Train Your Dog to Tell You When He Has to Go Out

Ryan is trying to teach his dog Keely to let him know when she needs to go outside to potty. Watch his video, then read pet expert Kathy Santo's advice below.

Good news! You and Keely are already halfway to the "Ring the bell to go outside" behavior! Here's how to teach her to use the bell to go outside:

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First, make sure you're not chaining commands together. I'm sure she did her sit, down, wave, and go to the bell routine strictly for the camera, but sometimes people chain commands together (the biggest offender: "sit" and then "down"), and what they wind up with is a dog who can't "down" unless he first sits. So be sure that Keely can ring the bell without having any other command precede it.

Second, figure out her biggest reward. Is it food? Is it a toy? Is it going outside to play fetch? Once you know that, then we're on to the third step — earning the reward.

Right now, when she rings the bell, you say "good girl" and open the door, but I don't know if she finds that particularly rewarding. More importantly, if you ask Keely what happens when she rings the bell, she would probably say, "They tell me I'm a good girl," instead of "They open the door so I can go outside."

Since I'm not sure what she finds rewarding, I'm going on the assumption that it's food. But it can't be her regular dog treat. It has to be an incredible she-only-gets-this-when-she's-rung-the-bell-to-go-outside reward, so pick something she would find irresistible — turkey breast, tortellini… You get the idea.

Next, let her taste her food reward and let her see you throw a piece outside the door. Close the door and give her the command, "Ring the bell. Go outside." When she does, immediately say "yes" to let her know she did the correct behavior ("Good girl" isn't as effective because she hears it all day) and immediately put her leash on and open the door so she can grab the food reward. The message to Keely is: The reward is on the other side of the door, not inside. Instead of bringing her back inside right away, maybe even have a brief play session to reinforce how much fun it is to be in the hallway. Repeat this process until you see that she gets the idea.

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After a few days of that, you can move the reward farther away to the end of the hall. You mentioned you live in a four-story walk-up, so you could pre-place treats at the landing of each of the floors before training her. Whenever I have to do training like this, I use a "food tube," which is a clear flexible piece of tubing with two end caps. That way, when you're leaving food drops on the landings (and eventually outside, her main goal), other dogs won't be able to eat them, people won't accidentally step on them, etc. It makes the treat more visible to others and ensures that it will be there when Keely arrives.

Your final step is to put the food drop outside in the area where she does potty. This will require you to go outside (during the training stage) and pre-plant the food drop, and also having the same enticing treat with you so that when she does go to the bathroom, you can give her a second reward. Gradually make the hallway reward smaller and the pottying reward bigger. Eventually, you'll only reward her for pottying.

In the not so distant future, when Keely understands what you want from her, you can eliminate the food drop and reward with food and praise when she goes to the bathroom. Then progress to simply praising her, which is what you're probably doing right now.

And while you're at it, praise yourself for doing such a great job training her!

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