# How do I use a belly band.



## murphymoesmamma (Apr 1, 2009)

My Murphy is 15 months old. Every time I think I have him totally housebroken he goes back to marking in the house. He is litter trained and never poops anywhere but in his puppy pan or outside but with peeing it is a whole other story. When we moved furniture to put up our Christmas tree I found dried pee on furniture legs and on the carpet. I also will find puddles in my kitchen from time to time. I think maybe a belly band would help with this problem but I have no idea how to use it properly. The questions I have about belly bands are:
1. Where do I get them? I don't recall seeing them in pet supply stores.
2. Will it mat his fur? He has so much matting as it is.
3. Will I be able to get it off of him in time for him to potty in his pan or go outside?
4. What is the reasoning behind using them, how does it keep them from peeing or wanting to pee on anything that is upright and not moving?
5. Do you use a pad like a maxi pad with it?

I feel like an idiot asking these questions and I sure feel inadequate in not doing a good job with housebreaking him. I hope that belly bands may help.


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## Julie (Feb 8, 2007)

Belly bands (although I've never used one) I do know pretty much how they work because of sewing them for rescue.

Basically--they are like a long rectangle with velcro that is on the top of the dog(the velcro part). They are available I know for sure on Ebay.Most are adjustable with the velcro closure. Most also are made to have a maxi pad or maybe a mini pad inside to absorb the urine...to be changed frequently or you'll need many belly bands. They are to help from marking all over the house and I believe aid rescues in the housebreaking process. I would suspect they will matt his hair--although I have no first hand knowledge of that issue. It looks like your guy is clipped down,so I wouldn't guess it would be too bad.

On a side note----when you have set backs in your housebreaking--
go back to square one just as if it was first day having him home. Be very diligent in limiting his area and watching him like a hawk. If you can't watch him....crate him or contain him in a ex-pen. Removing any pee stains or any area that he has went before is absolutely top priority. Just a typical clean up will not do. It must be intense because remember a dog can smell so much better then we can....a dog will always pee where he has before and can smell that. Get yourself a good cleaner made specifically to clean up dog urine. Remove rugs....I had no rugs in my kitchen till Quince was close to a year old! He loved peeing on the rug in front of my door! Take him out often and limit his area.That's the best advice I can give you.

A belly band will not housebreak a dog.....only help with catching the pee.


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Pam makes our bellybands 4" wide and some 17" and some 19" to fit various ages and sizes of dogs with 2" velcro on each end. We use, from Sam's Club, Members Mark "Maximum Absorbency" sanitary pads to do the dirty work. 

When we have a female first coming in heat, all the boys get to feel special and wear their bands. Also, anytime we are traveling and staying in a hotel, the intact boys wear their band because they can tell a lot better than we can if there has been any marking in the room before we got there. The boys never mind wearing them and they don't cause any different activity than they would do without them

They don't matt the hair if you pull it straight back and smooth it down before putting the band on. Some handlers keep them on show dogs all the time so they don't pee on the long fur on the sides.

I'm sure you can buy the bands somewhere, but it's really just a strap of cloth to hold the pad in place. In a pinch one could be safety pinned or tied on.

mmm, I hope that answered all your questions.

Bellybands won't help much with housebreaking other than keeping the smell off of anything in the house when you can't watch constantly. These dogs are easy to housetrain if they were trained from 3 1/2 weeks old, but have the reputation for being hard to housebreak generally. We believe that 's just from lack of attention by the breeder during the critical period. Housetraining is not reasoning for the dog. Most people get into trouble by expecting the dog to reason it out. It's establishing habits. They are very much creatures of habit and once they do something more than once, it becomes a habit.


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