# Belly bands discourage peeing inside the house??



## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

Hello again! Doing some more research for my pom, Meeko, who is finally getting neutered today, and then coming home with me once he has recovered from the surgery!

So, Meeko has been used as a stud dog at a mill.... which means that he is, at the moment, unneutered, and has never lived in a home before. As a consequence, whenever I go see this little guy, he is marking EVERYWHERE.

I am getting ready to potty train him, but I don't want any accidents happening and I am trying to find the best solution for this.

I read somewhere the belly bands are a good solution to preventing accidents. If they try to pee, the belly band catches it, but most of the time, apparently the belly band helps deter the dog from peeing inside at all?

Of course, I plan on crate training him too, but I was wondering if the belly band would help him? Anyone have any experience with belly bands?

Thank you!


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

Belly bands are worth it. Most dogs hate the sensation of urine on their stomachs. And those who don't care at least have their urine contained.

I adopted a degenerate marker. I thought house-training was going to be a bear. However, with crate-training, a belly band, and very close supersivion, it was a breeze.

Buy two or three! So you can lose one or two to the washer/dryer!


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

it doesnt discourage my marker in the slightest, but it at least containes his urine, I did have to make sure to get ones that are solid and stiff, most of the petstore ones have elastic in them, the elastic ones just caused him to mark MORE, because the more the pee'd the more it was sag till it couldnt hold anymore, I would serioulsy have him leashed to me with a belly band on, and the second I was not staring directly at him, he would lift his leg and pee and pee and pee until it dribbled out of the band(he would lift his leg, pause to check the spot..not smell his mark and do it again and again and again) but my little dummy is a ridiculous case lol, he will mark anywhere..crating him only prevents him from marking out of that area..a larger crate he will mark up the entire thing, a small crate he will mark out the door of the crate etc..


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks trainingjunkie and Miss Bugs 

trainingjunkie, do you mind giving me tips on housetraining a marker? Sounds like you have experienced a similar situation!


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## georgiapeach (Mar 17, 2012)

Potsie was a marker when we first adopted him. The rescue director suggested a belly band and it worked. I only had to use it for about a week. Make sure you heavily praise when he goes outside (clickers/immediate treats - take them outside with you work well with many dogs).


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

taquitos said:


> Thanks trainingjunkie and Miss Bugs
> 
> trainingjunkie, do you mind giving me tips on housetraining a marker? Sounds like you have experienced a similar situation!


I am evil to new dogs. My new dogs get absolutely no free time in the house until they have earned it. My new dogs live in crates unless they are outside or being worked. I reward heavily for peeing outside. I have the belly band on the dog when I am transfering him from the crate to the outside. I leave the band off in the crate. Mine would not soil his crate. After a few days of this, I chill with the dog in my house on a leash. I give him 100% of my attention. I watch for any move to mark. I interupt any pre-marking behavior and then take the dog outside and reward for going outside. 

Once I suspect that the dogs "gets" it, the dog can be loose in a single room with me off leash while I watch him. I feed him in that room. Dogs are less likely to pee where they eat. Gradually, I give the dog more and more rooms. The band somes off when the dogs is really successful, but when the band comes off, the supervision has to tighten down again.

I operate under the belief that if you set things up so the dog can not fail and can only succeed, learning goes much, much faster. I sort of subscribe to Ian Dunbar's "error free" house training.

The downside is that the dog gets too much crate time that first week or two, but if that week or two sets up the dog for a lifetime of freedom and success, I can live with it. I just make sure the dog gets a ton of exercise and training during that heavy-crate window.


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## Daenerys (Jul 30, 2011)

My papillon marks inside constantly. We tried belly bands but he would still try to mark and so we were constantly having to wash the bands (as in multiple times a day and we had 2) and eventually his skin on his stomach got so irritated from constantly being in contact with urine (it would soak all the hair on his stomach) that we had to stop using them. Now I just try to get him outside as frequently as possible so he doesn't have as much urine to mark with. He still marks, though. Sigh.


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

trainingjunkie, that is pretty much how it will have to be for me as well I think. He was neutered two weeks ago, and I went to go see him a few days ago and he was already calming down, so hopefully he won't have to be crated for too long!

Daenerys, hopefully I won't be in your situation lol! At least your pap is a cutie <3 I actually wanted to get a papillon at first. They are probably my favorite breed~


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## georgiapeach (Mar 17, 2012)

Daenerys said:


> My papillon marks inside constantly. We tried belly bands but he would still try to mark and so we were constantly having to wash the bands (as in multiple times a day and we had 2) and eventually his skin on his stomach got so irritated from constantly being in contact with urine (it would soak all the hair on his stomach) that we had to stop using them. Now I just try to get him outside as frequently as possible so he doesn't have as much urine to mark with. He still marks, though. Sigh.


I lined Potsie's belly band with a feminine pad (thicker kind), so that I just had to change that every so often - it acted just like a baby's disposable diaper. Only a really good soaking necessitated a thorough washing of the belly band itself. Also, a belly band is not a replacement for potty training. Marking is usually a squirt or two of urine on a spot, not a drenching.


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