Teaching your dog to ring a bell when they need to go outside to go to the bathroom is one of the best and fastest ways to train your puppy. Many dogs are not good at giving their owners signals that they need to go to the bathroom, making them more likely to have an accident in the house.
Have you ever heard of Pavlov's dog experiment? Pavlov rang a bell before he fed his dogs. After a period of time, when the bell rang the dogs would start to salivate. The theory that Pavlov discovered is called classical conditioning, which means that behaviors can be learned through the association of different stimuli. Pavlov's theory is why bell training works so well. Dogs learn that when they ring the bell they get to go outside and then get to go to the bathroom.
How do train your dog to ring a bell?
First hang a bell at a level where your dog can reach it. This works best from the handle of the door you use to go outside.
You will need to train your dog how to ring the bell. At first you will need to take their paw and have them touch the bell, while you do that use a verbal command like "touch." Then give them a treat. Continue to practice having them learn how to ring the bell with the verbal command, all while giving them a treat every time. Eventually they will learn that when they ring the bell they get a treat and they will touch it on your command.
Once they have mastered ringing the bell you will then need to change the association of the bell from a treat to getting to go to the bathroom. Start by giving them the verbal command to ring the bell every time they go outside to go potty. So they will ring the bell and then they will go outside to go potty. It is important that when they go outside for this training, that it is for the purpose of going to the bathroom and not for them to play. Do this consistently and your dog will realize when they ring the bell they get to go outside and go potty.
How long does bell training take?
Every dog learns at a different rate, but bell training can be as fast as a couple of weeks to as slow as a month or two. In general bell training is very helpful for dogs that do not give good cues that they need to go to the bathroom which is most typical in the toy and smaller breed dogs.
Bell training will give you ahead start to a mess free house. Good luck training your puppies or newly adopted dogs!
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