Asking to go out

KeeperBoy · 04-01-2010, 02:29 PM

Boo asks to go out to potty (or to play, or sniff the grass, or see the neighbors...). She goes to the front door, rings her potty bells and the message is clear. Sweet Keepers on the other paw, runs like crazy in the house when he needs to potty. We then have to catch him, fast, get his collar on and get him out before he pees on the floor. We do our best to let him out before he "needs" to go, but sometimes he has more water than we realize and does his crazy run around routine. I noticed this week we have three or four spots on the carpet now from this ritual, I was pretty bummed out. Anywho, we never trained Boo to ask, she just does. We didn't even "train" her on the bells the way they say to, she just does it. So how the heck can I get Keepers to "ask"? I've tried ringing the bells for him before we go out, but he hasn't caught on. It makes me laugh because he is so quick with the agility stuff, and yet we can't master basic potty training. Thanks!

Spyglass Sally · 04-01-2010, 02:47 PM

You got me! Buddy's habits are similarly frustrating. He normally stands at the top of the stairs (leading down to where he goes out) and whines. But if he has to go really badly he walks around and whines - which is easy to confuse with "I wish someone would play with me." So yesterday he's walking around whining and since we were just out with him at the beach an hour before, we ignored him. Next thing you know there's a squiggly wet line from my chair to the top of the stairs. He's looking at me like "I tried to tell you!" He'd only been out an hour before, but he must have drank a lot of water on the beach. Guess that's why we have a floor steamer. :0

Doreen · 04-01-2010, 03:25 PM

I don't know, I just taught Rex to ring the bells just as I did my other dogs and they picked it up right away. I would ring the bells, then let them out... they just learned. Coco just does whatever she wants... there is no teaching this dog anything she doesn't want to learn. She whines for everything... when she wants to go out, or she is bored or wants a treat, but for a treat she will at least whine then give me her paw, LOL.

AussieGirl · 04-01-2010, 10:34 PM

Does Keepers know "touch"? If so when you are going to take them out get HIM to "touch" the bell and then open the door straight away and lots of praise you know the rest lol. If he doesn't know "touch" we taught Ruby by holding a treat in our closed hand and holding it out to her and letting her sniff, she would then paw our hand to try to get it and we would say "touch" give her the treat and lots of praise. Then we stepped it up a little and would hold our closed hand with treat in it under a book (so she could still smell the treat but associate "touch" with things other than our hand) and follow same method. After she got "touch" with the book we then would put our hand behind the bell (at that point we didn't even need a treat in it lol) and say "touch" and when she did let her out straight away and give treat lots of praise. The bell didn't last long in our house cause my youngest skin kid was constantly playing with it

so she learnt to open the door herself or if the glass door is shut she will sit on the mat and bark once........but she figured that one out herself lol.