Bell Training For House Breaking

[Guest Jspahr]

We have had our greyhound, Dash, for 2 months. This our first greyhound, but not the first dog my girlfriend and I have ever lived with/owned.

 

About 5 weeks ago I started to bell train Dash so she would ring a bell whenever she needed to go outside and relieve herself. She has not caught on at all. I find this surprising because she has learned a number of other things quite well. She sits and waits until she is released before eating. She knows to go to her crate at bed time. She's even almost completely recall trained ( at the dog park if she sees us and we call her over she will come - Every time. If we use a whistle to get her attention she will come more than 90% of the time. And no, we have no plans to ever let her off lease in an unenclosed area. )

 

Bell training started with a bell on a ribbon near the door. I would ring it every time I took her out to relieve herself. I would not ring it if we were going on a walk. After a couple weeks there was no progress, so we switched to a floor bell ( tell bell brand ) and held her paw and made her ring it every time she went out. She has no interest in ringing the bell, and sometimes she just does not want to.

 

We live in Brooklyn, NYC. So there is only one door in and out of the apartment - and we go outside several times a day. I'm thinking there may be confusion as to the difference between a bathroom break and a walk. Walks usually result in some sort of elimination (liquid or solid) - but it is not the main purpose of the walk, and the eliminations are small and don't occur in the beginning of the walk. I'm wondering if i should just ring the bell every time she goes outside.

 

I also find it interesting that if i leave the apartment door open, she will leave the apartment, walk down a long flight of stairs and wait but the building's front door if she needs to go out. ( Don't worry, there are only 2 apartments in the building and the other apartment is occupied by a good friend of ours - who Dash knows)

 

Has anyone had any success bell training their greyhound? My last dog, a Brittany, was bell trained in a couple weeks.

[sdisto]

I have bells hanging on the door handle and some of my fosters have taught me to let them out when they ring the bells, but none have ever been trained. The same is true of my boys - one will ring the bell to go out and the other two will simply sit and hope that I will read their minds and let them out.

 

Through the years I've learned that's the joy of the greyhound brain: if they don't want to do something they're not going to do it!

 

Good luck, one day Dash may decide to humor you. And then again, maybe not.

[Guest SusanP]

One of my 4 (Wizard) caught on to it with gusto years ago when we first got the dogs. Trouble was, he was so taken with the idea of ringing bells and going out, coming in, ringing bells, going out that he was ringing them constantly. We finally gave up and removed the bells. All our guys either waited until I let them our or came to me restlessly when they needed to go out anyway. So for us, the bells became just a funny memory.

[beledi]

Try putting peanut butter or rub some hot dog on the bell. When the dog licks it, give a cue such as go potty and take the dog out to eliminate and then reward. Sometimes they make a game if they want to go out, so beware. Samlur usually goes to the baby gate, close to the back door, and turns around and stares at me. If I do not see or get the hint fast enough, he then takes down the hand towel, off the fridge door handle, and starts tossing it around in the kitchen and then my Border Collie and he play tug of war. I usualy have the hint by that time.

[NeylasMom]

Here's what I would do - in 2 parts.

 

Part One:

If you haven't already, start teaching a "go potty" command. This will be useful when you get her ringing the bells (part 2). Do this by anticipating when she is about to pee and saying your command right as she starts, then rewarding immediately after she finishes each time. Do this every time she goes. I use a separate command for pooping ("go poop"), but that's probably not necessary. If you think you might want a separate command in teh future but don't want to worry about it now, then just insert the cue before she pees. If you don't care, insert the cue before she does any sort of bathroom behavior.

 

Part Two:

Teach her to ring the bell. Using a clicker will probably speed this part along dramatically, but if you aren't comfortable using a clicker, just feed immediately where I say click and treat. Remember to use really high value treats (stuff she doesn't get at any other time and to keep sessions short - better to err on the side of too short than too long).

 

I would start with a simple targeting exercise. Decide ahead of time if you want to use your hand for this whole process, or an actual target of some sort (you can buy them online, but you can also make your own out of almost anything, like a ball or a circle the diameter of a tennis ball cut out of a paper plate glued onto the end of the ruler - get creative, a brightly colored object might help). Hold the target (or your hand) out in front of your dog. As soon as she touches her nose to it, click and treat. Repeat until she's doing this reliably, then insert the cue right as she's about to do it - "target" or "touch" are popular ones. When she seems to get the cue, start varying the location of the target, iwth increasing difficulty. Then start standing farther away from her and asking her to target so that she has to walk to you to touch the target. When she has this done pat, hold your hand or the target next to the bells hanging from the door and ask her to target so that when she does, the bells ring. When she's got this, have her ring the bells, then take her straight outside and tell her to go potty. Reward and come back inside and end your session for the day. THen just repeat that over time until she associates ringing the bells with going outside to potty. If she ever rings the bells on her own, run, don't walk to get her outside and praise effusively when she potties.

 

Oh, before moving onto the bells, I would make sure some of the target training is done on lead so that doesn't throw her off when you introduce the bells.

 

Let me know if this works. I've never actually done it, it's just how I would teach it.

 

Try putting peanut butter or rub some hot dog on the bell. When the dog licks it, give a cue such as go potty and take the dog out to eliminate and then reward. Sometimes they make a game if they want to go out, so beware. Samlur usually goes to the baby gate, close to the back door, and turns around and stares at me. If I do not see or get the hint fast enough, he then takes down the hand towel, off the fridge door handle, and starts tossing it around in the kitchen and then my Border Collie and he play tug of war. I usualy have the hint by that time.

Or just use PB. Seems much easier, as long as you don't mind your dog licking the bells to get them to ring.

 

To my own credit though, targeting is a really useful training tool.

[cleptogrey]

neyla's mom has described what i have done in the past. the biggest difference is that you are in an apartment, right??? if so, that means you need to go out to the street,it's down the hall, down the stairs or elevator and then out for your pup to understand that ringing the bell means going out. out is not just letting the pup into the yard. when i walk my dogs, be it a bathroom break or a walk they ALWAYS pee, so be prepared to walk and reward your dog.

 

i target w/ all of my dogs and use the command touch w/ the peanut butter loaded bells(nursery school jingle bells on a string on the door knob). after they touch the bell, more peanut butter reward and i use the word "OUT" and out we go.then i quickly bring the pup in and target the bells again and out they go, in again repeating it at least 6 times rapidly. it should take you less than 5 minutes to do all of this. now getting your dog all the way out will be the next installment in teaching, you do have your leash hanging near the door right? just hook the leash up, slip your shoes(which are also waiting)on and out you go.

 

felix has become so proficent at ringing bells that he will ring them for a meal, ring them so d.h. puts the quilt on the couch and just about anything he wants. he rings and goes to the item he wants, nudges it and rings again and returns to the item until we understand. watch out

[jetcitywoman]

 

felix has become so proficent at ringing bells that he will ring them for a meal, ring them so d.h. puts the quilt on the couch and just about anything he wants. he rings and goes to the item he wants, nudges it and rings again and returns to the item until we understand. watch out

 

Lol. So he's one step short of having bell pulls for the servants, huh?

[cleptogrey]

yup, that's my felix. but he does work for his food, behaves well,catches a ball no matter what, keeps us laughing all the time and is there in a sec when ever you need something to put a smile on your face. hard work staying awake all those hrs to keep us happy!!! d.h. is really a sucker for dogs, he has been trained by the bell as well!

[Guest Sunset123]

I found that Arrisa doesn't like to ask to go out to relieve herself. She's totally housebroken, but she just seems to prefer to have a routine. She knows by what time it is and my verbal cues when she's supposed to have a "full" pee and poop and when we're going on a walk and she can take her little marking pees.

 

Maybe you can bring Dash to a very specific place every time or use a different leash than the one you use for walks.