Roxie arrives at the Fox home in under two weeks. We are told she’s progressing nicely already tipping the scales at three pounds.
Already doggie accouterments are arriving. Stef has gotten toys and bowls and a Barbie placemat (please–don’t ask) plus a ‘crate’ large enough for a family of Roxies! I was thinking of putting in a loft and closets… but I digress.
All our friends and family, knowing the dog is coming but not when, have been quizzing us and in some cases giving us advice. Sunday evening, at Cathy and Steve’s, I was told about ‘bell training.’
“The dog was totally trained over a weekend,” was Cathy’s claim!
This is not exactly potty training. Cathy was talking about training their dog Yankee to signal when he wanted to go outside.
She hung some small ‘jingle bells’ from the door knob. Then, when it was time for Yankee to go out, she jingled the bells before leaving the house. Cathy started this on Friday.
By Sunday a strange thing happened. While watching TV bells began to ring! Sure enough Yankee wanted to go out.
After hearing this story I went to Google and found this is a fairly common behavior to teach a dog. Stefanie finds it hysterical, but we plan on giving it a try.
When you think about all of this in the abstract isn’t this the dog teaching you?
If you have any experience with this will you leave a comment or drop me an email, please?
I’ve had plenty of experience. The dog will do roughtly $10k worth of damage to your furniture and hardwoods no matter what you do. Instead of a bell I bought a lot of Sapphire Bombay and tonic. I’d advise putting in a Lime tree but I guess that won’t work in CT.
My wife’s family trained their Maltese to ring a bell when she wanted to go out. She says it was very easy and effective.
We simply installed a double-flap doggie door through the wall in the kitchen area. Pushed the dogs through it a couple times, then the oldest one caught on, and led the pack (three) through it. No bells, no problems.
Consider ‘crate training’ to housebreak the puppy. It’s controversial in some quarters, but it works 100% in my experience. All my dogs are crate trained, and they like having a secure space to sleep in–even when the door is open. Makes traveling a LOT easier also.
In any case, TRAIN the doggie–it makes life a lot easier when you can control the dog instead of the other way around.
I received a few doggie door emails too. We are in a low density area, but this pup will be so small (even full grown) she’d be the perfect appetizer for any local varmint.
I’ve had great success with crate training and the dogs view their crates as “their place”. I had a problem with a big crate/little dog and doggie would use 1/2 the crate as his “place for business”.. We made the crate smaller with a separation and took him out more frequently and he “got it”.
Amen to Evi’s comment–if the crate you put the pup in is too large, you MUST put in a separation piece to make the available area just big enough to turn around and lie down in. That prevents the pup from taking a dump in the rest of the area. This plays to the dog’s insticts–they will typically not defecate where they bed down (unless they are really sick or desparate). For a pup, remember that they can’t hold it for long, so frequent trips out of the crate (day and night) to the area (usually outside) they may defecate in are vital.
When the dog gets fully trained, you can give them more room in the crate. I’ve seen pups pick up on it as fast as a few weeks, but it depends upon the dog.