[nagdu] I gotta go out

[Raven Tolliver]

Tracy,
I don't blame you for being annoyed one bit. It isn't unreasonable for
us to have certain expectations of these dogs when we get them. And
unfortunately, there's no user manual for our specific dog, saying
this behavior means your dog needs this, etc.
One thing GEB told us is that if our dogs won't lie down and are
pacing, or they do lie down when we tell them, but keep jumping up,
it's likely that they need to go outside. Of course, you only notice
this stuff if your dog is in the same room as you.
Krokus might be drinking more due to the heat, so naturally, he'll
need to relieve himself more frequently.

Julie's way of teaching the behavior is what I would suggest. Our dogs
pick up on things more quickly than we realize, and there's no need to
use any reinforcement other than going outside to do their business. I
mean, the first few times Krokus rings the bell to go outside, I might
praise him up for it.

My puppy-raisers did this with the Golden Guy. Unfortunately, the
Golden Guy loves being outside like other dogs love grabbing up food,
so he would ring the bell if he wanted to go outside. He transferred
this behavior to my household since we also have a bell hanging from
the patio doors. My raisers had warned me about this though, so I
would only take him outside if I noticed his other got-to-go signs.
When he needs to relieve himself, he will usually not lay down,
walking about restlessly, and might come sit beside me and perhaps
groan a bit if he has to go badly.

He did poop in my apartment once when I had my bedroom door closed. He
was in the living room, and wasn't able to get to me to tell me he
needed to go out. That was obviously my fault.

Good luck. Hang up a bell and he'll learn it in no time.
-- 
Raven
Founder of 1AM Editing & Research
www.1am-editing.com

You are valuable because of your potential, not because of what you
have or what you do.

Naturally-reared guide dogs
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/nrguidedogs

On 8/7/15, larry d keeler via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> That works! When Holly wants to go out, she comes to me and bangs her head
> on my leg until I grab the leash!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie J. via
> nagdu
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2015 12:30 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Cc: Julie J.
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] I gotta go out
>
> Danielle's description is what I intended to do.  Now for what actually
> happened!
>
> I live in a tiny town with no craft and hobby store.  The kind of bells I
> wanted, the large round jingle bells, are only available around Christmas
> because they are sold as a Christmas decoration.   When I found them I
> bought them immediately and hung them on the back door.  I figured I'd get
> to the training part in a couple of days, but was busy with all the things
> that go with the holidays and my son's birthday is in there too.   In the
> meantime I just gave the bells a jingle right before I opened the door to
> take the dogs out.  I did zero training.  Just tap the bells while saying,
> "outside" and opened the door.  Within two days both Monty and Belle were
> jingling the door bells to go out pretty consistently.
>
> A warning about the bells...smart dogs catch on to the fact that when they
> ring the bells a person comes immediately.  They will put 2 and 2 together
> and will start ringing the bells when they want you to come to attend to
> other needs, like to fill the water bowl, food, to play or just to say
> their
>
> bored and want to go out to goof around.   To me it's not a huge deal.  I
> figure at least we are communicating and we can figure out what the need is
> when I get to the door.
>
> HTH
> Julie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/lkeeler%40comcast.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/ravend729%40gmail.com
>