# Has your dog done this?



## blueroan (Dec 28, 2015)

Hi,

So Honey apparently picked a different way of letting us know she needs to go outside than what we trained her for. When we were housebreaking, we put her by the door, told her we were going outside to pee, then took her out, exactly what we did with the last dog. He caught on, she didn't.

Months later, she still hadn't ever gone to the door to signal she needs to go out. We kept trying though, but then started to notice something. Honey would come up to us on occasion and stand up to claw at our legs. Not asking for a pick up, but wanting to get our attention immediately. After a few accidents when we ignored this behaviour, we finally figured out that she WAS telling us she needed to go. But she never went to the door. Ever. 

Well, at least she IS telling us when she needs to go out. She just decided herself how she wanted to tell us, nevermind what we tried to train her to do lol. 

Now I'm wondering, has your dog done something similar? Chosen a method or cue or something else for a behaviour you were trying to train?


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Kudos to you for picking up what Honey was communicating. She's lucky to have an owner who understands that training goes both ways. And yes, all of my dogs have found their own ways to communicate with me when they want something. Sometimes it's very clear action, but sometimes it's something very subtle and I'll just know that they want xxxx, whatever it happens to be.


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## Viking Queen (Nov 12, 2014)

Poppy runs through the house like her tail is on fire and THROWS herself at the door, bouncing back into the room... she does not make a sound.

Kind of subtle, huh? 

Ummmm, I did not teach her this, she thought of it herself.:angel:

We have been working on it.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Buck does the "snooze alarm pawing" as someone on PF called it to get my attention. It might be to go out for potty or play. Typical poodle move. I consider the timing and our schedule, because Buck is prone to exaggeration. I had a string of bells that I retired to the other side of the doorknob due to his bell abuse. Somehow they got caught in the door and he was ringing away as soon as he saw them.

Since Honey, has had a mistake or two, I would praise and treat happily if the "snooze alarm" is your cue.


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## Coldbrew (Jun 17, 2015)

we tried bells, but i hated the sound after a while and they were always getting caught in the door. since i didn't train an alternate behavior (at that point they were going out frequently enough that they never had to ask to go out) they've both defaulted to just barking. Usually it's at me, but if i ignore them (bc sometimes they just want attention or for me to put my phones down) and they REALLY have to go they'll stand by the door and bark or bark at my partner.


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

We've given Monty a bell because his cue seems to have been to lie in front of the door with his nose glued to the frame. Problem is that our door is sunk in to the floor so he'd be at the bottom of three steps and not visible to us. I'm hoping we'll be able to find a good balance with the bell. But we aren't there yet!


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Molly has several ways to let me know when she has an 'unscheduled' need.........one is to just go to the door, another is stand in front of me and bark once and run to the door and if I'm not paying attention she'll come back, bark, paw my leg, and run to the door again.....last year when I had a large box of poop bags conveniently sitting next to the door, she would paw at the box to let me know and of course when she was a pup she was bell trained ..........we more or less have a schedule now,we go on 'potty walks' and when it is 'time', Molly goes to my scooter and sits on it to remind me!


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## rj16 (Jan 30, 2017)

MollyMuiMa said:


> Molly has several ways to let me know when she has an 'unscheduled' need.........one is to just go to the door, another is stand in front of me and bark once and run to the door and if I'm not paying attention she'll come back, bark, paw my leg, and run to the door again.....last year when I had a large box of poop bags conveniently sitting next to the door, she would paw at the box to let me know and of course when she was a pup she was bell trained ..........we more or less have a schedule now,we go on 'potty walks' and when it is 'time', Molly goes to my scooter and sits on it to remind me!


Did you do anything in particular to move from the bell to a schedule?


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

My daughter's Airedale was the best pup at teaching us we weren't quite as smart as we thought we were... the first thing she learned was a beautiful "sit", but she refused to assume that position anywhere but directly in front of us. So a heeling "sit" was not in her repertoire. Of course, we knew we were guilty of calling her to us and telling her to "sit" for a big reward. We got that one straightened out, then came her recall. She had a wonderful, deer leaping recall, straight to my daughter every time she called her. When I called Miss Airedale, she had a wonderful recall front and center, right in front of my daughter. Again, we realized that the word "come" meant two different things to the dog and us. She demonstrated perfectly that dogs are always learning, but they may not be learning what you are trying to teach.


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## MainelyPoodles (Jan 16, 2017)

I got bells in attempt to train Milo to ring the bells when he needed to go outside for potty...however I never needed them. It was not very long after he was potty trained he would sit on a certain rug (mostly because he can see into either the kitchen or living room, wherever I am) and bark. He will start with a low bark and if I am not paying attention he will just do a loud high bark...Milo is VERY vocal.

He will do this sometimes just when he wants to go outside, he loves being out. If he has just gone potty sometimes I will say "no outside" and he will usually get on the couch and lay down. But if he really needs to go out he will just keep staring me down and barking. I tell him he is very demanding sometimes 

So I agree, I think our poodles can choose their own ways of communicating and we have to be aware of that


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

rj16 said:


> Did you do anything in particular to move from the bell to a schedule?


I removed the bells because she was signaling to just go outside for nothing! I just started taking her out every 2 hours and everytime I opened the door I would say "Go potty", open the door and go outside, then when she did potty, she got got a "GOOD POTTY!" and lots of attention plus a treat. Molly was already 16 weeks old when I got her so she picked things up very easily. As she got older the time between trips got longer and now at 5 yrs olds she is quite able to 'hold it' for several hours if need be!


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