We've got a bell for our dog and it works great. Keep the rope on a string and every time you take the dog outside, pull the string so that the bell bumps against the dog's nose. With our guy, it took only a couple weeks of this before he figured out that he could ring the bell to go out. We would leave our guy in his crate after a meal (it's his sleeping area so he's going to try really hard to avoid peeing there) for about fifteen minutes, and then take him outside, and reward him as soon as he relieves himself.
Dogs are naturally clean animals and once they realize that they have the option of leaving the house when they need to pee, they'll prefer that to soiling their living space. As others have said, focus on rewarding good behavior, rather than punishing bad behavior.
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