Training puppy to ask to go potty using bell...

So far Mozart got the part ring bell means out for potty no play cuz I've been allowing him only 5 min every potty trip. He does only ring when he needs out but the problems is at times he forget to ring bell....:uhoh:
 
Regardless of whether you use a bell, or the "stare" (or in some cases, its a shriller bark than usual...means dog is desperate, btw!) the house-training process is still the same.

Outside first thing in the morning and last thing at night. About 5 minutes after meals, and even after treats if your are doing other training and giving lots. Beyond that crate your pup when you can't watch him, or tie his leash to your belt. Don't turn your back! That's when they always do it.

Also, outside anytime you bring him out of the crate. Beyond that, if he's loose and you are home, at least once per hour.

If you catch him in the act, scoop him up and hope that he finishes outside (and since you are using the bell, ring the bell on the way out).

And of course, praise and treats everytime pup does his business outside.

The good news is it usually doesn't take long for them to catch on. I think I only had a couple of weeks of accidents with Bacca, and most of them my fault because I was not watching.
 
Has anyone tried training their shelties to ring bell to ask to go out to potty? I don't have a pet door installed in my house (can't have one either cuz we live by the woods and are concerned that wild animals may sneak in) I've been training Mozart to ring the bell whenever we go out to potty but he shows no interest in the bell at all. Is there something else I can do to get him to catch on that the bell is the signal for going out to potty?

I clicker trained Jesse to respond to commands like sit, down, crate and so forth. Once he had the concept of what the clicker was for, I took his paw in my hand and hit the bell and clicked.

After a few times, he realized that I wanted him to hit the bell. When he did I clicked him. Once he had that down, I opened the door every time he hit the bell. He made the connection, and I never had to click him again.

Sometimes, he still prefers to "talk" to me with a small whine when he wants to go out. I simply tell him to go ring the bell, and once he does, I open the door.

He knows. He's just lazy sometimes.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions and sharing your experiences. As many of you have suggested, I've kept Mozart on a strict potty schedule and it's been over a month since I've been working on getting him house trained. Most of the time he is pretty good at going to the door and tap the bell to go out. He usually taps really gently so unless I'm watching him or someone is sitting in the den by the door no one would've heard him. I've thought of using clicker training on him but with so many people in the house (5 adults and 3 kids), it quite hard to lay down an exactly identical training procedure with everyone.
Mozart loves to sneak off upstairs, I'm just a bit concerned if he is still accident prone then I can't really let him out of sight yet. Since the beginning of the new year, he had only 2-3 accidents in the house per week, yet sometimes he can even stay indoors for 2-3 hrs and stays accident free for the entire day. He is 14 weeks old now, should he be mostly accident free or still needs to be watched at all times?
 
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Jesse has that great sheltie stare too. How I wish he could actually tell me what's on his mind!! Anyway..I have a bell but he's scared of it. No way is going near that bell...so I hung it on an area by the door where he has made many scratches in the gyproc. It keeps him from damaging it anymore.
As to asking to go out, he stands at the dog looking out and stays there until I notice him. At this age he can hold it for a while.
When he was younger, I was the one who was well trained to know his bathroom patterns and took him out.
 
I can't believe that I'm going to say this, but I think its actually better to NOT train your dog with the bells. It just encourages them to trapse in and out when they feel like it.

I know when my dogs REALLY need to go out because they plant themselves in front of me and yelp.

But most times they are just regular and I let them out after eating....no yelping required. And therefore low maintenance. You eat, you poop. We're done! Any other requests to go outside is game playing.
 
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