that time I had 5 dogs

More commonly referred to as the worst idea in my life.

The thing about me pet sitting Ginger is that I don't get asked anymore. She gets dropped off and picked up whenever he leaves and comes back. I knew that from the beginning so it doesn't bother me, except the days can change at any time at a moment's notice.

A month or two back, Maximus and Annabelle's owner asked if I could watch them again for about 5 days. I agreed without really checking my schedule and later realized that a couple of days overlap with Ginger's stay (roughly they would come over roughly 2 1/2 days before Ginger went home). I thought I was prepared. I thought I could handle it.
I couldn't have been more wrong. Ginger is an endless bundle of energy and as much as her owner swears she's housebroken, when she steps foot in my apartment, she poops and pees everywhere. And her poop (and gas) can make you throw up. It's awful. And she eats it before I can get to it. Then puts her poop mouth near my face. This is the cause of my love/hate relationship with her. She won't stop sticking her stinky parts in my face.
Maximus, as I said last time, isn't neutered and marks in my apartment. I was prepared (or so I thought) and brought the belly band and pads back out to put on him.
Annabelle isn't spayed either. Her owners made a mistake and thought that her first heat cycle was over when they brought her over. She wasn't. As a result, Maximus was marking even more than usual (like peeing through his belly band overnight), and wouldn't leave her alone. It was disastrous trying to keep Annabelle from getting pregnant (I succeeded, thankyouverymuch). I had to keep them apart every time his belly band came off. It made taking them outside to potty really hard (I kept Maximus on a very short leash next to me and Annabelle on a longer leash) and washing the belly band impossible. I don't have a washer/dryer in my apartment and Mike was always home when I wasn't so the dogs where always out. His belly band was constantly wet and smelled like pee. When I did get a chance to wash it, he peed through it again within hours.
Annabelle wanted to be dominant in the house. She and Luna got into several brawls over that decision, resulting in me trying to grab whatever fur I could to yank them off of each other. Luckily, no one got hurt in those battles and I wonder if it would have fizzled out on its on if I had let them play out. I wasn't a risk I was going to take though.

Mike has forbidden me from ever doing that again, and I don't blame him.

Product review: Puppia belly band

The owners of Maximus and Annabelle told me that they were considering breeding Maximus and Annabelle at some point so Maximus had not been desexed. They also said that he didn't exhibit very many dominant behaviors though - he didn't mark in the house or hump his sister (yet!).

Unfortunately for me, my apartment has too many fun scents in it. He thinks it's a lot of fun to mark my furniture. I would immediately get after him whenever I witnessed him doing it and spot clean the couch and recliner as needed but by Monday, I knew that there was no way I could handle a week of him marking everything I own. Seriously, he decided that he owned EVERYTHING. A belly band was in order (note: belly bands are also referred to as manner bands).

I stuck him in one of Ares' harnesses and Maximus and I went off to the local pet store for some help. I absolutely adore our pet store and this visit wasn't any different. I told the girl working what I was looking for and she immediately had all of the belly bands out to find the perfect one for him. My favorite design said "buttweiser" on it (!!!) but I decided to stick with the band that I recognized and always heard good things about - Puppia. His is navy blue, green and white with a cute anchor on the side. The plus side? This belly band also has a matching harness available!

I was ignorant of the ways of belly bands, other than they existed so the worker happily explained it to me. She told me to buy a pack of cheap maxi pads. Only the cheap ones will do because the more expensive ones have a waxy coating on them that prevents the pee from soaking up. You put the pad inside the belly band before wrapping it around your dog (it velcros on). 

It's important to note that it doesn't stop the behavior of marking - it only prevents him from actually peeing on anything.

I absolutely adore the belly band. It's machine washable and so easy to use! I change the pad if' it's soiled when I take it off to take him out to pee and it seems to be comfortable on him. He actually doesn't even mess with it as much as I thought he would (I'll occasionally catch him pulling at the edges of the band trying to undo the velcro so he can run free). Our only problem is that even though he was sized for it, I think he probably could have done better with a slightly smaller band (a medium rather than a large). 

Maximus could easily run around and play with Ares, Luna, and Annabelle and also had no problem sleeping at night with it on. It didn't slow him down one bit, even the girls liked to try to yank on it when "fighting" with him!

I absolutely love it and completely recommend it to anyone who is having trouble with dogs who feel the need to mark their territory. 

To buy your own Puppia manner (belly) band, you can visit their website here.