Rouleaux

I have been teaching Rouleaux to use his nose to "ring" a small windchime I have on my doorknob when he needs to go "o-u-t". But I swear he uses it for evil. I was just about to go to sleep, and he gets up out of his crate and rings the darn chime... so I bring him outside.

Don't get the wrong idea because I love that he tells me when he wants to go out, BUT I swear he just wanted to go outside to bark at the neighbors cat (at least I hope it was their cat- i saw two bright eyes in the distance) and growl at leaves blowing in the wind... then pretend he was an elephant when it was time to come back inside.

Luckily, for whatever reason, he always does something to the effect of what we originally went outside for... but still. I'm sure he realizes that once he rings the bell I am trained and obligated to let his fuzzy butt outside...

anyone else experience this?

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EmilyB

I have heard a lot of stories about that very thing, never did it and never would.

The dog doesn't get the connection between having to go to the bathroom or just wanting to do something like go outside if it is bored.

A good consistent schedule will accomplish the same thing, the dog will eventually let you know it needs to go out, really, it will!

Beaumont67

They will play games, little smarty pants...if they can.

My first dobe started insisting on going outside, even though she was out only 15 minutes earlier...to do her potty.
After 4 days of this, I realized my retired neighbors outside porch light was on and he was outside, with his little poodle.
So once I made the connection, I followed my girl and noticed the nice senior was giving our Tanya a dog treat, through the property fence (at night).
- so this Dad had a heart to heart talk, with our dog...and that ended the nonsense / and it was hard not to laugh, dobes are very clever

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------------Kelly & (Amy - RIP @ 11.7 y/o)

Rouleaux

we do have a fairly consistent potty schedule but you never know when he will need to go!

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boomerjunier

HAHA!! I went through the same thing except my bell wasn't wind chimes... it's was a HUGE porcelaine thing that smacked up against the walls and made the house vibrate almost! I feel fo you!! My boy would ring the bell, go out and watch the clouds, then come back in and 10mintues later ring it again.
The funny thing was, he never even attempted to frequently ring the bell with my BF. So he knew he had me trained!.

If he has a faily consistent schedule then you should be able to really know when he needs to go. If you know he doesn't need to go, then ignore the request.

I think Spok was about 6-7 months old when i said enough is enough, and I took the bell away because I couldn't stand it anymore. It is accentuated by the fact that if he gets into the habit of marking everywhere outside, then he will request it more often. Check out my post from a few months ago:
Constantly asking for the door - HELP

They are so smart aren't they??

bean

We used them with Scout for training. Once she started using it to be let out for fun, they went away.

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Erica