by Diane Garrod

Created on: May 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

Dogs use their noses and mouths naturally, so teaching ring a bell is as easy as one, two, three. Teach a targeting skill first. You are using your dog's natural instincts combined with teaching to target an object with their nose. Using a clicker to mark the behavior.

Step One: Teach your dog to target a stick with their nose.

First: Present the end of a stick slightly front and above the nose. If your dog looks up at the stick, use your clicker to mark the behavior of looking and then reward with food. Do this about three times and then raise your criteria.

Next: click any movement toward the stick with the nose and then touching the end of the stick with the nose. Treat after each click. Do this 10 times and 11 as your dog is approaching the stick to touch it, name it. Say TOUCH and click and treat.

To strengthen the behavior continue to hold the stick front and center until your dog is eagerly touching it with his nose. Then begin to move it right, left, up and down with the goal to follow the stick abd touch it. Once this is strong, teach them to target your hand, a lid and a sticky note on a wall OR you can go right to the bell.

Step Two: Show your dog the bell you are going to use. When you open the door for them to go out, ring the bell. Each time they go out they hear the ring of the bell and start to equate the ring with going outdoors. You have now taught them to touch a few objects and put meaning to the ringing of the bell.

Step Three: Now combine steps one and two.

1 - Hold the bell above the dog's nose and say TOUCH! Chances are they might do so right away. You can also use the target stick to point to the bell and say touch, fading away the stick or moving it so they touch the bell instead. You could put a sticky note on the bell and cue touch and then fade away the sticky note. Your ultimate goal is to get your dog to touch the bell eagerly and hard enough to ring it so you can hear it from another room. Each time the dog touches the bell hard enough to ring it, open the door and praise.

NOTE: The key to learning here is everytime, no exception, the dog rings the bell with their nose, the door opens.

2 - Hang the bell on the door and fade out the cue TOUCH, replacing it with "RING THE BELL!". This step is optional, because your dog will learn quickly that ringing the bell opens the door. Do this ten times or more with the bell hanging on the door that you want them to go out.

3 - Be consistent and each time they go out, let them ring the bell. Soon your dog will be ringing the bell to let you know they need to potty.

A challenge with the technique above is the dog might ring the bell, not only to go potty, but to just plain go out. They are now in control of opening the door, what a great feeling of freedom. When this happens, simply remove the bell and keep it in place only during times when your dog actually has to potty, for instance, during meals so once they are done, they can alert you to the need to go out.

You are teaching your dog to communicate and having control of when they can go out makes your dog very confident. With proper management of the bell, your dog will soon understand the appropriate time to use it.

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