Dogs do not always do a great job of communicating. Besides barking (and possibly licking), they cannot speak and have no other ways of showing you what they need. When your dog needs to pee, it may not be able to tell you, and too much excitement can lead to accidents indoors. That is why many dog owners like to make sure that their dogs learn to notify them when they need to go outside, in order to reduce accidents and improve the comfort of your pet.

Training Your Dog to Let You Know it Wants to Go Outside

There are two ways to train your dog to give you some type of notification it needs to go outside. The first is a general training method, for those that want to take the time to train their dog as though it is a trick.

                1)      Come up with a command for your pet to learn.

                2)      Brainstorm a trick that will notify you to go outside. For some it is standing near the door. For others it is tying a bell up to the door and training their dogs to ring it.

                3)      When your dog does the trick, reward them not with treats but by taking them outside.

Almost all dogs love to go outside, and when you use going outside as a reward, your dog will learn that if it wants to go out, it needs to perform the trick.

The other way to teach your dog to notify you is to pay close attention to your dog’s behaviors. When you are fairly certain that your dog needs a bathroom break (one that is hopefully not too urgent), simply watch your dog as it walks around your home. Once it passed by the door, praise your dog and immediately take it outside. Continue this every time you take your dog out to the bathroom

This latter method is a considerably slower process, but many people do not want to take the time to train their dog on a new trick just to go out. Similarly, a dog that learns that by ringing a bell it can be taken out may do so quite often, especially if it is bored inside the house, so the training may not be ideal for those dogs that are living in apartments. Home owners with a backyard, on the other hand, can likely afford this inconvenience since letting your dog run free in the backyard is far less time consuming.

But both of these trainings can be considerably useful for those that want to reduce their dog’s accidents and ensure that their dog is not bored.