[MishyMish]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

Don't use a belly band for potty training. Belly bands are for marking dogs, and marking is different than peeing, although it seems very similar. If you keep him in a bellyband, he will pee on himself and learn to not be bothered by his pee. It's really hard to retain a puppy mill dog who has learned to live with his own pee, a dog is born with an innate desire to not pee and sleep in the same place, you want to keep that desire going. It will help him learn to seek out a place to pee, and at first you might want to use a couple of pee pads in the x-pen so it’s hard to make a mistake. I used a large piece of vinyl on the floor of Joey's x-pen, Joanne's sells large pieces of thick vinyl. When he’s out of the x-pen, you want to keep both eyes on him and keep a pee pad close by, they won’t seek out the pee pad at first. Dogs start marking around 7 months of age, and bellybands can be usefully if you are going to someone’s house and you don’t want them to mark, but should be taken off if they need to pee. They can get a bad rash from wearing a wet pad. Breeders often need belly bands for their breeding males, who often mark inside and out. Neutered dogs usually will just mark outside, but if another dog has marked inside, all bets are off! In many ways if you keep them in an x-pen, with a pee pad, they train themselves. If you crate train them, you do need to keep a schedule.

I was going to put a belly band on him, but take him out every half an hour at first. Working my way up to an hour over a period of time. Plus, when waking up, after play, after eating, the usual times. Is this not a good idea?