How do you train a corgi to let you know they need to go to the bathroom?

My corgi does not let me know when she needs to go to the bathroom. She does not go stand by the door, doesn't whine to be let out or anything like that. The only clue I get is that she'll start circling around. Thus, I have to watch her all the time.

I take her out regularly:
1) first thing in the morning, where she normally just pees. If she doesn't poop, we go inside and I feed her.
2) About 5 minutes after her breakfast, I take her out again and she'll normally poop.
3) About 30 minutes later, I'll take her for a walk and she'll normally poop (but not today)
4) I crate her for about 4 - 5 hours since I have to go to work.
5) I come back for a 45 minute break to let her out/have some play time before going back to work. She'll normally pee but not poop.
6) After I come back from work, I repeat 1, 2 and 3.

So when will she start telling me when she needs to go? I was hoping she'd catch on that the bathroom is outside and go to the door when she needs to go. Instead, she just circles around and I'm sure if I didn't take her outside, she'd relieve herself on the carpet. She hasn't had any accidents (apart from the fear peeing due to the vacuum cleaner and kickball) but that's only because I watch her like a hawk.

Is there anything I can do, training-wise? How long did it take for your corgi to tell you they needed to go potty (and go to the door)?

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I just raised a labradoodle with an x-significant other of mine. We had the same issue, until a friend suggested that we catch her right before the act and take her out. So basically, pup starts circling, you unlock the door and get ready. As soon as the pup makes a move like he/she is about to make some business on your carpet you make a lound noise (we used "No!") and pick the pup up and help them walk to the door and outside. The only fault to this is that eventually you wont be fast enough to catch them. I believe the pup is associating doing the potty walk with outside., and you need them to associate actually eliminating with outside.
Bailey's caught on to the fact that she needs to go potty outside. We haven't had any accidents, except for the vacuum cleaner-related ones. She still doesn't do anything to let me know she needs to go out. I put bells on the door but she started to play with them instead (oh, new toys that jingle!). I still have them on the door, but they're up high so she can't really reach them. She can touch her nose to them but she has to get on her hind legs. Thus, she doesn't play with them since it's such an effort

The other day, she actually rang the bells. I'm hoping this means she has associated the bells with wanting to go outside to go potty. The moment she rang the bells, I took her out. She went potty, but not immediately so I'm not sure if she was just trying to play with the bells, go potty or just go outside.

Fun times.
My old corgi, who just passed away, used this bell idea. It did come in handy but it took between 1 and 2 months to get her to use it. But after she was fully trained it was excellent. If you have the time and effort, I would strongly recommend this.
Do you treat her when she goes outside? I tried to wean my Theo off of treats too early and it really affected his house training. Basically, Theo knows that when he goes to the bathroom outside, he gets a treat. He wants treats, so he wants to go outside. After a few weeks of this thinking he wants to go outside to go to the bathroom because that's the place he knows. When he wants to go outside, he looks longly out the door and whines a little. When he doesn't whine, it usually just means he wants to go outside to play. The whining usually denotes that he realllly wants to go out. Hehe.
We had a lot of trouble potty training Tiki until the bells...once we introduced them she took to them immediately and has not had an accident in the house for about a year. And yes, she does sometimes abuse it...which then i use my judgement on whether she needs to go outside or just wants to play. Cruise (14 weeks old and we've only had him just over 3 weeks) was afraid of the bells at first but now nudges them but he still does not get the relationship between bathroom and outside yet though...Outside to Cruise is time to play and chew sticks instead of go to the bathroom...we are working on that
oops forgot...in anwer to original question about how to train..if you use the bells there is a good description of how to train at http://www.poochie-pets.net/Training.html
Gibson learned very quickly to go to the door when he needs to go. It's so adorable when he'll be playing in the living room and then all a sudden he takes off for the back door full blast! hehe I can just picture him saying, "mom! I have to goooo!!"
he is a smart little boy!

Charlie often sleeps on the door mat in the hall, so I don't really know if he wants to go potty, or just wants to take a nap, when he goes to the door, he-he
Ein was the same way as a puppy. He was bound and determined that it was our job to know when he had to go and not his job to tell us. If he'd had it his way, we'd have been trained to learn his bathroom habits and not he be trained to tell us when he needed to go. Tried the bell thing and it didn't do any good. He didn't have any reason to want to ring the bell - because getting him out was our job and not his.

We started using our doggy play pen to help us out with it. We'd put it up in the large opening between rooms and if he didn't potty when we took him out, in he'd go - where there wasn't a floor we were worried about, and because we knew it'd drive him nuts not to be apart of the action. Eventually, he seemed to understand that if he didn't potty, he got stuck in one room and began to associate going outside with going potty and started to tell us when he needed to go.

Now, he's obnoxious. He's normally Mister Independent and Mister Grumpypants, but when he has to go potty (or wants you to think he has to go so that he can go outside), he jumps in your lap and smothers you with kisses and attention until you ask if he needs to go out.
Our dog was "house trained" when we rescued her, but she does not tell us when she wants to go. I just let her out all the time and she goes every time; whether it's twice in a day or twenty!

I think having routine times every day that the dog can count on is key.

I know some that have trained their dog to ring a bell hanging on string on door knob. How they did that, I do not know...
Now Harry sits by the door but it took some doing. We also tried the bell trick on the door and we showed him how to jingle it when he wanted to go out. That worked for about 3 days and then he realized that everytime he rang it he got to go out, so he was constantly ringing the bell so he could go out and play! Like Gus below, we ended up getting rid of the bell!
My little Peanut would not do well with the bell, as she'll be playing with it constantly. I have problem knowing when she wants to poop. She usually makes a small cry AFTER she has done her business, never before. I can't sit there and watch her all day long. I take her out regularly, but she mostly pees.

I hope she catches on soon, but then again, she's just a pup! Corgis - amazingly intelligent and cheeky! :)

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