The PetsitUSA Blog

Product Review: Lentek Pet Chime Portable Wireless Electronic Pet Doorbell

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 03:04 PM PDT

Lydia is great at letting me know when she wants to go outside. She has ways of telling me that range from very subtle cues to the “in your face” ways that I can’t ignore no matter what. What she does have trouble with is getting my attention when she wants back in. I used to have a rickety old door that she could knock on to get my attention. It was so noisy that I’d hear it from anywhere in the house. It was the perfect way for her to let me know she wanted in.

Not long ago though, I had a new door put on and the darn thing is as quiet as can be. Lydia knocks but it’s so quiet that most of the time I don’t hear it. Lydia loves being outside, but I don’t like her to stay out all that long, especially when it’s hot. Knowing how engrossed I can become in what I’m doing when I get in front of the computer I decided I needed to figure out a way for her to let me know when she wants in.

I found a really cool doorbell a while back – the Lentek Pet Chime Portable Wireless Electronic Pet Doorbell. It’s battery operated, with two components – the ringer and the chime. The ringer looks like a big dog paw and I keep it outside. When Lydia presses it with her paw, the chime that I keep inside, barks like a dog.

I haven’t ever heard of anybody who used it with their dogs, so I asked my Facebook friends. A few of them said they used bells on a string or ribbon, but not the doorbell. I didn’t think I’d hear the bells from inside the house, which is why I was more interested in the doorbell. Much to my surprise, one of my pet sitter friends on Facebook said she had one but wasn’t using it, and offered to send it to me. Of course I happily accepted the offer (thanks, Joan!) and was excited to give it a try.

Lydia and I have worked with the doggie doorbell for about a week and a half. First I taught her how to press the paw with her foot. I started out by saying ring, putting her paw on the big paw ringer, then giving her a treat. After she caught on and figured out how to do that, I put the battery in the chime so she could hear the barking dog. I wanted her to associate the action of pressing her paw on the ringer with the barking dog sound. We did a few mini training sessions working on this and before long she figured out exactly what was going on. Hit the ringer, hear the sound, get a treat!

Once we transferred the whole process to the door, there wasn’t much of a learning curve at all! I keep the ringer just inside the back door, so that she and I can both hear it. It only took her a few tries before she caught on that when she hits the paw, and hears the barking, she gets my attention and a treat (and/or massive amounts of praise). She thinks it’s a great game! Now, whenever she wants in (or wants mom to come out and play) she just taps the paw and there I am. And yes, she does use it to tell me to get away from the computer and come play with her! And you know what, that’s OK by me. A little reminder not to have my head in the computer all the time is a good thing.

Oh, and Archie learned, too. He’s learned that when he hears the word ring or the barking dog, a treat is soon to follow. He’s no dummy!

The Lentek Pet Chime Portable Wireless Electronic Pet Doorbell gets a paws up from Lydia and a big thumbs up from me!