bell ringer

When I got Nugget, I decided to bell train him.  I didn't want him scratching to go outside, since our doors are wooden.  And Donald hates whining, so I didn't want him to whine to go out.  But I wanted to train him to signal to go out. I settled on bell training.  I went to the pet store to get bells...and they wanted 14.99- 19.99 apiece!  I figured I could make them cheaper. 

So, I headed to Hobby Lobby and purchased a wide brown grosgrain ribbon roll with multicolored swirlies and a narrow cream satin ribbon roll with pawprints in those same colors.  Ribbon being 50% off helped, too.  I bought  rings that open and close, created to hold cross stitch floss, but I used them as the part that goes around the doorknob.  I also bought key rings to hold the bells.  And of course, I bought the bells.  Hobby Lobby being ready for Christmas already was nice, since I got to have a lot of options!  All total, I spent $8 on supplies for 2 potty chimes.  Not bad at all.

Since I am not a sewer, I used hot glue to put the smaller ribbon on the larger one, then I threaded it through the top and bottom rings and glued it shut.  I even made bows and glued those on!  Yay for hot glue!!

2 days later, I took Nugget with me to my mom's house.  He had only used the bell once unprompted.  I took the bells with us, and hung them on the doors at mom's, but since people were constantly in and out of the house, we didn't really use them.  When I came home, I realized I had left them there.

We went to Bryan's the next weekend and I had not had time to remake them.

Last week I finally remade them.  I had to rebuy ribbon, but it was still on sale for half price.  I also rebought bells, but I still had several rings.  In the end, I spent $13 and made 4 sets of potty chimes!

The first couple days after I remade them, he would only use them if I told him to "ring the bell" and pointed at it.  But yesterday and today, he has used them regularly without prompting.  I take him out as soon as he rings and he goes!  I'm so glad it's working!!

And, since pictures always help, here are my potty chimes!  (These are actually pics of the first set I made, but the second set used the same materials, so they look about the same.)

Front door chimes with pawprint bow.

Backdoor chimes with swirlie bow.

Actually, looking closely, I realize my bows look much better on the second set.  I winged it on the first go.  I watched the Martha Stewart ribbon bow tutorial on the second time around.  I'm not kidding.  I might post pics just to show how much I've improved!

I wanted both bows to be the swirlies, since so little of the swirlie ribbon shows up in the background.  But both times, I ran short of it and had to make one bow from each kind.  Oh well, it's still cute!