How to Make Bellybands for Male Dogs

Belly bands for male dogs are equivalent of female doggy diapers. Belly bands can be useful in many situations on a male dog. It makes housetraining easier for younger dogs if you are away from home many hours a day. Adult and senior dogs may become incontinent in their old age and have accidents. Bellybands will prevent dogs from urine marking in the house. Male bellybands prevent messes and smells and only take minutes to make.

Sleeping dachshund puppy
"I wouldn't mark this blanket, it's too comfortable."
credit: HannamariaH/iStock/Getty Images

Stand your male dog on a flat surface with his weight distributed evenly on all four legs. Wrap a cloth tape measure around your dog just behind his rib cage. Write down the measurement. Measure your dog at the rear of his stomach just in front of his hind legs. Write down the measurement.

Add the two stomach measurements together and divide by two to get an average waist size. Add 2 inches to the waist measurement to accommodate a sanitary pad and seam allowances.

Measure your pooch along his back between the two areas you measured to get his average waist size for the bellyband width.

Lay a piece of cotton fabric on a table or countertop with the printed side facing down. Use straight pins to attach quilt batting and flannel fabric on top of the cotton fabric. Place a yardstick on the flannel fabric and mark the four corners of your bellyband with a ballpoint pen. The width is the shorter measurement and the length with the 2 inches added is the longer measurement to form a rectangle.

Draw lines to form a rectangle on the fabric next to the yardstick as a straight edge and use the scissors to cut it out along the lines. Remove the straight pins from the bellyband.

Fold the long sides of the cut fabrics together with right sides facing each other. Sew across one short side, then the long side where the cut edges touch each other on a sewing machine about 1/2 inch from the edges. Turn the material inside out through the remaining short side that is not sewn together.

Slightly tuck the cut edges inward into the belly band and sew the opening closed about 1/2 inch from the edges. Continue topstitching around the entire bellyband about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Cut a strip of hook and loop tape about 4 inches long with scissors. Peel off the backing and attach the hook side to the center of one short end of the belly band and down the long side. Turn over the bellyband and attach the loop side on the end opposite of the hook side on the center of the second short end. Sew each of the two pieces of hook and loop tape onto the bellyband for a long-lasting project that will hold up after many times being washed.

Remove the backing from an adhesive sanitary pad and stick it to the flannel in the center of the bellyband. If you are using a pad with wings, fold the wings around the bellyband to the outside of the fabric.