Yes, you read that right — dog diapers.  Meet Scooby:

Scooby

This is the rug that Scooby likes to tinkle on:

This is me when that happens:

I am not entirely unsympathetic to his situation.  Scooby is an old dog; over 80 years old in human years.  The pipes don’t work like they used to and why go outside in the cold or rain when there is a perfectly good rug inside that he can use. Part of it does look like grass, I suppose.   The problem is that this rug is in the playroom and the kids play on it and I’m tired of washing it all the time!

I’ve tried bribery – “I’ll give you an extra treat if you stay away from the rug.”  Threats – “Do you want to spend the rest of your days living outside?  Do you?  Stop peeing on the rug!”  I’ve spent a month’s salary on puppy pads and cleaners; hours on the internet searching for an answer.  Then I learned of the belly band.  A sort of diaper for your male dog.  A trip to Petco and $20 later, Scooby had a belly band.  I put it on him with an infant diaper as a liner, confident that my problem was solved.  NOT!  That little guy wiggled himself out of it and left it laying in the hallway while he paid a visit to the rug.

I pinned it on, added extra Velcro, stitched up the elastic to make it tighter, bribed and threatened but nothing was going to keep Scooby in his dog diaper.  Finally it hit me…  Suspenders!  I’ll add suspenders so he can’t wiggle out of it!

Now a belly band is basically a piece of material that wraps around your dog.  It does get dirty so you will want to wash it, requiring you to have more than one around.  Being the frugal person that I am, I was not about to spend another $20 on a dog diaper.  A trip to the fabric store and a half yard of remnant fabric for $2.00, some elastic, Velcro and suspender clips and I have 3 belly bands for Scooby, all for under $10!

I’m happy, Scooby tolerates it, and the rug stays clean!

Check out my tutorial for the dog diaper / belly band on the Tutorials page!