As dogs age, they can start to have accidents and break housetraining. If your dog starts making messes in your home do run them by a Vet to make sure it isn’t anything else — but much of the time it is just getting old and being unable to control their bladders for long. It isn’t anything they are doing on purpose so please don’t yell at them or hit them — just move on to helping minimize the number of messes in house.

One way to try to limit the number of accidents indoors is to revert back to basic housetraining: take them out every 4 hours (or every 3 or 2, how ever long they can last). The answer can be to increase the number of chances they have to relieve themselves outdoors. If they are very old they may need to be carried outside as they may feel uncertain about peeing while they are off the ground so they will wait until their paws are on the ground to relieve themselves. It is also useful to limit water consumption after 9pm or so — if they are limited intake that will help limit output during the evening when it is harder to monitor their potty needs. Watching water at night and extra trips should work for a while, but many senior dogs can’t hold it through the whole night and may start to relieve themselves while you are sleeping. If you wake up and find accidents have already happened, you should look into some products that are available for senior dog incontinence.

Puppy pee pads are useful if you put them near where your dog sleeps. I like the disposable ones with the plastic backing but they are also available in washable re-usable versions. The dog will have a designated “okay” place to relieve itself indoors, and it is easy to clean up after, making puppy pads a good tool to help your senior dog’s needs. Almost anything would work as a pad — newspapers, old linen and towels, even the light chucks pads used for humans. This is all about trying to control the specific area you will allow your dog to use while you protect your flooring.

I have used dog diapers in conjunction with pads for overnight coverage. Dog diapers are designed by sex — girl dogs wear one type that has an opening for the tail and is worn similarly as a panty, and a boy dog diaper is a band that wraps around the abdomen without involvement of the tail. They are sold by size so do measure your dog in the way required by the manufacturer. There are disposable versions and washable re-usable versions — it is all up to what works best for you and fits the needs of your pocketbook. If you buy the washable version I suggest buying 2 sets of 3 pack diapers. It is always better to have clean and not need than to remember too late the soiled set hasn’t been washed yet.

Most senior dogs will become incontinent as they age but it can be managed with small adjustments and some new products. Just remember it is an adaptation for both of you and your dog is still trying its best. Also, your dog is colorblind so if the band style of diapers is pink or purple and it is 50% off on sale, your boy dog won’t care about the color.

Happy Dogging!