potty training - signals

Question
We have a 1-year old miniature dachshund named Whitney. We got her from a Dachshund Rescue about 6 weeks ago. She was spay about 8 weeks ago. She is partially potty trained, but it is definitely a work in progress. Whitney stays in a crate while we are at work, and does fine in there. She sleeps in bed with us at night, and usually makes it the whole night without getting up. We have several days at a time where she will have no accidents, then we have several days where she has several accidents each day (and will even get up in the night and have an accident). We stay with her outside and praise her "good potties." I think Whitney knows that she should potty outside, but she doesn't tell us when she needs to go outside. How do we get her to signal her need to go to the bathroom? Would bell training be appropriate? If so, how does that work? Also, Whitney can hold it for many hours during the day, but will go at times every half hour in the evening. Is that something we should worry about?

Answer
To get her to start 'telling' you when she needs to go, you are going to have to stop taking her out at specific times, and simply keep an eye on her. When you notice her sniffing around, or starting to squat, that's when you should take her outside. Before long, she should start going to the door on her own.

I've never used a bell or anything, but what I would do would be to install it at her nose-level, and teach her to touch it with her nose on cue. Then, give her that cue each and every time you take her out. Of course, she may begin to abuse the bell and start ringing it because she just wants to go outside and sniff the air, so you have to be careful about over-using it.