Along with schooling myself on all things puppy, I’ve had to learn the fine art of potty training my new pup. (I hate to call it “house breaking” because that sounds rather harsh) Mimi is doing okay and only had a few “accidents” thus far, because we try to take her outside every few hours. However, eventually she must be taught what to do to let us know she has to “go.” This was fairly easy when we trained Murphy, as he’s a very vocal dog and will stand and bark aggressively at us when he needs to take a pee or poop until we let him out, but Mimi is a tiny girl and not very vocal (which is SOOO nice), but it makes it difficult for us to know when she needs out.

Many dogs send subtle signals or sit by the door when they want out, but it’s easy to miss these signals, especially when we’re busy or in another room. This can lead to those annoying “accidents by the door” and when that happens the doggie feels bad, we feel bad, and it’s just an all-around pain in the butt.

But Poochie Bells offer a stylish solution. These bells are hung on the doorknob of the “outside” door, and dogs are trained to “ring” them when they need to go out. The signal is loud and clear, and in a way it’s like the dogs are “training” us to come open the door when they ring. So, we become like their butlers or something. There is even an online tutorial on how to train your pooch to use the bells, courtesy of my favorite Boston Terrier website, Little Beasts .Com.

Anyway, the bells are just lovely, very elegant, and they come in your choice of black or red straps with four twinkly silver bells. They are very reasonably priced and can double as holiday décor! Plus, 10% of the purchase price goes to the dog rescue organization of your choice.

I plan to try to teach Murphy to use the bells as well, as I believe a gentle jingle of the bells would be much more pleasant than his militant barking. Hopefully, they’ll both soon be “jingling for the john.”