How to train with poochie bells?

[katie's mom]

Can someone give me step-by-step instructions as to how to train a dog to use poochie bells?  I don't know if I'm the idiot or if I just happened to get the only eskie on the planet who just isn't, well, very smart.  Of course she did manage to stumble into the decorative pond in my backyard yesterday morning and returned to the door dripping wet, so I think I'm putting my money on her. 

This is what I do--I'm going about my daily business and she gives me "the look" indicating that she needs to go out.  So we go to the back door and I command "Ring the bells!, Sadie!"  I repeat this somewhere between six and twelve times (with no anger in my voice, trust me) and then I scoot her forward, take a paw, and then use it to ring the bells.  I praise her as though she's found a cure for cancer and then open the door.  What's wrong here?  I remember that adorable little picture of Rosebud at, what?, 16-18 weeks ringing her poochie bells for all she was worth.  So what's up with me/Sadie?  Help!

[BanaerEskies]

don't give a command...she hasn't learned it, so it is meaningless words.

Put some peanut butter on the bell.  When she touches it reward and praise and open the door and let her out each time. This needs no words because you won't command her to do this behaviour, but you don't give a verbal command until AFTER the dog learns the behaviour. 

[Yukon]

Yup, I agree with Nancy.  The way I taught my guys was I would just ring the bell myself each time I opened the door to let them out.  After a couple of days of doing this every time, they associated the noise of ringing of the bell with going outside and started to do it themselves to let me know they wanted the door to open. I don't have specific paw swiping criteria with this -- Kiska just rubs it with her body to get the jingle -- for me, it's having the bells make the noise.

I don't think you need or want a command at all -- it's not that you want her to ring the bell when you tell her to, you want her to use the bells as a way of telling you that she wants to go out.  So you want her to ring the bell on her own without you telling her to do it. If you put it on a command, then she might think she is only allowed to ring the bell when you say so.

[Paula N.]

I've long realized that Sweet Pea is extremely intelligent and it took no time for her to learn to ring the bells.  I did the same essentially as Katie's mom, only I don't really issue commands.  I just told her you've got to ring the bells, and took her paw and hit or touched the bells.  Then opened the door.  She caught on in no time.  But now there is a problem.  Twice she has hit the bells and then yelped loudly.  She obviously hurt herself somehow and since she has been doing this hundreds of times, and only hurt herself twice, I can't imagine what the problem is.
 
Thinking that she caught a toenail in a bell, I examined the bells very closely, and saw that not only do they have little round holes, but those holes have very narrow slits running down to the bottom of the bell.  I can only suppose that she did indeed catch a toenail somewhere on one bell.  Now she is very wary of hitting the bells, although she still does.  She has always just sat in front of the door if she thought I could see her, and only rings the bells when I am in another room or can't see her.  She knows the difference!  As I said, she is super smart!