Dog Potty Bell is about this Architect firm making known this simple training device to allow your dog to tell you when he/she needs to go outside for potty time.
Sounds kind of silly for an online post for a major custom house Architecture firm, doesn’t it? Well: consider the millions of times every day throughout the world that people’s beloved dogs pee or poop inside the house (which is bad hygiene, especially in these pandemic times) because they had no way to affirmatively communicate their need to go outside and go potty.
“Hey: if Daddy or Mommy can’t figure out that I have to go outside, I’m gonna go in here…” That’s probably what Fido is thinking. “Hmmm: here behind the sofa is a great place, yeah…”
This Architect purchased a “Go-Go Bell” online through Amazon. Price: about $8, delivered to the door. This Architect got 2 of these bells: one of the main level (1st Floor) and one for the 2nd Floor. The dog involved: a “toy” breed: Cavalier King Charles puppy, soon to be joining this family. This is a female who will end up between 12 to 16 pounds. That should work.
This bell is NOT meant to be used by 100 pound German Shepherds or mastiffs or other medium to larger breeds. It will break. It is made of thin metal. Big dogs will either break the supporting strip of metal or knock the bell off, or use it as a toy and tear it apart. But for smaller breeds, it will hopefully work for a long time. We’ll see. The Architect spray painted it with exterior grade gloss black enamel paint, because some of the online Go-Go Bell complaints said the device rusted (whether inside or outside), so the Architect decided to give it a couple of coats of quality paint to protect the metal. This installation is INSIDE. The Architect used a couple of larger, longer screws than the very small screws shipped with the bell. Just to make sure the new puppy doesn’t knock it off the wall.
Note that the Architect mounted this dog potty bell fairly close to the floor. Want it to be easy for either the puppy or the grown dog to be able to easily slap it with a paw. That’s how the bell is supposed to work: the dog feels the urge to go potty, then walks to the bell and raises a paw and hits the bell, making it ring, so the humans in the house hear that bell, then they come to the dog, clip on a leash and take them outside. That’s what is supposed to happen. It is the human’s job to hold the dog’s paw and gently hit the bell with the paw, EVERYTIME the human takes out the dog. At least until the dog gets the idea and is hitting bell on his/her own.
That’s how the dog starts understanding: “Hey: so when I hit this ding thing, my Daddy will pick me up and take me outside to go potty and I will get some sort of reward. Okay. I can do that.” Ding-ding.
REWARDS
In discussions with the Cavalier breeder, they said do NOT reward the dog with a food treat when they go outside to pee or poop. Dogs are very intelligent. They will do “Fake” pees and poos, to TRAIN YOU to give them treats. Rather: give them verbal and tactile rewards: GOOD DOOOOOG! That’s my girl. Pet, pet, pet.
This is basic Pavlovian dog conditioning and training, but without the food treat. The treat absolutely will work. But the Cavalier breeder said the smart dog will end up training us humans. So better to have the “treat” be a kind word and affectionate pat. In the beginning of this potty bell training, I wouldn’t see any harm with giving a small food treat, once you’re back inside and all cleaned up. Just be careful to watch out for “fake potties”. Perhaps the food reward doesn’t happen every time.
This Doggy Go-Go Bell is a great idea to help your dog “tell you” when it needs to go outside and potty. Should be part of kit that comes with every new puppy. Sorry it’s taken so long to discover this. The ringing bell is your dog saying to you “Hey boss, take me outside now.” “Unless you’d like me to do it on your floor, or sofa or bed.”
For larger dogs: you may need to make your own potty bell by means of mounting a stouter metal bracket on the wall (into solid wood trim over studs in the wall), and attaching a bell on a thick wire to the end of the bracket. Use a solid faced bell. Do not use sleigh bells: dogs can get their claws stuck in them, either hurting them or causing them to pull your bell off the wall. Think carefully about the implications of what you put together for the size of your dog.
For smaller breeds, we’re hoping the pre-manufactured Go-Go Bell will work. We’ll see.
And look up: PAVLOVIAN DOG CONDITIONING. It was part of Freshman year Psychology courses, but if you didn’t have that course, Google should give you a good idea. Here’s one source of information: https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html