Puppy trained to use doorbell can't get the hang of using a doggie door by himself

[Piper's mom]

Thanks very much. Sounds like we should incorporate tis. He has so many other problems we forget common-sense solutions.

It’s easy to forget...with anything your teaching your dog as they learn you increase your distance from the object. An example is sit stays...you start out right in front of the dog and gradually increase the distance from the dog as they get it. If the dog starts to forget then decrease distance until they understand it again. That’s the fun part about training...understanding how your dog learns and changing up your method for that individual dog.

 

[Caro]

Dog doors are actually hard! It is much easier to teach the dog door if you have another dog to show them.

Usually I start training without the door flap on - so they get used to stepping in and out the door first. You'd be surprised how many dogs don't like going through things (just ask agility people)

I had to switch out the hard dog door flap for a soft plastic until Deska learnt the door, he hated the feeling of the door hitting him (he probably got spooked early on). Even after he learnt he never liked the hard door on his head, so when he got older and arthritic I just put the soft plastic back again.

Kismet learnt to go through the door with food (she is sooo food obsessed). At meal times I put her outside and the bowl inside - at first just in front of the flap so she could just poke her head through to eat and then extended where it was.

 

[Watson's Mom]

Family’s Mom- was he ever annoying with the bells? I considered teaching Roxy bells. She’s on a schedule and if she has to go of schedule she states and will sometimes bark.

Buuut- she’s not like Watson was. He was a house cat through and through. But Roxy wants to be outside as much as possible and will sometimes feign having an immediate need to do her business just to go outside.

With Piper now, I considered the bell thing again. But she’s already proving to be miss monkey see monkey do, and I’m back to wondering about the bells becoming a nuisance, especially since she is also appearing to be quite content outside.

Neither of them go out unaccompanied. We haven’t had much yet to see, but Roxy could not care less about standing out in the rain. I think she was born to be a farm dog really.