House training two pups

Question
Sadie is a rescue dog, about 9 mos.and is a schnauzer.  We have had her about 2 mos.  After getting her groomed, etc, she came into heat and we had her spayed.  She loves other dogs and my husband insisted on getting her a companion. She is our 3rd Schnauzer and only had a few accidents.  She is an awesome dog, loving, obedient, except sometimes on coming to us while outside.

I have always wanted a white schnauzer and we bought a champaign schnauzer puppy at 6 weeks of age.  Born March 16.  Each puppy on their own are exceptional.  Zoe, the new schnauzer, can go all night in her kennel cab, or all morning while we are at church.  She can sit, lay down and roll over, already.  I do great with dogs.  My previous dogs were going to the door by now, to let me know they needed to go potty.

Sadie is the distraction.  How do you potty train a puppy while they are running at full speed through out the house?  Accidents are much more than I have ever had before with my puppies.  Zoe goes outside everytime we take her, which is frequent.  She does both businessess. She just sneaks in those other times.  It's like, because I have to pick her up to take her outside, she doesn't know that she has to go to the door.  I pick her up because she is too distracted to want to know to go to the door.  She plays hard and seems to have only an on or off switch.  She is either playing really hard or sleeping.  My husband thinks I'm too fanatical, I have started leashing her to my arm or leg while on the computer.  I leash her to the kitchen counter while cooking, all so she doesn't have to spend every waking hour in her cage for me to accomplish having a life.  

I need some assistance on getting her to go to the door to let me know she wants to go potty.  It was suggested to get a bell and ring it everytime I took them out and then train them to ring the bell.  I believe I could do that??  

I am older and everything is harder than before.  It's been 12 years since my last puppy.  Our last schnauzer died about 8 months ago.  Help and thank you in advance.  Midge  

Answer
It's a bit late now, but there were two errors here. The first was in bringing in a second puppy before the first was thoroughly trained to your satisfaction. The second was in getting a puppy that was too young to be taken from its mother and littermates. One should never get a puppy until it is at least eight weeks old as it needs that added time to learn to inhibit its bite by interaction with its dam and littermates. Also those two weeks make a LOT of difference in bladder control, as there is virtually *none* in a six-week-old puppy. At that age they are just starting to learn to potty away from their nest or bed.

Puppies should not have full run of the house, but should be limited to a smaller area. When they cannot be watched, they should be crated. The fact that you are leashing her to you is GREAT and should work well for you as it will teach you to watch for her particular signals that she needs to potty. At this age she should be having to go outside about every 20 minutes or so if she is loose.

Your primary problem seems to be in teaching her to go to the door. Initially I carry my babies outside (we live in a split level), but then I encourage them to come in on their own and teach them to do the stairs. First they learn to go up, and then eventually they learn to go down. I have been known to feed them at the base of the stairs or even outside to get them to go down quicker. I talk to them in a very excited voice as I ask them if they want to "go outside". As they get older and have more control, I will hesitate at the door a bit as I get them all excited about going out. You could work on teaching your puppy to "speak", and then get her to bark at the door.

Teaching a dog to ring a bell at the door works well, except that *every single time* the dog rings that bell you MUST let it outside. And if is a nice day or there is something interesting going on outside, you will be hearing that bell a LOT.