# Housebreaking older (small) dog



## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

I was going to post this about housebreaking my Havanese (Louis, he is 2 years old) in the "Other Animals" thread, but I felt housebreaking is universal with dogs so posted it here.

*I finally bell trained him to ring the bell when he has to go.
*
I trained Leroy (standard poodle) starting at 12 weeks. Before opening the door, I'd ring the bells in his face or get him to nudge the bells with his nose. Opened door, when he peed (used a cue word like "go potty"), gave him a treat. Sounded really excited. I just kept doing this till one day, maybe 2 weeks later, he magically picked up the fact he needed to ring the bell when he had to pee. This fast turnaround happens with puppies and very intelligent breeds. This was the "easy" version, the dog just "gets" it.

I tried the easy version with Louis. For 3 months I'd ring the bell before opening the door. Obviously he didn't understand cause he would pee on the carpet when I wasn't paying attention.

So I had to increase the intensity of training. I tried luring him with a treat towards the hanging bells. He didn't get it. So I broke it down into steps:

*Step 1*: target the bells. I held the bells near him. The bells had peanut butter smeared on it. I had a higher value treat in my hand. When he made a move to sniff the bells, he got a treat. Eventually he'd lick the bells and he got a treat. He learned if he kept touching the bells with a nose = treat.

*Step 2*: move the bells a little further away. Repeat step 1.

*Step 3*: hang the bells on the door. Repeat step one. He should be used to walking up to the bells on the door and hitting with his nose.

*Step 4*: when he hits the bells that are hanging on the door, open the door and throw a treat outside. Keep doing this so that he understands that now ringing the bell = open door outside = treat

*Step 5*: repeat Step 4 but move further away from the door. He should get used to walking up to the bells at greater distances away from you and the door. I did this till I was sitting in the living room and he was alerting me. It's important not to cue the dog to ring the bells. He needs to do this independent from you. So I ignored my dog till he hit the bells. Open the door, walk out, give a treat.

*Step 6*: it gets tricky here cause after successfully completely Step 5, the dog will keep ringing the bells just for the treat. I let Louis keep ringing the bells every minute to reinforce the fact the door opens and he gets a treat outside, but you want to phase this out. Now bell ringing = open door to outside + peeing/pooping = treat. To set my dog up for success, I only allowed him to ring the bells when I KNEW he had to pee. So I had to crate him or leash him to me cause all he wanted to do was ring those dang bells. The first time he was confused when he didn't get the treat right away outside. I guided him with the cue word "go potty" (he already knows that command), and he peed right away and got the treat!

So far we are practicing Step 6. Instead of shuffling him outside immediately after eating, sleeping, playing, I let him tell me he has to go out with the bells. Of course I still have to watch him to see if he'll ring the bells cause you want to react immediately to his cue. He still sniffs the carpet like he wants to pee inside, but he knows I'm watching so he rings the bells instead.

*Step 7* will be him ringing the bells on his own when I'm not watching or in a different room.


I am very proud of my little guy because small dogs have been notorious for being hard to housebreak, on top of him being an older dog, and a fearful one at that. I had another thread of him where he shut down with traditional clicker training - but approaching him in a different (still positive) way, I've managed to teach him sit, shake, and to ring the bells for pottying. He also hated the dog park, but with careful exposure with treats, he had a very good day yesterday where he actually enjoyed himself, did not drool one bit (I didn't have to wipe his mouth at all! he excessively drools when nervous), AND he drank water! (he will refuse water because he is so nervous). I am very optimistic that he will only get better!


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## Poodlemama99 (Feb 12, 2010)

awesome. congrats.


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