Train to ring a doorbell?

[arianin]

I have an almost 6month old BC called Sam, he learns very quickly, the one thing that I would love is when he is out in the back garden and has finished his business he asks to come in by barking and scratching my back door, this is leaving horrible scratches on my door and not good noise for the neighbours, I would like to place a door bell at nose/paw height and teach him to press that instead! ,any ideas on the best way to do this, or am I just barking lol!!!

[Root Beer]

I have an almost 6month old BC called Sam, he learns very quickly, the one thing that I would love is when he is out in the back garden and has finished his business he asks to come in by barking and scratching my back door, this is leaving horrible scratches on my door and not good noise for the neighbours, I would like to place a door bell at nose/paw height and teach him to press that instead! ,any ideas on the best way to do this, or am I just barking lol!!!

 

Is it possible to get one that could rest on the ground?

 

I taught all of my dogs to touch an Easy Button with their paws through shaping. It was, excuse the pun, extremely easy.

 

As far as teaching him to press it when he wants in - that's an interesting challenge. I would probably start by teaching him to hit the button and then start taking him out and having him hit the button as we go in together, so he starts to associate hitting the button with going inside. It's possible that would become routine and he might start to throw that behavior at you before you cue it. Then you could position yourself at the door, and cue the touch to the button, and repeat until he begins to offer it before you cue it. Then see if he will offer it if you are out of sight.

 

That might work and could be very fun. I wish you the best with your training.

[mburtis]

how funny we have a almost six month collie named sam too. and neat ideal

[diane allen]

Maybe I'm missing something here (happens a lot...), but could you just hang a bell (like a smaller, quieter version of a cow bell) on the door? That way, he'd hear it when he went out, and associate the sound with "door opening." When he wanted to come back in, maybe he could just hit the bell with his nose or foot - hopefully without scratching the door!

 

diane

 

p.s.: I've never bought one, but believe you can get plastic or metal "plates" to install across the bottom of doors - to keep them from getting kicked by human feet, and possibly would work for dog claws as well!

[ejano]

What about starting with the easy button and moving to progressively smaller buttons....I like this idea. the cowbell for the inside and the doorbell for outside.

 

Liz

[jvw]

I taught my last pup to ring a set of bells when he wanted to go out. He learned very quickly. I just at first shook the bells and then put him out. After three times he figured it out. I never thought about setting it up for him to come in. I always had to call him back in, he wanted to stay out all the time!

 

Jennifer