Potty Training - Sealing the Deal
By OwnedByPugs.com
March 7th, 2006
The worst memories I have involving Benjamin and Henry's "puppyhood" all revolve around potty training. Henry was fairly easy to potty train. But Benjamin was a nightmare.
Benjamin did a great job of doing his business outside if you were constantly watching him and you were able to take him outside before he really needed to go. However, if you weren't watching him and he needed to go potty, it didn't register to him that he was supposed to go to the bathroom outside. Instead, he was perfectly content to just pick any old random spot inside the house.
Now, I know that most of the responsibility of potty training relies on the owner and it is our job to keep an eye on our pugs and make sure we are able to take them outside to relieve their doggie bladders. I did just this and the boys were starting to develop a routine and on most days Benjamin did not need to take any additional potty breaks between our regularly scheduled walks. But, when he did need to go out, he did not know how to tell me. Henry would go over to the door and whine, but Benjamin didn't give me any warning signs (none at least that I picked up on). Instead he just did his business in the house.
This was really frustrating for me because we went outside to go potty many, many times a day. I had read numerous books on house training dogs and I was following all their advice. Desperate, a friend gave me some advice that finally worked.
Her suggestion was to tie a bell on a piece of string and hang it from the door knob of the door that you use to take your pug out to go potty. The string must be long enough that your pug can easily touch it with his paw.
Once you have "installed" the bell, be sure that each time that you bring puggie outside to "do his business" that you ring the bell before you go out the door. The object is to have the pug associate the ringing of the bell with needing to go potty so that they will learn to ring the bell if they need to go out.
Now, when my friend shared this with me all I could do was laugh. I couldn't even get Benjamin potty trained, how could I get him to ring a bell?
Despite my doubts, I was desperate so I decided to give it a shot. I hung the bell on the door and every day for about 3 weeks I rang the bell every time we went outside. Still, nothing was clicking with Benjamin.
Until one day, I was working in the kitchen when I heard the bell ring. I immediately dropped everything, scooped up some treats and darted to the door. Sure enough, Benjamin was pacing by the door. We headed outside and Benjamin went potty right away. After he finished, I praised him like nothing he had ever seen before. The neighbors probably thought I was nuts, but we just had a major breakthrough!
Despite our breakthrough, I was still skeptical thinking that his bell ringing was just a fluke. But I decided to be optimistic and test him a bit by taking out a few of our regularly scheduled potty breaks. Most of the walks were extra and the boys didn't always go potty, but I always tried to avoid Benjamin having accidents in the house by taking him out frequently. With the extra walks removed, Benjamin was forced to let me know that he had to go potty. Day after day, Benjamin would ring the bell and we would go outside and he would do his business. I couldn't believe it, Benjamin was potty trained!
We kept the bell on the door for a few months and then we removed it because Benjamin learned to scratch on the door to let us know that he had to go potty. And to this day Benjamin still will give a nice big scratch on the door when he needs to go potty. Thankfully, we haven't had a potty accident in years! (Knock on wood!)
