Need to know : How to Train your bully to warn

[Jack Daniels]

Ok so Jack is turning 10 months old next week. He is for the most part house trained. However its still up to me to calculate when its time for him to go outside. Its kind of like I have built my own internal clock/alarm for Jack.

Jack doesn't warn me that he needs to go outside.
We could be sitting on the couch watching a movie and he'll stand up and walk to a corner and pee.

I let him out constantly in order to avoid accidents.. So I think he has become accustomed to ME telling him when its okay to go outside...

I have a Beagle/ Basset mix which I adopted from the Humane Societry when he was about 4 yrs old..... He's now about 15yrs old and never has had a single accident.. He warns me by either standing by the door or doing a little whining noise.... If only I can get Jack doing this, my home would be much happier.....
Yea, whenever an accident happens, my wife's love for Jack drops a notch



What methods have you all used to train your dog to warn you.?

 

[melanieian]

I am not so sure you can train them to tell you, it's something they do on their own, I think. You just have to watch for his sign. Brodie is 11 months old and when he was about 5 months old he would sit in the middle of the floor and just stare at me and it took me a while to realize that he was telling me he needed to go potty. So now I know as soon as he starts staring at me it's time to go out. If he can see me from the door he will go stand in front of the door like a statue staring, if he can't see me from the door he will sit or stand in front of me and stare until I bring him out.

 

[Theozzmandpg]

Both Daisy and Ozzy(pug) were sniffers. They would walk around sniffing and we would have to run them out ASAP. Now Daisy is 1.5yrs and ozzy is 2 and they go on a schedule now. I think it is up to you get a schedule in mind then start trying to get them on that schedule. If you want to take them out in an hour and they go in the house, wait only 30 min next time. Just keep extending it until you have a nice routine. Lots of cleanup work, but it just takes time.

 

[anatess]

You can hang a bell-thingee on the doorknob and everytime you take Jack out to pee ask him to ring that bell first. Eventually, he will associate the bell with going outside to pee and would hopefully ring the bell when he wants to go. Now, it could be that he will ring that bell over and over just because he likes the sound of it. Take him out anyway. If he rings the bell take him out - even if he just went 5 minutes ago... it just establishes an association in his head for bell - outside to pee. Eventually, when he gets consistent with ringing the bell to go out, then you can ignore some of the bell ringing if you don't feel like he really needs to pee at this time.

My dogs don't tell me they need to go either. They would just hold it and hold it until they can't hold it anymore. I take them out on a schedule - I work from home so it is better for me if they don't disturb me while I'm working, and I just take them out on my self-imposed break times. But this is how I prefer it, so this is how the dogs learned.

What I do know is this: once a dog has pee'd in the house, it will be difficult to train him not to go inside the house when he has to go and you didn't take him out yet. So, you might be stuck with establishing a schedule until he gets trained out of pee'ing in the house.

 

[AMart79]

I second the bell idea. It worked great for my mom's jack russell. It worked pretty well for Buster until he started deciding the bells were better used as a toy and kept ripping them off. We're lucky, he just goes and sits by the door when he's gotta go. don't know how he picked it up but i'm not complaining.

 

[Jack Daniels]

[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION] - Yea, I saw that bell-on-a-rope in Target the other day..
If i can get Jack to ring that bell that would be awesome...

Now, If I do use the bell, I'll be needing to change the Bell tone from my Iphone.. If not, whenever I get a new Text, Jack would be squirting pee around the house.!

 

[TBone]

When we first got TBone I took him out hourly....when he did his business outside, once inside he received a treat and praise. It has been almost 2 months now and he will sit by the door when he needs to go out. We still give him a treat but now it is just a piece of kibble and praise. Oh...and if he does not go to the bathroom and just wants to go outside, when he comes in he does not get a treat.

Good Luck.

 

[Vicaroo1000]

I second the bell idea. It worked great for my mom's jack russell. It worked pretty well for Buster until he started deciding the bells were better used as a toy and kept ripping them off. We're lucky, he just goes and sits by the door when he's gotta go. don't know how he picked it up but i'm not complaining.

My sister did it with her boxer and it works great. I tried it with Bea and she was too afraid of the bell to play that game. hahahahaha Now, they go to the door and wait - because that's the way out to the potty place.

 

[Vicaroo1000]

BTW @jackdaniels - I like your new avatar. Here's my favorite:

It's been my computer wallpaper for yearsssssssssss! It's TOO FUNNY!

 

[2BullyMama]

We taught Nitschke and Banks the word 'potty'..... what we did was as they were doing their duties, we have treats in hand..... "yeah,,, potty, potty... give a treat on the spot' make a big deal about it. Then start using the owrd in the house while standing at the door... asking the question Do you have to go potty? They started respondiong with a bark.... and whenever they would bark -- out they go.

 

[Jack Daniels]

@2BullyMama Ok great tips everyone thanks.. I'll buy that bell-on-rope thingy as soon as I pass by a Target in the next few days... I'll let you all know how it works... Hopefully Jack wont get spooked at the bell.... That boy gets spoooked at everything...
I think I got the runt of the litter !

Only thing is I just dont see myself saying outloud (and much less in public)

"Awww thats a goooood potty. Good Boy,!! Nice big potty you did... I love it! here's a treat... give me another potty.!"

 

[Vicaroo1000]

@jackdaniels - oh no. You shouldn't use "potty" - too pedestrian. Branch out. Go crazy.
You should say what I say: "Do you have a doodie?" "Good doodie" That's much more embarassing.

 

[2BullyMama]

@Jack Daniels ah, come one, I know you have it in ya!! Potty... potty.. potty -- you can say it, I have confidence in you.

Be sure to be consistent in what ever method you choose as that is the real key to the training... and, ok, you can use a different word, but whatever you use just know -- you have to take him out if he responds to it.

 

[Jack Daniels]

Ok so I've been using the bell on the back door. To be honest, I think Jack has rung it only twice and that's only when I have been standing by the door getting ready to open it anyways.....

On a good note, My 2 kids use the bell every time they go outside. So at the very least, I've trained them .!