by Sherida Fitzgerald

Created on: May 24, 2008

What a piece of magic this little bit of training turns in to! It has to be the best idea ever! You can teach your furry friend!

We were given a little 4 month old Bichon Frise named, Rocky. I have always liked dogs, but other people's dogs. But since it was a family member that gave us him...we would have to find a way to peacefully live together. Housebreaking was the number one thing on the list of anxieties of mine.

Being that Rocky came from a place that he was penned up all day, going to the bathroom outside was completely foreign to him. We struggled a lot in the very beginning to get him outside and do his business. He didn't mind, in the least, to do his business right in his little crate...thus leading me to an exhorbatant amount of curse words. We had to figure out how to change this behavior. It was not fun to wake up in the morning and have to bathe a dog. Through a lot of patience (sometimes not so much) and a LOT of consistency, it was basically me that became trained on when he needed to get outside to relieve himself. It was horrifically time consuming. But in a reasonable amount of time, he seemed to catch on...no no potty in the house.

Then my friend told me about Bell Training!

What a life saver this was, for both Rocky and myself!

I went to the craft store and got a package of (2) large jingle bells. A couple of aisles over I found a package of mix and match ribbon. Brought them both home. The puppy was young, I am sure that I could throw one more "trick" at him about going potty! I had grown to love the little guy, in spite of his "puppy-ness"...

I strung the ribbon thru the loops on both jingle bells, and hung the bells and ribbon at the appropriate length for him to reach, off the back doorknob, where he was used to exiting to go the bathroom. Alright - here we go! For a matter of $3, it was worth a shot!

When it was time for Rocky man to go out, we took him to the door, took his paw, rang the bell with his paw, praised him and set him outside. Over and over again we repeated the same process, day after day. Until one day, we were all sitting at the kitchen table (located to the immediate left of said door) and we heard, "Jingle jingle jingle"....he rung it with his snout! PERFECT! Works for me! Clapping and praise and "good boys" all around...out the door he went! He went outside with a smile on his face (I swear he smiles!) and did his business! Immediately upon returning inside, he was rewarded with one of his little chew treats!

He has been the star of the show a number of times now at our house. We have had company that has literally almost fell out of their chairs when they discovered what he was doing! They were blown away that a dog could do such a "trick" without scratching at a door, barking incessently and jumping around like a maniac to ask to go outside! It still makes me laugh today.

Dogs are incredibly smart. Give me them a lot of consistency with this type of training (ring the bell, go outside - even if you ring the bell showing them, s/he needs to go outside) and the dog will catch on in a matter of a week or two!

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