House Training a Dog – The Bell Method

Most dog owners have already been through the fun process of house training a dog. As can be expected, house training dogs is a bit more challenging than house training a puppy. The simple answer to that question is that training older dogs set in their ways involves changing behavior rather than teaching new, unlearned behavior.

House training a dog isn’t necessarily easy, but with a little kind persistence, a good attitude, and with the availability of some solid online dog training programs, it isn’t that difficult. As a matter of fact, training a dog can be an extremely rewarding experience for both yourself and your pet.

Quite a while ago as I was researching dog training advice on how to train a dog I ran across this awesome method using a bell on the door and I thought it would be great to share it with you. It was drawn from pretty much a core methodology derived from Pavlov’s experiments. Anyway, it is called the Bell Method and I have shared it with you below:

1. Start your dog house training by finding a medium size bell. Not a huge bell you put around a cow’s neck, or a small, dinky, bell. Get a decent size medium bell and put it on a small cord. Wrap the small cord around the door handle that goes on the door in which the dog will go out to go potty.
2. The next step in this method on how to house train a dog is that whenever you take the dog outside to potty, first go to the door, ring the bell and have the dog come to you. Gently touch the bell to the dogs nose, letting it slightly ring, and say “Outside? Want to go outside to go potty?”
3. Take the dog to the same place in the back yard every time, stand with them there, and say “OK, go potty”. Wait for them to go. Once they do, praise them by petting them, smiling, and if you want giving them a food treat. Remember as you are working on how to train dogs they have the mental capacity of a 2 or 3 year old human. Never be mean to a dog, just like you would never be mean to a 2 or 3 year old human.
4. Now to reinforce the behavior. This next step in obedience training for dogs is to put a small amount of peanut butter or cheese on the bell. They, of course, will make there way to the bell and start sniffing it or trying to eat the peanut butter. This part is so cool in training a dog. As the bell rings, go over to the door and say… “Outside?, Want to potty outside?” Then take them to the potty spot in the back yard. Reward them as before.

Honestly that is one of the coolest ways I’ve seen in house training a dog. It has good positive reinforcement, involves both the owner and the dog working together, and will work in both house training a puppy and also training older dogs. In training a puppy you want to show them what TO DO and in training older dogs you want to show them what NOT TO DO. This method does both because they DO something (ringing the bell) and they are shown NOT TO DO something (go anywhere other than the dedicated place in the back yard).

You can find a lot of good online dog training information and I hope this article has helped you to learn information on house training a dog for your own pet or to help someone else.

My Best to You and Your Pup