Ring My Bell....

This is Andy's normal position. From here he can see who comes in the front door, watch the squirrels in the yard (when the blinds are open), the dogs walking by with their owners dragging behind, and anything that goes on inside the house, AND also anything going on in the back yard. He has even learned to look in a mirror across the room and see what I'm doing in the kitchen. Yeah, he's a smart dog!


This is a picture of what motivates Andy... CAT food! Yeah, the dog LOVES cat food. He doesn't care that cats eat this stuff. It does not effect his "doghood"... he is very confident in his dogness.

I have learned to use this addiction to my advantage to train me... I mean him...
I first hung a bell by the door so that it hit about nose level for him, and got a handful of the bait, ummm cat food. I taught him to ring the bell ... and that when the bell rings, the door opens and he can go out and go potty - or chase the birds and squirrels from the yard. Whatever, he is a happy dog.

Here are the bells. I use white yarn to hang them with so they are not so obvious to visitors and they don't stand out as ugly... I have been known to use multicolored yarn that clashed. I also learned to make sure that I have a large enough bell, or enough bells so that I can HEAR them wherever I am in the house. (at one house we had bells on 3 different doors that all lead to the back yard and were in different parts of the house. He learned to come to the door closest to where I was to get my attention.)

The sequence is... the goes to the door and looks out, rings the bell, looks for me, rings the bell and waits... knowing that I'm coming to open the door and let him out.


If there are dogs walking by or squirrels in the yard, the bell will fly - he gets real insistent and demanding! Yes, I'm trained and he's spoiled! But, it works and I don't have to clean the carpet!