Alerting me to needing a wee

Pepper is fabolous with her toilet training. We rarely have any accidents anymore, and during the day if she needs to go she takes herself right outside, we're lucky our weather hasn't been too bad so we've been able to leave the back door open so she can wander in and out of her own free will, back garden is all secure so no concerns there.

However, if the back door is closed she will just do whatever she needs to do by the back door. Which is fine because it's halfway there but she doesn't let me know she needs to go, as in she won't whine or bark. I know the ideal scenario would be follow her everywhere but sometimes it's just not possible. Is there anyway to train her to alert?

Bo's the same, he's too polite to make a fuss so he just holds it in. He's got a cast iron bladder, he can drink half a bowlful of water at 11pm and still walk a mile at 8am the next day before he pees. I wish I could do the same (not pee in the street, I mean hold it in for that long). Our garden is separate from the house across a country lane and he thinks of the yard as part of the house, meaning I can't just let him out to pee on his own.

I tried to teach him to bark to be let out but it didn't work. He learned to bark on command very quickly (he doesn't normally bark at all) so after that, every time we went out I'd say 'bark' before I opened the door, he'd bark, and we'd go out, but that never translated to him barking when he wanted to go out. It's possible, though, that he's never wanted to go out at all, what with his cast iron bladder!

Iza's kinda the same learned that she stares at me when she needs out, pretty crap at 4 am when she was a pup lol but i can sense when she is awake during night, not very often now thankfully.

I usually just open the door every few hours and say go toilet now, works for us.

Wow!! That is a wonder bladder

If she held it in that would be ok but she's only a baby so when she's gotta go she's gotta go! She know that wee wees go outside she just won't tell me she needs to go if the back door is closed, but then she'll saunter back in to the living room with her head almost between her front legs like she's done wrong then I feel guilty

Bo is beautiful by the way, is his coat brindle?

Suki will knock on the door but we didn't teach her she learnt on her own

We hung a bell on the back door keys and every time we went out we would say "Lets go wee wee" or something to that effect, jingle the bell and then let him out. Then when he went to the loo re-inforced the "wee time" thing so he began to associate the word "wee" with going to the toilet.

After a while we would stand by the back door and make him jump up at the bell to ring it himself, praise him and then let him out again going crazy with the whole "wee time" thing. We sound crazy! But it worked!

It's nice to be able to have the door open with the warm weather, but maybe to help her with her training, keep it closed and try to let her out regularly? Each time encouraging her to go to the toilet once you have let her out?