for those of you who use the bells for potty training, when do you ring the bell.

Do you ring the bell to get your dog to come to the door? or do you ring your bell after the leash is on and as you open the door?

trying to learn the most effective way of using the bells to teach Dallas

I dont use the bells but am considering it, i believe you are supposed to ring it when you get to the door to take them out so they notice that as their time for out signal. Let us know how it works out, my pups dont give signals for out just a certain body language and you cant have eyes on them at all times to see it.

Thanks I will share my updates, so far I do both I ring it to get his attention and then ring it again as were leaving and tell him "outside" Our husky gives us no body language the only thing we know for sure is when he is up from his nap he immediately goes pee, but thats it lol....hoping the bells work for us

The general idea is to teach your dog to ring the bell so that you can come and open the door, so you don't want to ring it to get the dog to come to the door.  

Remember, the dog is not going to be responding to the bell, you will be.  So you kinda have to set it up, or fake it, if you will.  The bell cues you, not your dog.

It is best to set the bell up with the dog not around because you'll never get him to leave it alone.  Once it's set up, just hang around the door. He will eventually come, and when he sees the bell, wait for him to touch it and ring it.  

Once he does, excitedly praise him and get your keys, shoes, leash, bags...and then open the door and go out with him.  

Repeat, repeat, repeat.  

The most difficult challenge with this is teaching him that it is not a toy and shouldn't be used just for amusement.  That said, it takes an extraordinary amount of patience and consistency from you because whenever he rings it, you need to go out with him.  You should only reward him outside when he pees/poops.  You don't want him to think bell = outside, you want him to think bell = pee/poop.  

This is best to do on your day off when you have a lot of time.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.  It is tough to get them to take it seriously, but stay with it and it will work.

the funny thing is he doesn't care for the bell, we hang out on the handle of our front door and have already shaken it so many times and he doesn't care for it as a toy, I hope that doesnt mean it wont work for him though :S

Good, that just makes it easier to train him then. My puppy was absolutely obsessed with the bell and I had to abandon this training for quite a while for him to forget about it.

lol yes to be honest i thought he would treat it like a toy, but he doesn't, im just bringing him to the door and taking his paw to hit the bell and then proceed to take him outside, and we always reward him with treats when he poops or pees thanks for all the advice though!!

No problem, good luck.