How do your cavs let you know they have to go?

For those of you whose cavs are fully housetrained, how do they let you know that they have to go outside, and when did they start doing it regularly? Quincy is only a little over 4 months old, and I certainly don't expect him to be trained yet, but I'm just curious how old your dogs were, and how they let you know. Right now, Quincy will stare at me, and he'll bark if I ask him if he has to go outside. He does this about half the time, although sometimes he just wants to go out to chew leaves or sticks!

Also, does anyone here bell train? I've been ringing a bell everytime we go out. He's rang the bell himself a couple of times. I know some dogs never get the whole bell thing, but Quincy is pretty smart, so I'm hoping he'll catch on.

I wish I had thought of bell training. The real advantage I see to that is that you could take the bells wherever you went. Both Max and Mindy go to the door when they need to go out. Mindy will bark if she needs to go out at night but that is the only time (I guess she gets tired of waiting for us?). They will both sit rather patiently for me to let them out - sometimes Max will scratch if we don't get there soon enough. When Max first "got" the idea of going out to do his business on his own he would run to the door and more often than not wouldn't stop before he got there. It was very funny. He has gotten more co-ordinated with age.

Max was pretty easy to train but Mindy helped train him I'm sure. Also I think because we got him at nine weeks we were able to start early with him.

harley waits by the back door, if nobody comes to let him out he walks in and out and in and out stopping and stareing at me, right into my eyes, that makes me ask, what do you want, then his ears shoot up and he runs whineing to the back door, honestly you wouldnt think it would take us so long to cotton on, still we are still in training obviously. di

My dog, who's two years old now and I'd say she's pretty well potty trained, doesn't tell me anything during the day. She's been on a schedule since I got her so she just knows that she's going out and doesn't really have to worry about it.

At night or when she's sick, that's when she tells me and it's different for the time of day. If it's during the day, she gets really antsy and I just go ahead and take her out. At night, she goes and sits by the door and if I don't notice her within about 5 minutes, she'll whine a little, and then if I still don't notice her in 10-15 minutes, she'll give one solitary bark. It's always a surprise because she very rarely ever barks.

Oiver, who is 8, will bark if I'm not within sight or "harumph" if I'm nearby when he needs to go out. Both of my girls just sit looking at the door, never making a sound, just waiting for me to notice them. Oz, who is just under 2, will come find me and give me a little bark, jump up on me and immediately jump down and then make a beeline for the door. If we are in the kitchen, which is the door they always go out to the backyard from, he will sit by the door and whine if I don't notice him soon enough.

In the daytime I just let Jasper out at random times during the day and if he wants to go out he just gives a little woof at the door and in the colder months when the door is closed he just gives a woof to come in, at night time as he is up with us and he needs to go which is not very often he either scratches at the door or gives a little woof again, he has had accidents over the years, when he was younger he used to pee in the house, he was never left for long periods as I only work part time and locally, he grew out of it but we think it seemed to be separation anxiety.

During the day Lucie(3yrs old) will hit the back door loudly if she needs out.Although since we have an 11 mth old pup Sasha we have regular potty breaks in our routine anyway.Sasha does nothing to get out....no barkign,hitting door....nothing!I think she just relies on her big sis

If its during the night when one of them are ill then they bark.....and i hear them cause i put my baby monitor on. Means they dont wake the kids!

Jasper just pops out through the catflap into the run outside :badgrin: Failing this he will hold, such as if there's an awkward cat preventing his exit. Handy for when he's alone in the house, but we're going to have to think hard for the future, because that's where the conservatory is going! I'm thinking of another catflap out of the conservatory into an adjoining run!

Our Abigail who is almost 10 months lets us know by barking and running to any outside door (not necessarily the one I want her to use)

Heather R

Sun paces by the door, sometimes she will scratch at the door...followed by the "hurry up and do my biding" look.

Both of mine have several tactics. In the event that they need to go during the night (rare), they sit at the end of the bed and bark (they sleep on the bed with me). During the day, they either just stand by the doggy door at the back door and stare at me, or if they really need to go, they will scratch at it. My doggy door is a power pet one and it either has to be opened by a sensor on their collar, or they have to have it opened by me. I don't have it set up for them to let themselves in and out, I have to manually do it since I'd rather be supervising them. I worry more ever since when Bandit was little and hawks came after him.

I bell trained Chelsea at about 4-5 months, she was a dream compaired to Vivian. At about 7 months put in the larger dog door from the laundy to garage and an electronic door garage to back yard. That was very easy to train.

Vivian another story. At almost 6 months, she is 90% bell trained to pee. I broke down and started letting her sleep on the bed so I could sleep(she was wining at 3 am every day even though I ignored her) she sleep to max of 630 then jumps down and 'forgets' to ring the bell for the am constitutional:sl*p::sl*p:. She will follow Chelsea out the dog door and sometimes comes in herself, but forgets at times. Just keep at it.

Indy was good about going to the door when she was younger, but she would go, stand there a bit, and if you didn't see her then she would do off in the bathroom and potty there (obviously if we didn't let her out when she was at the door it was ok for her to go inside, right!?). She started scratching the door or barking to go out around 9 months maybe. When we got Charlie and got him house trained, he just waits for Indy to go out, and he tags along. Just before he turned 2 years old did he ever use his voice to tell me he had to go potty. He must have had to go bad, cause he woke up in the night, sat by our bed, and whimpered until I woke up. Such good kids.

Although Indy now uses the pawing a bit too much and has torn some of the threads on the front of the couch pawing at it for us to throw her ball or help her up (although in her defense the couch is made of cheap fabric).

Lucky rings the bells. He's great at it, and when he REALLY needs to go out (has diarrhea ...), he rings them like he means it. I can really tell when he's not kiddings vs. when he just wants to go and chase squirrels.

Every time we go out I have Sparky ring them. He will ring them sometimes on his own, but not as much as Lucky. If Sparky needs to go out he will sit right in front of me and BARK until he has my attention and I take him out. Not how I'd prefer he communicate, but it gets the job done. :rotfl:

We *just* got a tellbell (tellbell.com) two days ago, and Maggie is already using it. She got the hang of it really fast. She still needs a little prompting, but she is getting more confident.

It's adorable and stops the scratching to save our back door.

We joke that we're now spaniel concierges.

Ellie uses her poochie bells. I bought it when she was about 4 months old, and she learnt to use it the same day. She somtimes uses it when the door is open...... I dont like her barking, so the bells are great:smile:

bells

we started josh at 2 months where we'd carry him to the door, ring the bell and say outside...3 months he'd walk to the door, but we'd ring the bell for him and say 'outside?'...he eventually got it at 4 months to go to the door and ring the bell and then look back at us to make eye contact...he became very consistant and 99% potty trained by 6 months...

our newest pup came home and we started the same thing at 2 months...she got the hang of the bell at 2 weeks being home...she'd ring the bell, and we'd ask 'do you want to go OUTSIDE?' -- then she'd ring the bell again to say 'YES"...when she has the urgency to go outside, she'll ring and ring and ring the bell...if we don't come quick enought, she'd start pull and biting the bell and shaking her head to tell us to 'GET A MOVE ON IT CUZ I HAVE TO REALLY GO'...she's now 4 months and seems even better at communicating her potty needs to us than our 1st pup was...

the problem i have now is how they can tell me they have to go when we are not at home in our family room, OR if we are in other areas of the house...this I haven't figured out yet -- soo we just make sure we know when they've last gone and are sure to take them out when they start pacing or staring into our eyes...

their still pups, so we are still learning...

i like someone's previous idea of taking the 'bells' with us when we visit other homes...we never thought of that...thanks!

The Tell Bell looks good, i would like to try this for our girls, amazon.com won't post to UK, does anyone know a UK company who sells the Tell Bell???

Yoko tends to pace and if we dont notice her she jumps up on the couch and looks in my face and whines....I love the bell idea though!!

The bell I use is just a regular desk bell, or hotel bell - the kind you find on a counter in a hotel, diner, etc. I bought it for about $4 at Staples (office supply store). Quincy rings it with his nose!