System to tell if a dog needs to go outside

Question

We have two dogs, one who looks at you and barks if you don’t notice within a few minutes. And one puppy who runs off to the door and if you don’t notice, she will just pee in front of the door.

So we were thinking about an rfid tag and some kind of system that will sound an alarm or send a notification to your phone.

Has anyone got any recommendations or alternative thoughts? Thanks!

Answer 1

Just give the puppy some time. What you described sounds pretty normal. She clearly wants out, just lacks the necessary control for now.

However, here's a simple idea you can try. It depends on the dogs intelligence and won't necessarily work with all breeds:

• Get a small bell, put it on a band and hang it somewhere close to the door in a way allowing you to ring it audible, just by touching/pushing it, and it being in range of the dogs.
• Hanging it on the handle with a thick cord might be a good idea, too.
• Now whenever you're going outside with the dogs, make sure to ring the bell yourself. If you're using the cord on the handle, unlock the door with the handle, then pull on the cord.
• Make this a habit and the dogs should over time associate the bell with going outside, so you should start seeing them ring it on their own, especially if they just can't wait.
• If this sounds a bit over the top remember it's essentially the same as them learning to use handles directly or simply push/pull open doors.