[nihal]

Hi,
Let me begin by apologizing if you keep coming across my posts in different sections: i have a new puppy whose presence has caused havoc at home (topic 1) and who, himself is the source of many practical, training and health questions (topics 2 to infinity!!)

Elliot, 5 months old, expresses his joy at whatever by peeing. He dribbles pee when he walks, he has an outpour when he is in puppy heaven (as in sleeping in your arms, having his tummy rubbed etc). I have a permanent bucket of soapy water and mop at arms length....
true, he is not yet housetrained and that does not seem to be coming to him easily, despite he is in the garden a very large portion of the day. Because of his urine offerings, when indoors he is confined to his crate where he pees indifferently on his bedding (then continues to lie there) or on the newspaper or wherever he happens to be.

I have heard about belly belts, but would appreciate some insight and feedback on their use and success rates.

I am unsure whether Elliot's behaviour is just delayed growth (he is a puppymill survivor, so he has some "issues") or a real, possibly medical problem.

Any thoughts, feedback and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Nihal

[animalcraker]

I have used a belly band for my male. Belly bands are not traing devices and untill your pup is completely house trained you shouldn't use one. The reason being is that if he does have an accident while he's wearing the band and you won't know it, you won't catch him to take him outside and he'll learn that it's ok for him to pee in the house.

The belly band is also something that he shouldn't be peeing in, it's only to protect against that excited spritz. I only use it on mine when he goes to someone elses house or when I know that I'm going to be having friends over.

If he's not house broken the only way to fix that is training. There's no magical device that you can just strap on to fix the problems. All the belly band does is prevent a mess not cure any training issues.

You may also want to consult with your vet to confirm that this problem is due to a lack of housetraing/excitement and not due to an underlying medical issue.

Also what have you been doing so far to housebreak him?

[nihal]

I'm sorry animalcracker, I didn't express myself well in my post. I did NOT mean to imply that I wanted to use an Belly Band for training ; that thought never crossed my mind.
My reference to dog training was simply that, in addition to squirting everywhere, he is not trained so it is difficult to know what part is the "squirting for glee" and which is due to the fact that he is not yet housebroken.

I have had the puppy for about 2 weeks now; he was given to me by someone who got him as a gift and couldn't keep him: he was originally bought in a petstore-say-puppymill (my guess!!) and has therefore probably spent 4.5 out of his 5 months in a crate, 24H. The housebreaking is a work in progress as such.

Anyhow, not having even ever heard of Belly bands, I wanted to know what they were.

thanks for you imput, sorry about the confusion