So rather then hijack the other thread, I'll start up a new one.

I had mentioned that we wanted to teach our rattie Sheila to ring a bell when she wants to go outside.  Nora mentioned that this might not be optimal since Sheila may learn to abuse this and be controlling us instead of the more desired reverse.

I had not thought of that point.  We just recently moved into our new two story house and I was trying to think of a good way for Sheila to let us know she needed to go outside without us being able to see her waiting patiently at the door.

Ideally it would be some behavior or noise that my wife or I could easily pick up on from anywhere in the house, but then one that would not be.... overused.  Any suggestions?

We taught our first rattie to ring a bell to go outside and she definitely abused it.  She would literallly ring the bell 20 times a day just to go outside to see what is going on.  For me it was hard not to let her out each time because we worked so hard on teaching her that is how to let us know you need to go outside to use the bathroom.  I wonder if some of her excessive ringing was because she was an acitve puppy!  It may work better for an older dog.

Our current rattie doesn't do anything to let us know ,we just automatically take her out.  One good idea is to teach Sheila how to potty on command.  If you keep her on a feeding schedule and train her to pee on command you can pretty much anticipate when she needs to go and she will do it for you.  Thay may eliminate a lof of the guesswork of when she needs to go out.  I know with my first Rattie along with ringing the bell, we taught her to potty on command.  It was nice because I could take her out she would pee and poop and I knew she was good for little while.