# Does your dog tell you when they need to go out?



## TibetanFan (Aug 31, 2007)

How do you teach your dog to tell you when they need to go outside? My pup is 5 months and mostly goes to the bathroom outside (95% of the time). But every now and then she just poops or pees in the house and she NEVER indicates that she needs to go out to go. I take her out about 5 times a day. I would like her to bark or scratch at the door to tell me she needs to go out. How do I get her to do that?


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

The way I got Sophie to 'tell' me when she needed to go out, is that when I would take her to go out, is I would ask her "do you gotta go potty?" and just get her all excited...then when we got outside I would give her the command "go potty"...she pretty much goes potty on cue, now too...no matter where we are; which is helpful when we are traveling!

Anyway, she now just whines and gets antzy when she has to go outside...

Some people teach their dogs to ring a bell, but I have never done this, so I am not sure how you would go about it; probably just by treating your dog and having him touch the bell with his nose or paws each time you go out to go potty with him.


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## Chicalen1 (Oct 3, 2007)

Chicalen tells me by running back and forth between me and the door. I did see on the tv once that a man had trained his dog to hit a bell by the door when he wanted to go out don't know how he did it but I thought it was a really neat idea.

Amanda


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

I'm not a big fan of the bell at the door. I've had two dogs that did that, and they rang it every time they wanted a little attention.

Puppies, in particular, have a very short window of opportunity between the time they feel the urge and the time they actually go, so there aren't always going to be signs. And every time they "fail" it sets the training back a bit.

If the food and water go in at scheduled times, the by-products come out the other end at scheduled times, so it's very important to feed the dog at exactly the same times every day. My pup is going to poop 30 minutes after she eats, so I make sure she's outside for the event and I'm there with her to let her know it's the greatest thing any dog has ever done.

It's also important during house training to avoid any table scraps, variation in diet or excessive treats that might mess of the schedule.

Before I got a handle on her schedule, I would hear the tiniest of whimpers but my adult dog would come and tell me it's time for the pup to leave the building.

I guess I can live with having a Plott hound that's smarter than I am.


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## tsorcus (Aug 24, 2007)

Since Jasper has figured out that he can stick his head through the cat flap when he wants out or in we haven't had a problem! Might be a bit extreme to install one just for a dog to put his head through though...


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## lovemygreys (Jan 20, 2007)

All of our dogs have queues. I just had to be obeservant to learn them. One is as subtle as a loop around through the living room and kitchen. If she does it twice, she's *going* to potty...it's just a matter of whether or not I've been paying attention enough to let her outside. Some dogs pace or whine. Some will actually go to the back door and scratch or whine. Some, I think, can hold it forever and never need to go outside other than the regular turnout times.

I think the best thing you can do is get your dog on a schedule for eating and potty trips. And then watch like a hawk to see what her behavior is before a potty accident in the house.


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## Durbkat (Jun 26, 2007)

My dog will start sniffing when he has to pee and will sniff and go in circles when he needs to poop. But other times he will sit by me and just stare. But he has rarley had to do that anymore because I know when its about time for him to go potty and then I take him outside.


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## Darkmoon (Mar 12, 2007)

Carter whines when he has to go. The problem with that is, he has been whining all the time lately so when he does need to go out, i don't realize it because I'm ignoring the whining. 

We also have him going out about every 3 hours at night to be safe. he came house trained (yay!) and only has had one accident (my fault. I let him have a big drink before bed and thought his whining was because daddy wasn't in the room. It was only his 3rd day here and he went in his bed. Hasn't happened since).


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## ozzy (Sep 29, 2007)

My puppy is 5 months old and I would say he is at about 95% too. I did teach him to ring a bell but he doesn't do it all the time. I taught him by ringing the bell as we went out the door and saying "Let's go potty!!"
I have noticed he always runs to the door and rings the bell or barks when he needs to poop but he occasionally still pees in the house (with no notice) when we are excited or playing. He also rings the bell when he just wants to go outside. He doesn't do it often but when he does it can be annoying. Yesterday he rang the bell twice and both times ran straight to the car. After the third time I took him for a ride around the block. Who owns who here?


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## Mdawn (Mar 3, 2007)

I didn't teach my dogs to do any specific behavior to let me know they have to go out. Dan scratches at the door when he needs to go. Uallis paces. Eddie doesn't really ask to go outside; I just take him out when Uallis goes; which is about every 4 hours or so.


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## FilleBelle (Aug 1, 2007)

Alvin is a lazy guy. When he needs to go out, he'll stand quietly at the backdoor for about 45 seconds. If no one notices, he'll go back to sleep until a "regular" trip outside finally occurs.


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## TeddieXRuxpin (Sep 11, 2007)

I'd say 99.9% of the time they will let us know, but if they just can't then we have a mess on our hands. That's our fault though. If we miss letting them out. Our bigdest boy, Buster a lab/doberman, will cry like a baby at the back door is he has to go potty. Mahalo can hold it; we call her bladder the bladder of steel. Duncan he goes to the back door every time some one stands up so he really doesn't miss a chance. And Teddie has a pretty good bladder, bt I take him out all the time so we don't have a problem. He gets gassy when he has to go potty so for my sake at the least I take him out.


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## madkad (Sep 13, 2007)

this is a way of doing it

http://www.bigdogboutique.com/ProductCart/pc/bark_outside.html

teaching to bark once can be easy with teasing with there best toy, then using a clicker can make them learn really fast, I did it with my dog the speach comand in one day so you should be able to do the whole thing in an average 4 days if your dogs a fast learner (I know it can be different with each dog)

our old dog used to scratch and we had a wooden door so it made a mess of the door, then we got one with glass on and she scratched the glass and that looked a mess so barking is better I think


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## bluesbarby (Apr 10, 2007)

I taught Riley to ring a bell. I can hear the bell from most parts of the house. He'll occasionally ring the bell to get my attention, i.e. when I'm in the back part of the house which he can't get to (it's gated off) or if he just wants to go outside to play. The older he gets the less often he does that though. If I take him on a play date where I know he'll be inside I take the bell with me and just hook it on their door. My last dog, Zoe, would just stand in front of the door. If no one was around to open the door for her she would just go pee in front of the door, however if she had to poop she would bark. It used to drive me nuts.


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## ZippityZ (Oct 8, 2007)

All my dogs have had different sometimes subtle ways. My terrier does what we call "not looking at you." You will notice her out of the corner of your eye sitting and staring at you, but when you look at her, she will look away quickly but still kind of look out of the corner of her eye. If you dont catch her staring at you, she will heavily shift her weight around so you will hear her until you look at her, but she always sits away from you waiting to get your attention politely.


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## Chupa Cabras (Aug 31, 2007)

Watson is 5 months, and barks at the door to go out. But he does it even when he doesn't have to go...just wants outside to get something to bring back in. So I never know if he really has to go or just wants that old flower pot in the yard. 

I've had him go out 5 times in one hour...first time was for a drink out of the pond...2nd time was for a piece of firewood...3rd time was for a butternut squash...4th time I said no...he started peeing on the floor right in front of the door. 5th time...finish peeing, so it wasn't a wasted lesson


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## sam b (Oct 1, 2007)

Mel, my labrador puppy (10 months old) has never gone inside the house ever. On her first day with us, (aged 1 month) when she went into "wee-ing position" I just picked here up and put in in the earth in the backyard and told here to go there.

Now when she wants to go out and the door is closed, she sits by the door and whines until we open it.

However....Sol, my yorkie (4 yrs old) goes whenever and wherever she damn well feels like it! I even got a carpenter to install a little doorflap just for her to go outside (you can't buy things like that where I live - in a small town in Brazil), but she does not use it.


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## starry15 (Jan 20, 2007)

yeah, star barks and wacks into the door to let me know he has to go!


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## flipgirl (Oct 5, 2007)

I taught my dog to hit a toy tamborine hanging from the doorknob on my patio door. I put her favourite doll on the other side of the door and when she hit the tamborine, I let her get it. She learned it in two tries..but far too well! Now if she hits the tambourine and I don't want her to go out, because I know it's just to play, I say no and she understands.


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## Cheetah (May 25, 2006)

Each of my dogs has developed their own way of letting me know they need out.

Eevee sits in front of me, pants in my face, and licks her chops a whole lot. To anyone else it's pretty subtle, but knowing her for 7 1/2 years, I know what it means lmao.

Shippo runs to the door, runs to me, runs to the door, runs to me, until I notice and take him out lol.


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