Sampson was taught to ring a bell to go out when we lived at our other house, but our current house doesn’t have a great place to hang my bell set. (The damn thing keeps getting shut in the door if I hang it on the knob and I refuse to let Hubby make a hole in the door frame.)
So when I was contacted by Keith at PebbleSmart to review his Doggie Doorbell, I jumped at the chance.
Truthfully, I’m not so much worried about the dogs letting me know they want out, but the idea of them letting me know they were ready to come in is pretty awesome. It beats Delilah standing at the door and barking her fool head off.
PLUS there was that time this past summer, when I thought Sampson was inside and he wasn’t, and Hubby and I went out and left him outside. Talk about feeling bad.
Seriously, dogs scratching or barking to go out/come in can be damaging. To your door and your ears, and depending on how enthusiastic they are, they could damage their nails or paws.
PLUS the thing that I’m not real fond of is the smudges on my glass doors. Really, who thought glass doors would be a good idea?
My first suggestion to you, is to watch the video on Keith’s website and the second suggestion is to read the whole manual before you start ANYTHING. I could have had this review done sooner if I’d known that adhesive was included (instead of waiting for Hubby to install it. Although I do have to share, the area I put the doorbell was wood and the adhesive didn’t stay, so Hubby did add some screws.) Also, I could have saved a whole lot of doorbell noise, if I’d read to install PebbleSmart first, AND THEN INSERT THE BATTERIES.
Needless to say, it was a pretty noisy morning the day I installed it.
PebbleSmart is named after Keith’s dog, Pebble. This doggie doorbell is easy to install and comes with everything you need to set it up and get started training your dog right away.
The three basic pieces of PebbleSmart
The instructions that come with the doorbell tell you exactly HOW to train your dogs to use it. My thought is you could also teach your dogs to ring (or touch) PebbleSmart BEFORE you install it, which might make transitioning easier.
PebbleSmart
We’ve been working on this for close to a week now. Truthfully some days are better than others. Sampson seems to take to it quite easily but Delilah is still a work in progress. As you’ll see in the video the first morning she HADN’T had breakfast and was super excited which makes it hard to work with her.
Keith put a lot of thought into the PebbleSmart.
It comes with adhesive for easy application.
The unit is easy to put together.
There’s a handy treat holder that’s easily removable to help train your dog.
It has 36 choices for the alert, so if you’re not a Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong fan you’re sure to find something to suit you.
The volume is adjustable so if you’re in a different part of the house you can turn it up so you can hear it better.
While the volume is adjustable, even at the lowest setting seemed to be too loud for Delilah. Keith suggests putting the unit in another room while your dog adjusts to the sound.
Even that was too much for Delilah. Sunday when Sampson was training, Delilah was hiding in the bathroom shoving her head between Hubby’s legs (I remedied this by wrapping the PebbleSmart in cotton and a piece of material and placing it in a plastic baggie.)
You can purchase PebbleSmart directly from PebbleSmart and Keith tells me he ships the product the same business day, and you can also purchase it at Amazon. (If you do purchase from Amazon, we may receive a small commission.) And if you hurry, you can still get it in time for Christmas.
Have you ever considered a doggie doorbell? How does your dog let you know (s)he wants in or out?
This post is sponsored by PebbleSmart. I have been compensated for sharing this product with you, but Heart Like a Dog only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. PebbleSmart is not responsible for the content of this article.
Ducky barks her fool head off at us until we figure out what she wants (to go out or play). Shadow just sits quietly at the door until we notice, unless she REALLY has to go out – then she kind of whimpers and barks at the same time, or comes to find me wherever I am in the house.
Sampson is SO SMART. What a learner! Delilah, on the other hand, is absolutely hilarious. She takes food motivated to new heights. My little meatball doesn’t even know enough to go by the door. She just waits for me to say it’s time to go out. No sense of urgency whatsoever. I’m not complaining, by the way. This works fine for me!
Sampson is brilliant! But then we knew that already 😉 Poor Delilah is so excited about FOOD it’s hard for her to think straight. Great review and I love your video demonstration of training. With two dogs with different learning curves it gives a better idea of how it might go at my house. (Rosie is also food obsessed.) I’ve seen these somewhere else, clicked through to read more about them and have them bookmarked. Jeffie was the one who gave a soft woof to get in. Rosie and Rudy are silent and tap the door. Not really a big deal on the glass door, but my poor back door shows the marks 🙁
Ha! We knew we liked you. This is one of our very favorite products of all time and we also use it to come in! Katie never learned to use it because she didn’t like the bell either, but she was fine with it if I would be the ringer. We’ve had ours for a couple years and it even works when it is -20F out! I love it because if Mom tries to ignore me ringing, I just keep ringing and she has to let me in! We highly recommend this, and if you have guests over and the dogs ring the bell, they always find it hilarious!
Do they use it if you are not standing there giving them treats? If wanting to come in (or go out is the object) why wouldn’t you reward them with that rather than food? Touch go out (or come in) rather than adding food to the equation. I hope this makes sense.
This is cool. Cocoa comes over to us and paws at us until we take her out. She is not subtle at all!!
Oh Delilah – that is good stuff. I would not have been surprised to see her knock you down for those treats. She sure as shooting wasn’t about to demean herself by pressing that bell for a treat – she looked like she was about to take your finger off at one point.
God bless whoever was responsible for inventing the dog door. The invention of the dog door has probably saved countless people (including me) from going insane opening the door for their dog(s) multiple times throughout the day.
Aren’t you glad at least Sampson understood what you wanted so you didn’t feel like a complete failure? 😉
I love these clever people who see a need for a product that makes living with our dogs easier and more pleasant.
This is such an interesting idea. When my parent’s watched Haley not too long ago, they asked how she tells me when she needs to go outside. I said, “She’ll just give you a look and tell you”. As you can imagine, that wasn’t very helpful to them, lol. This doorbell would be great if dogs are trained to use it.
I have definitely been thinking of trying one of these ever since I saw it on Emma’s blog. Right now the dogs paw at the door, and that scritching noise drives me crazy (Sheba is the most persistent) plus our glass doors are all scratched up and always dirty. If I don’t get right there then they just keep doing it!
Of course, I realize if I’m not fast enough that eventually the ringing will probably drive me crazy too, but at least the doors won’t be getting ruined. 🙂
I hope you’ll keep us posted on how Sampson and Delilah are coming along with it!