Whether you live in an apartment, don't have a backyard or just plain don't want Fido to have free reign of the yard, teaching your dog to alert your when he/she needs to go out is a simple way to ease the housetraining process. One very effective method that has proven successful for me was training my dog to ring a dinner bell that hung near the door when he needed to releive himself. Once your dog learns to associate the bell with getting to go outside, and outside with doing their business it becomes a great way to keep your doors scratch-free and carpets nice and dry. I started teaching this to my dog when he was around five months old. He was just starting to catch on to the housetraining idea but living in apartment it was hard for him to let us know that he needed to go outside. After scouring the internet and dog training books for nearly a month, I finally found the bell method and it worked like a charm.

First things first, you will need a sturdy dinner bell. I found a great selection at a local thrift store for under five dollars. A large jingle bell from the craft store would also work great. Tie a string to the top of the bell and hang it near the potty exit door. You'll want to hang it low enough for your dog to comfortably lift a paw or nudge it with his nose.

Now that you have the hardware you are ready for training. If you are at the beginning stages of housetraining you will want to look out for the signs that your dog gives your when he needs to releive himself. Usually dogs will sniff and circle before they go, but different dogs have different signals. You will start to recognize your dog's signals in no time. Every time you take your dog outside to releive himself stop at the door, gently lift his paw to ring the bell give him a treat and say "Do you need to go outside?", snap on the leash and head outside. A great teqnique I used with my French Bulldog Nubs, was to hold a treat near the bell until he got close enough and eventually rang the bell with his snout, I would then give him lots of praise and head right outside. Now keep in mind this bell is strictly for business. Don't let him dawdle, keep him on track with the mission. If you plan on taking Fido for a walk or car ride don't have him ring the bell first. Eventually the dog will learn that ringing the bell results in going outside for a potty break. If you add additional praise when your dog does his business outside he will start to make the connection even quicker.

The final stage of the training process is maintenance and discipline. This is the most crucial step to ensure that your dog does not abuse the potty bell. When my dog finally realized what the bell could do for him he started ringing it a lot more than he should have. He would ring it ten minutes after coming inside. He wanted to go back outside for pleasure not business. When he rang the bell we always took him out, let him sniff around while repeating "Do you need to go potty?". If he didn't releive himself within 2 minutes he would go right back inside without praise. This lets them know that the bell is not to be used for play time.

If you stick to this routine your dog will be ringing the potty bell before you know it. Just like any training this does take patience. With any housetraining method it's up to you to make it work, keep in mind that accidents do happen. It took my husband and I two solid months of training for our Nubs to fully grasp the concept. When the training is complete, however, your dog will be the envy of apartment dogs everywhere. Rollover Pavlov, Fido's ringing the bell!