Make Your Own Inexpensive Dog Potty Training Bell

My Scottish Terriers, Murphy and Tiffany, are both 1 year old, with Murphy being just a few months older than Tiffany. I loved the idea of training them to use a bell instead of scratching the door to let us know when they needed to go outside and potty, but I did not love the price tag of the potty training bells available in pet stores. I thought $20 was really expensive for bells on a colorful ribbon, so I started brainstorming. I wanted something that would match my decor and not stick out against the wall. Here's what I came up with for less than $5! Supplies:

• Burlap Ribbon
• Keyrings
• Craft Bells
• Hot Glue Gun

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This project was very simple and has held up great with the dogs. First, I measured how long I wanted the ribbon to be, I also knew I wanted to add a little bow at the top so I added some extra length before I cut. Then I attached two bells to a keyring for the bottom.

 

Then I took the burlap ribbon and put it through the keyring with the bells on it. I overlapped by about an inch and hot glued the ribbon together on the backside. I could have used string or twine to stitch this, but I used hot glue because it didn't bleed through to the front of the burlap ribbon and it was less time consuming.

After I let the hot glue cool down, I used another keyring that I attached at the top of the potty training bell in order to hang it on the wall. I looped the burlap through the keyring into a faux box so that it would hide the keyring and the nail it would be hanging from. Then I hot glued the back of the bow and keyring to keep it all together.

 

While I was training the dogs I tied the potty bell to the door knob so that it would ring every time we opened the door and teach the dogs that bell means outside. I still remember the first time Murphy used the bell and how I excited I was and how many treats he learned that he would earn for ringing the bell! When we got Tiffany several months later, Murphy taught her how to use the bell and I was able to move it over to the wall where it is now. Here is Miss Tiffany sitting pretty asking to go outside!

 

This was an extremely easy project and a very rewarding project when the dogs figured out how to use it!