5 Easy Steps To Potty Train Your Puppy Using a Bell

1
Hang a bell on the door leading to the outside of your house. Using a hook or tack, hang it on the door jam closest to the opening side and low enough for your puppy to reach with his paw and nose. Bells can also be hung from the doorknob using a shoelace or string.

Show your puppy the bells as soon as you hang them. Familiarize him with the bells by holding out some treats next to the bells and ringing them at the same time.

2

Every time you take your puppy out, encourage him to ring the bells. Show him the bells every time he goes out the door. Use a command like “Bells!” or “Ring!” to help him associate the bells with being able to go outside and potty. Gently take his paw and touch it to the bell. Shake his paw to make the noise and say your phrase or word. Immediately open the door upon ringing the bell.
Make sure the bells are rung, even if you are doing the ringing.

3
Be consistent. Within a few days, you should hear your puppy ringing the bell and find him sitting patiently by the door.

4
If your puppy doesn’t figure this out, try this alternative method:

• Smear a little cheese (or other treat) onto the bell. If your puppy touches the bell, even if it doesn’t ring at first, immediately give the puppy a tasty treat.
• Repeat so the puppy knows that a treat follows the bell touching, then bell ringing.
• Finally, open the door with the puppy watching, and drop tasty treats on the floor on the other side of the door, so your puppy knows the treats are there.
• Close the door. Encourage the puppy to ring the bell, and then immediately reward the puppy by allowing the puppy to go through the door to eat the treats on the other side. Now your puppy knows how to get you to open the door and take him outside.
  
  

5
Practice makes perfect. Keep the routine consistent. And, be sure to use the same consistent phrase for the cue to go potty (such as “Go potty!”) upon noticing your puppy’s signs of needing to go once he’s outside. After he has finished, praise him with fine words and a treat.

Video

Tips

• Sometimes puppies will ring the bells for fun. It is important that you take your puppy out every time he rings the bells, even if he doesn’t have to go. Eventually the fun will run out and he will know the trick.
• For extra effectiveness, give your puppy a tiny treat as soon as he does his business. This encourages him to go promptly, rather than to sniff every blade of grass for the perfect spot. This also helps in bad weather, when the dog doesn’t need to be out for a long time.
• You can change doors once the puppy understands the purpose of the bell. However, to begin with, consistency matters most, so place the bell on the same door until the puppy is clear about its purpose.
• You can take the bells with you if you and your dog travel and stay at another location. Send the bells with the dog if he stays at another home while you are away. And finally, if you must find a new home for your dog, explaining that your dog is bell trained will make your dog more adoptable. Send the bells with your dog to his new home.
• Once the dog has the bell trick down, put a rug down for the puppy to wipe his feet. Show him how, then give him a treat. He won’t track in dirt.
• If the exterior door is some distance from living areas of the home, have two or more bells. First teach your dog to ring the bell at the exterior door. Then hang bells in the living areas, and encourage your dog to ring that bell to ask to go out. The living area bells can be hung on a chair or closet door knob. This enables your dog to ask to go out wherever he is in the home, and where you can hear the bell. Say the phrase in a happy, excited voice, “Wanna go out? Ring the bell!”
• Buy a Christmas decoration with a flat heavy plastic base and five large bells with a metal hoop that goes over the door knob. This kind of bell is not only safer than a hanging one, but it works well even if the puppy doesn’t catch on to ringing the bell immediately. Your dog may start out by plopping down by the door, and that action will cause the bells to ring.
• Don’t forget to make sure the bells ring and you say bells, every time you take the puppy past them. A suggested phrase might be “Wanna go out? Ring the bell!”

Warnings

• Be careful of how you attach the bells to the door frame. Make sure whatever you use doesn’t protrude too much, or is too sharp.
• Be careful that the string holding the bell is not long enough to reach around your dog’s neck (or around the neck of any cats you have in the house) and that it is secure enough that your dog does not pull it down and eat the bell.

Things You’ll Need

• Bells
• Something to hang bells with (ribbon, pipe cleaners, etc.)
• A temporary hook to hang the bells from
• Treats