Bell Training a Puppy

I was amazed when I met my in-laws dog for the first time and realized that she was trained to ring a bell when she needed to go outside!  We trained our other Lab this way and are now teaching Poca the same.  Its absolutely genius!  The dogs learn this so quickly and it prevents them from whining or scratching or barking because they are easily able to communicate what they need.

We used a plain silver bell on a piece of yarn in the past.  As you can see, it got rusty and the yarn was not the most attractive looking.  This time we got to review a nice set of PoochieBells.  I'm impressed with the quality - the bells are thick and have an adorable paw print stamped on them.  There are several prints and colors to choose from.  We chose bamboo webbing in bark brown.  At first I put it up along with the old bell so that Poca wouldn't be too confused.

The rules of the bell are simple- push the dog's nose up against the bell each time before she goes outside.  Always take her out when she rings the bell.  Even if you think the puppy is just playing, she needs to learn that ringing the bell = going outside.  If you are certain the puppy doesn't need to go out, distract her with a toy or play elsewhere, but if she rings the bell, she goes out.  Using this method, Poca started ringing the bell on her own almost immediately.

One thing to note is that the bamboo bells do not snap around the door handle, while the other styles do.  I ended up slipping the bells through the door handle and kind of tying them on that way.  You can also purchase a super cute little hook to hang PoochieBells on.  The hook would also allow you to hang the bells at just the right height for smaller dogs.

I love this concept and think that every dog should be bell trained!  PoochieBells are a great way to do this.  Poca uses hers regularly.  Another benefit to the bells is that we can take them along when we visit Grandma's house or travel.  Poca then instantly knows where she needs to go out to potty.

Check out the PoochieBells website here; they also offer a variety of other fun products.
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Disclosure: I received PoochieBells in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.