Pup stands at the back door but doesnt whimper (barks, skin, train)

[dizzybint]

My six month old pup is housetrained and doing great but he wont tell me when he needs to go out the back for a pee pee..I have to keep watching him and see if hes near the door where he ll sit staring at the closed door.... he barks or cries for food or to get back into a room where the door has closed so why not to pee as well...On nice days I leave the back door open all day and he just goes in and out but on wet or cold days its closed over..any ideas.

[subject2change]

Hang a bell over the doorknob or on the wall at nose height, ring it every time you let him out, and hopefully he'll catch on to the idea of ringing it himself. I wish this trick had been around when we had my childhood dog. She also sat by the door waiting for someone to notice her. We felt really bad sometimes when we realized she must have been sitting there for a long time! Or when you see him, start asking him "Do you want to go outside?" in an engaging tone to try to get him to whimper, and let him out after he does.
The fact that he's signalling you at all is a good thing. Good dog!

[Rowan123]

I second the bell idea. Still he is telling you he needs out - he's just telling you very quietly! Until you can get him trained you'll just have to remember to check the back door every so often. Good luck!

[Jumpindogs]

Originally Posted by subject2change

Hang a bell over the doorknob or on the wall at nose height, ring it every time you let him out, and hopefully he'll catch on to the idea of ringing it himself. I wish this trick had been around when we had my childhood dog. She also sat by the door waiting for someone to notice her. We felt really bad sometimes when we realized she must have been sitting there for a long time! Or when you see him, start asking him "Do you want to go outside?" in an engaging tone to try to get him to whimper, and let him out after he does.
The fact that he's signalling you at all is a good thing. Good dog!

We did this with our first Aussie and he ended up ringing the bell whenever he wanted to go outside for anything...lots and lots of bell ringing! We removed the bell.

If you do decide to train this I would strongly suggest you teach your dog that the bell is only for potty breaks and not for any other outdoor activity. That means you can only allow pottying for every single bell ring and never allow playing or sniffing or any other outdoor activity for any bell ring. That will take some thoughtful effort and consistency along with a leash to manage the activity by every single family member. It's not fair to the dog to merely decide not to honor all bell rings unless you teach him specifically what the bell ring is for. Merely deciding that you're not gonna take him out for a bunch of bell rings after he just pottied will confuse him (since he thinks a bell ring means he goes outside) and dilute the behavior response you desire.

Of course if your dog doesn't really like being outside then nearly constant bell ringing likely won't be an issue.

We naturally keep an eye on our dogs...granted pretty easy to do since we have Aussies and they feel a need to be involved in everything we do by following us from room to room...and when one is not at our side we go looking for them after a few minutes. At the door means we go out for potty and personally I think that's a great signal from a smart dog.

[Normashirley]

I have a 12 yr old dog that STILL won't ask to go outside.

I have always had to pay attention to when she starts cold staring me down for longer than 30 seconds.

When I was working, the first thing I did when I walked in The door was let the dogs out or, in her case make her go out because she wasn't going out the door on HER terms

[Sunflower--girl]

I tried bells but my dog never got it. Then I saw the Pebble Smart Doggie Doorbell. She understood the concept within a week. I have them mounted inside and out so she can let me know when she wants to go out and come back in. I love it!