How can I get my puppy (a beagle) to let me know when she has to go outside?

Question

She already knows that she cannot potty inside the house, but she makes no signs of wanting to go outside.

Answer 1

Hi there,

From what I can understand, you dog IS potty trained and will not mess your house. You simply want her to be able to signal to you when she has to go.

One of the best tricks I have found is that everytime you take your dog outside to go potty, make her sit - always in the same spot, by the door.

Make sure that the spot you pick allows you to open the door! I foster a lot of dogs and this is something I teach them. They get that sitting by the door will let them out into the yard to do their business.

Your dog will soon associate that when she sits by the door, she will be let out to go potty. Dogs are smart, so when she will feel the need to go, she will simply go sit by the door. This will be your cue.

You can also teach her to ring a bell, but this take a litlle more training. I enjoy clicker training and if you search clicker training websites/forums, you will find information that will allow you to train her to push a bell (like a cowbell) with her paw or nose when she has to go.

In the meantime, just get into the habit of making her sit by the door and with repetition, she will offer this behavior when she will want to go potty.

Hope this help and good luck!

Melanie

Answer 2

Our solution was to hang a string of bells on the door. You can buy a bag of jingle bells at Wal-Mart for less than a dollar, and just use any old string or ribbon to hang them on. Tie it to the doorknob of the outside door. They have to hang low enough for your dog to reach them with her nose.

Every time I took my dog Riley outside, I would jingle the bells and drape the string over his nose so he began to understand that he could make them ring by nosing them. It literally took one day before he was going to the door and ringing the bells to be let outside. I know have a string of bells for my bedroom door too, since he sleeps in my room with me, so he can ring them if he wakes up to go potty in the middle of the night.

Answer 3

First of all that is amazing you have a baby begeal! I have one and we had to train her to tell us when she kneeds to go outside. We taught her not to go to the bathroom inside so evey know and then we would let her outside. She soon understood that we were letting her out to go to the bathroom. So she stood by our back door when she wanted out. See if that works.

Answer 4

Search "crate training" on the Internet. It is not mean, it is an awesome way of training your puppy. Once he/she is trained, they will no longer need the crate (but often they love to go inside on their own-it is like their own den)
I have trained 3 puppies consecutively that way-it works!! Try it!!
Good luck.

Answer 5

for our dog we trained her in about a week by talking and saying rabbits outside and shed look want to go outside and we take her out she pees. But dont do it too much dont want to tease her. so after a week when she has to pee she will sit by the door by herself

Answer 6

ajm is absolutely correct..it's the best method for all.