Bells for Pets

Some people have used bells that hang off of their doorknob to train dogs how to let them know when they want outside to use the bathroom. But how many of you have heard of a cat who has learned how to ring a bell to notify their owners of some sort of need?

Janet at Of Cats and Cardstock has taught her cat, Lily, how to ring a bell for food. Lily learned how to ring her bell for food and even got to the point that Janet had to confiscate the bell. However, Lily, being a very intellectual feline, found that one of her toys has a bell in it and decided to use that as the replacement for her bag of bells. 

Picture of Lily by Janet

Now that is a smart cat!

Teaching pets an alternative way to let us know things can come in handy, no more dog scratches in the door, and no more loud and crazy mewing from the cat who just wants an early dinner.

For the doggie "door bell" you could get some ribbon (probably 1" wide or wider) sew jingle bells or craft size cow bells every so often down the length of your ribbon (leaving a big enough empty spot at the top to tie around your doorknob.) And make the ribbon long enough for "Fido" to reach with his/her paw.

For the Kitty "dinner bell" get some scrap fabric (cotton or some other organic type that will not harm your cat if she chews on it) cut out 2 squares or rectangles (choose a size that you feel would be appropriate for your kitty. and sew together 3 sides with the side that you want to show, facing each other. Then flip the fabric right side out. Place a few jingle bells inside (you can also stuff it if you want the bells to sound more muffled) then stitch together the open end.

Hope your pet bell ringing training goes well!

And thank you Janet for allowing us to feature Lily in our blog!

Update:

From Janet: I actually got the idea to teach Lily because I knew of a dog who had been trained to use a doggie door bell as you describe. I'm sure Lily could have been trained with a hanging bag, just like a dog, but I used a cloth bag which sits on the floor next to her food bowl.

It took about 2 weeks of training for her to consistently ring the bells for food. At first I wiggled the bag with her paw so she'd hear the bells then gave her a nibble of her food. I kept doing this until she associated the sound with the food. I also repeated the command "ring the bell" until she learned to do it herself. I would love to hear any success stories! :)

From a Facebook friend:  our rabbit uses one, its rather silly, and adorable at the same time.