dog training ring bell

What kind of tricks have you taught your box turtle?
I know a girl that used a bell to potty train her dog. After a while the dog rung the bell and told her when he needed to go outside. She is hoping that by ringing a bell in the turtles cage each time she feeds him he will start to associate food with it and ring it himself when he is hungry. Think it will work? It works for dogs and cats always associate noises with food, like can openers. Any pointers on how I can teach my box turtle some decent stuff?
Turtles are hard to train- they do not respond to noises (but do for vibrations), and it is hard to use hunger to reward an animal that can go a month without food.
Most turtles quickly learn that a certain pattern of vibrations plus seeing the same person means they are going to get fed. You can train them to come for food when you open the habitat, or tap on a rock, etc.- but that is not necessarily a good thing. It is not a very natural behavior.
A word to the wise- if you want a small pet to train to do tricks, get a pet rat!
Teach Your Dog Ring Bell
Categories: Dog training Tags: bell, dog, housetraining, potty, training
Should You Get An Indoor Potty?
The first solution in training and accidents was to pick a spot, lay down some newspaper and make sure that your dog got there in time to use it. Newspaper scraps have been used for trying to teach your dog how to recognize their own scent and to ensure that they would keep going in the same spot should they be indoors for quite some time.
The puppy pad was the next generation of potty training. You basically used the pad just like the newspaper. The pad went into a certain spot and “ta-da” your dog would eventually begin to use just the puppy pad and not the corner of the couch. The pad was versatile and a bit more convenient than newspaper because you could use it in crate training and for traveling and the added bonus was that the pad was mainly just a big square diaper that soaked up all the wetness and still left the surface that it was sitting on nice and dry. All in all, the pad was a step up from using newspaper but its major flaw was being too much like the original.
The next step was to go beyond the pad and add the crate. The thought process behind crate training is that a dog won’t go potty where it sleeps. Many dog owners have been successful at crate training. In order for crate training to really work, you need to make sure that the crate size you are using is big enough for your dog to be comfortable but not big enough for them go potty and not lay in it.
All of the above methods for potty training have been used for a number of years and many people have had a good success rate with them. Again, the outcome depends on the owner, the dog and their environment. There are a few questions that come to mind that the prior methods listed don’t really cover.
1. What do you do if your dog is unable due to health reasons to get outside to go potty?
2. What do you do if your dog just refuses to go potty outside?
3. What do you do, if as the owner there are times when you are unable to get your dog outside to go potty?
There’s only one answer to those questions that represents an actual solution to the problem and that is by using an indoor dog potty.
These are an indoor combination of a litter box and a puppy pad; without the litter. It is a plastic container with a grate that covers the inside of the box. You place a pad in the bottom of the box, attach the grate and your dog can go potty and still be sanitary because their paws and legs won’t be getting wet. Think more along the lines of the bottom of a birdcage and you’ll have an idea of how it works.
Although teaching your puppy to go outside is still preferable, this could represent one solution to your dogs needs, and yours.
Categories: Dog potty Tags: Dog potty, dog products, housetraining, Indoor dog potty
Housebreaking A Puppy – How To Correct For Housebreaking
Categories: Puppy training Tags: crate Training, dog, dog housebreak, Dog training, housebreaking, housetraining, Potty Training, puppy, Puppy training

