Deciding how I should go potty was an important decision in Mama and Daddy’s life. At first, Mama wanted to use me to use a litter box inside the house. When that didn’t pan out, they decided that I should go potty outside.

However, they didn’t want to install a doggy door because Daddy was afraid that someone would crawl inside the doggy door and rob us.

Daddy remembered faintly about reading somewhere that an owner used a “bell.” Upon ringing the “bell”, the owner would let the dog go outside to potty.

Mama visualized the “bell” as a receptionist bell, a small round bell with a little button on top. Under Mama’s vision, they would put a receptionist bell under a rubber mat. When I have to go potty, I should stand on top of the rubber mat.

On the other hand, Daddy visualized the “bell” as a string with a bunch of little bells tied to the door knob. When I have to go potty, I would hit the string with my nose.

Daddy won the argument (surprisingly). In protest, Mama decided that she was not going to go shopping with Daddy to buy the little bells. At the time, Mama was quite stubborn (still is).

Daddy went to JoAnn to purchase the little bells. Daddy’s memory of this shopping trip is a little blurry. Somehow prior to driving to JoAnn, Daddy got the idea that the little bells were called jingle bells but he wasn’t sure so he asked an assistant at JoAnn for help. The assistant, a blonde, wasn’t sure if the little bells were called jingle bells either. The assistant, holding a bag of little bells, asked another assistant whether these were jingle bells.

She replied, “those are jingle bells, YOU DORK.”

I got the hang of it right away. Mama would shake the string with the little bells, open the door, and take me outside to go potty. Upon successfully completion, Mama gave me a treat.

Later, I would hit the string with my nose when I have to go potty. There was one time when I rang the bell while Mama was on the phone. Mama didn’t come to the door because I went potty just an hour ago. Mama, however, didn’t realized that I was ringing the bell for Misty, my foster golden retriever buddy, who was living with us at the time. But that is a story for another time.

Mama told her sister about the string with the little bells and she decided to try it. Couple of months later, she removed the string because her dogs kept ringing it when they wanted to go play outside.