potty training

I was just wondering if anyone has trained their puppy to use bells on the door when they need to go out. Nella totally gets the concept that she needs to go outside to do "the business" but her way of telling me is to go and sit on my shoes by the back door. Not extremely effective means of communication :) I was thinking about the bells hanging from the knob or something like that. How would I begin this? Thanks for any help or feedback!
Steph & Nella

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Comment by Cindi Vangel on October 23, 2010 at 1:10pm: Yes, we successfully did this with Kirby. We have a long chain that runs from the doorknob to about 10 inches from the floor with small bells [delicate sounding] tied and various lengths as well as the at end. We started this as soon as we brought hom home [9 weeks]. Everytime we asked Kirby if he wanted to 'go out' we would ring the bell before opening the door. It didnt take more than a month before he would sit at the door and hit the bell with his nose, and we would ask 'do you need to go out?' before opening the door.

We now have a doggie door in the basement and he can go in and out as he pleases [helpful when we are not home], but when we are home he will still sit at the back door and ring the bell. It was very easy for him to catch on and I would highly recommend this method of notification. I would tend to agree with Jane's comment, but in our case the bells ringing when the door opens doesnt seem to confusion to him as he makes the association of 'door open', regardless of the reason.

Comment by Jane on October 23, 2010 at 11:12am: I think I would start by ringing the bell yourself every time you take her out. Then I would try to progress to her pawing the bells herself before you take her out; you may need to lift her paw the first couple of times so she gets it. The other thing is I would try to hang the bells next to the door instead of directly on it, because you don't want them ringing every time someone comes in or out. Only for potty time.

I tried this with my pem and it didn't work very well for us, he would rather play with the bells lol, but good luck!

Comment by Bev Levy on October 23, 2010 at 10:33am: I tried this with my corgi, Buffy. She was pretty submissive and the bells scared her so much she would pee when I tried to show her how to do it. So now I just try to pay attention when they sit by the door. Our friends did it vet successfully with their Westie but when she got older she started doing it for attention and it was crazy! She would do it every few minutes sometimes.