# Please stop the bells!!!!!



## MonaLisa (Dec 4, 2013)

I have a 5 math old spoo. I have had her now for 4 weeks. We put her in the create which she is totally trained for all night. We have been doing the bells on the back door and she has done great in letting us know when she needs to potty and when she just wants to go outside which is more then the pottying. My question is how to get her to only ring the bells when she needs to potty? And then also how to go longer during the day so we aren't running to the door every 30 min? She will sometimes potty and then 30 min later go out and potty again. We try to play with her and all buts like having a 2 yr old that we can't do anything besides play with her or she'll go ring the bells!!!! We put her in the create during the day sometimes just to make it stop. Any ideas or what to do or undo?


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## Angl (Nov 9, 2012)

I feel your pain. I sometimes just take the bells off the door to make Maddie stop. She pounds the bells with such force and it's a metal door to make things even worse. Now that she's completely housebroken, I think I'm just going to remove the bells.


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## MonaLisa (Dec 4, 2013)

So how long until she is completely housebroken? She has it but if we don't let her out then we have had a couple times that she will wet in the floor. 


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## Angl (Nov 9, 2012)

6 months and she was extremely reliable. No accidents after probably 4 months for her.


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## MonaLisa (Dec 4, 2013)

She was crate trained when we got her a 4 mths but not housebroken. She is doing well but we found a couple times that if she rang the bells and we didn't respond we found a spot. In the last 2 weeks which means after just 2 weeks of working with her she has done that twice. She just still doesn't hold it for long sometimes. Unless she is playing us and she knows she pees a little and she gets to be outside. Humm!! Lol


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## BeckyM (Nov 22, 2013)

I used to have a poodle mix that I trained to a bell on the door (and I plan to use the bell with my spoo pup). It did get annoying sometimes when she'd ring the bell a lot but I found it really helped if the bell ring meant potty not play. If she rang the bell, I'd take her out to potty but right back inside again. 
If I was taking her out for playtime or training, I wouldn't let the bell ring. That really helped.


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## Angl (Nov 9, 2012)

And I was just thinking, the bells do warn the squirrels outside "WATCH OUT, HERE THEY COME!" hahaha


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## Searcher (Aug 7, 2009)

I notice that you've got a lot of different threads listed. First, I think you're expecting too much too soon from your spoo & yourself. You've only had her for 4 weeks & she is only 5 months old. Decide what are your most important issues & work on those. Reward behavior that you want & ignore behavior that you don't. Ex-pens are helpful for when you can't watch her. Manage her so she isn't allowed to make mistakes. It will take time for her to know the rules & what you expect. For bathroom issues, I always go outside if they indicate the need to go. Better to go our too much than too little. If she wants to go out & doesn't do anything, take her back inside & put her in the crate for 15 minutes & then take her out again. Be very matter of fact about it & then really really reward when she goes.


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## LibertyH (Jun 9, 2013)

We intentionslly go out the front door to play (even if we are headed to the back yard) and the back door to potty. I can tell by which door the pup is whining st, whether she really needs to go.


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## Chells_Aura (Dec 7, 2012)

LibertyH said:


> We intentionslly go out the front door to play (even if we are headed to the back yard) and the back door to potty. I can tell by which door the pup is whining st, whether she really needs to go.


SMART! I wish I'd done that!

And MonaLisa... it might be hard to do if you live somewhere wintry and freezing right now... but how we broke Chell of that habit was if she rang the bells we took her out on a leash. If she peed she was let free to play, if she didn't we brought her back inside. At first we'd have to go out over and over and over and over just to iterate that bells mean PEE NOT PLAY! And eventually she decided she didn't like the bells and stole them: 

MVI_1143_zpsfca1672b.mp4 Video by mikor | Photobucket

Now she just barks once and comes and sits in front of us to be let out... my bigger concern is that she sits in the freezing cold outside waiting to be let in - doesn't bark or anything... so when she is outside I have to go check on her every 2-5 minutes! (we're installing an outdoor doggy doorbell! Hopefully that will help )


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

You can try taking the bells away and use the "umbilical cord" method for housebreaking. When she isn't in her crate she is on leash and tethered to an adult or older responsible child. As soon as she acts like she needs to go out, take her out. 

You should also put pottying on command. I have written how to do that in a couple of other threads (one of which might be yours MonaLisa) so you should have no problem finding information on how to do that. Potty on command is incredibly useful in so many ways you will be glad you did it. For example we took Lily and Peeves for their annual vet checks this morning, so we needed to bring stool samples. It was very cold this morning, so even if I had wanted to take from what they did last night I couldn't have because it was frozen to the ground. I went out with each of them one at a time with labeled poo bags in hand and gave the "do two" command and had nice fresh specimens for each of them in just a minute or two.


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