House Train a Puppy with the Bell System

Ah, the joys of trying to house train a puppy! More than any other social behavior your new puppy must learn, this little bit of training can literally save your house. After all, can you think of anyone who is the least bit interested in living in a home that is used as a canine toilet? The question then arises: what are the best methods available to house train a puppy?

There are, of course, a number of different types of training that you can use to house train a puppy, and all of them have their advantages and disadvantages. When choosing which training system to use, it is incumbent upon you to decide which method best fits your unique lifestyle and training needs. Using a system of constant supervision, for example, would be all but untenable if your household structure is set up in such a way as to leave your puppy unsupervised for extended periods of time. In similar fashion, pure crate training may be overkill for someone who is at home and available for their puppy all day long.

One system that works very well for people who spend the better part of each day at their home, and who have an abundance of time to spend training their puppy, is the Bell System. The Bell System is a technique that helps you to not only house train a puppy, but to train that puppy to use the bell to let you know when it needs to go out to use the bathroom. It’s not only a great way to housebreak your puppy – it’s an incredible conversation piece for you and visitors to your home as well.

You can begin the Bell System from the first day that you bring your new puppy home. It is as simple as hanging a bell by the door you use to take the puppy outside. Make sure that the bell is at a level your puppy can easily reach – it can be adjusted higher as the dog grows. To house train a puppy with the bell, you need to begin by ringing the bell each time you take the puppy outside to use the toilet. It is as simple as stopping briefly by the door, ringing the bell once, and using a simple trigger word such as “outside” or “potty”.

After a couple of weeks of this, take your puppy to the door but don’t ring the bell. Instead, use your trigger word and see if your dog rings the bell. If your puppy rings the bell, be sure to praise it. In short order, your puppy will soon learn to associate the ringing of the bell with the act of going outside to use the toilet. Once it forms that association in its mind, the puppy will ring the bell when it has to go! In fact, you will no longer need to watch your puppy for signs that it is ready to use the toilet, since it will have the means to notify you.

While this may be very entertaining to your friends and families, you should never lose sight of the practical aspects of deciding to house train a puppy by using a bell. People who use this system find that they are not only dealing effectively with the important task of teaching their dog where to go to the bathroom. In many cases, owners of bell-trained puppies find that their dog is more apt to quickly learn other skills that they try to teach it later on.

Click here to see how to go about Housebreaking a Puppy!