[silleb]

Has anyone had success training an older dog to ring a bell when they want to go outside?

Ben is almost three and fully housebroken. When he wants to go outside he just sits silently at the back door. Problem is this door is in the kitchen and we aren't always in there. So he will just sit there until we clue in or he will waltz back to where we are.

What is a good method to train him?

 

[Brien]

We've experienced good results using a bell with Bodie. He'll either sit by the door waiting for someone to let him out, bark a few times or ring the bell. For us I don't know if we need the bell anymore. But when he was a puppy it was a nice way of him letting us know when he wanted to go out.

At the same time, there are instances where a dog will abuse the bell to go outside and fart around. But with your dog being 3 I doubt he'll do that. So I say give it a shot and see how it goes. Training him to ring it will be a breeze too.

 

[silleb]

I could totally see him abusing the bell to go fart around outside.

He loves to just go out there and eat grass, lay in the sun, or chase birds and rabbits.

 

[fauxpasta]

Maybe you can say outside or whatever your going outside to potty command is, then ring the bell with your hand where he can see it. Beagles are smart enough to make the connection after a while, and Ben will probably start ringing the bell as soon as the word and the bell ringing are associated.

 

[FlaggerBeagle]

We trained Marley to ring the bell simply by ringing it every time she went out to pee. She did really well for the first 18 months and only rang the bell to pee or poop. Of course she gets distracted by all the critters in the yard, but she didn't abuse it too often.

Then she started ringing the bell at people supper time to get our attention. (We always take her out then straight back in -- no nonsense.)

Then she started ringing it to get us to pull her ball out from under the cupboards.

Then the dopey cats started ringing the bell to go out

One day Marley would not stop ringing the bell and I was about to get really angry when I saw the cats behaving oddly. I then saw the flame had gone out on one of the gas burners on the stove and the room was filling with gas.

I'll let Marley ring the bells any time she wants now.