A question submitted during our recent House Soiling in Dogs webinar:
Any tips for teaching pups to indicate they need to go out?
There are lots of operant behaviors one could train out of context and then implement immediately before taking the dog outside.
Ring the bell or go to the door are common behaviors people train.
The problem most people run into is they try to train these behaviors when the dog really has to eliminate. Needless to say, a dog's ability to concentrate on operant learning tasks in the middle of a profound need to eliminate are about what you'd expect given the human experience of the same problem. Just not so hot.
Train elimination cues AHEAD of when the dog needs to urinate or defecate until they are super fast and super reliable BEFORE you attempt to implement them immediately before taking the dog outside.
In the meantime, this is what umbilical training achieves for people that other types of training do not. That is, it forces PEOPLE to recognize cues that puppy has to go out (sniffing, sudden change in behavior, whining, circling, anogenital checking, panting when it's not hot, etc).
I hope this helps!
