i had a dog trainer tell me to put bells on the back door, then every time the dog needed to go out, the bells would ring...finally my dog caught on that when he had to go out, he would either jump up and scratch at the bells with his paws, or nudge them with his nose to ring the bells. then when he came back in, we would reward him with a couple pieces of food, and lots of praise. our puppy who was only 12 weeks old caught on within 1-2 wks. it worked out great. just make sure u have lots of patience. don't get angry when they have accidents, otherwise they will be scared to tell u when they have to go outside, because they will think u are going to yell at them for telling u they have to go outside, so they will just sneak off somewhere and hide and pee/poop. if they have an accident, say NO once (make sure this is done immediately after they do it, since they forget about it right after they have done it), then clean it up, and forget about it. don't make a huge deal about it, just remain very matter of fact. make sure to clean it with a product that gets the smell out so that they dont keep going back to that spot. good luck, just give them time.
