This is Winchester.  (We call him Chester, unless he’s in trouble.)

This is Chester’s bell. It hangs on our front door.

This is how Chester lets us know when he needs to go outside.

When we first started potty training Chester, he would very quietly go sit by the door when he needed to go outside. This was fine if someone was staring at him, just waiting for something cute to happen. Sadly, most often it led to puddles by the door. We didn’t want Chester to be sad and in trouble all the time, so we trained him to ring a bell when he needs to go outside.

I will tell you, the bell ringing is a blessing and a curse. He not only uses it when he needs to go, but when he hears cars outside, when he hears neighborhood dogs barking, when he hears kids playing outside, etc. so he can go out to bark at whatever it is he has heard. Going out 15 times a day is still much better than cleaning up puppy messes inside, so, we go.

This idea never would have occurred to me. My husband’s aunt and uncle trained their puppy to ring a bell, the kind you find on the counter of a business, when he needed to go out. They are the ones who suggested we try it, and I’m glad they did. It was really easy to bell train him too.

We just use a plain old $2.00 birdcage bell from the pet store. I hung it on the door with a piece of yarn so that it hangs down long enough that he can reach it to ring it. After it was hung up, we would ring the bell each time we put him on his leash to take him outside. Within about two weeks, Chester started ringing the bell himself. Sometimes he uses his nose. Sometimes he uses his paw. Sometimes he grabs it with his mouth and tries to ring it to death. It’s all good.

Do you have any fresh ideas on puppy training? How about cute puppy pictures?