if he didn't "go" then no second treat. He eventually figured it out. Now he'll just go to the door, no bells, as mentioned, he paces when he really needs to go. I still give him a treat every time he does his thing outside, even if we're already out, haven't had an accident for a very long time.

[Shelley]

I would not expect the dog to be 100% potty trained until he is about 7-9 months old. If he is having multiple accidents, a bell won't help, supervision and taking him out more and making those potty trips all about doing his business will. However, I'm not sure how your breed is with potty training. Maybe ask your breeder? Some breeds are just faster than others and people say the girls are quicker than the boys (not sure if that is true).

I agree, reliably housebroken, with some sort of cue that they need to "go", 6, 7, 8 or 9 months. It really depends on the dog and how well you did housebreaking them. The definition of housebroken is when the puppy has gone 2 full months (60 days) without an accident in the house, my puppies usually have one last whoopsy around 5 months old, which make 7 months about right.

[CraftHer]

Mocha loved the bells. He thought they were loads of fun and quite tasty. We were also moving to a new house during his puppyhood and I wanted to find a way for him to let us know he needs to go without pawing the new doors. DH found the "I gotta go" button on Amazon. We just put the instructions down on the floor so he'd know what do to. https://www.amazon.com/Gotta-Go-Butt...otta+go+button

Seriously, the training is similar to the bells. We would take his paw and hit it every time we took him out. Then he would try to hit it himself and now he knows to hit the button when he wants to go out. Not necessarily when he "needs" to go out. But that would be the case for any signal. Latte isn't taking to the button. We take her out on more of a schedule than waiting for her to "tell" us.