I was reading through some correspondence recently from many dog owners who contact me either looking for advice or giving it. The numbers of both are about even, as a matter of fact, which is rather funny and ironic because I started out with the notion that I was the one setting myself up as an expert in canine matters. I never envisaged a situation where I would be the one getting advice and learning a thing or two about dogs in the process. Yet, every single week, I would have to admit that I learn something new. Furthermore, I learn it from the readers themselves. This is what the internet age is all about: there are no strict roles any more when it comes to publishing and when it comes to communicating. One of the funnier pieces of advice that I came across was by a woman in Wyoming who made “home-made” diapers for her dog. When I first read those words, I was highly intrigued. Just how can you make a home-made diaper? It really is the kind of thing that’s only available in manufactured form - or is it? I was envisaging all kinds of seemingly nutty but workable solutions, such as a plastic shopping bag filled with seaweed or something or a bunch of newspapers Scotch-taped to a poor dog’s butt. But, the home-made solution, it turned out, was really nothing more than getting kids’ diapers at a much cheaper rate and making a few key alterations to allow it to fit on a dog. The lady who suggested this to me has a small dog - a Jack Russell or something similar - so this particular solution might not work at all if your dog is, say, a Great Dane. Nevertheless, it might just be worth a try to save cash on you incontinent dog. The cost of dog diapers comes in at around $18 for 12. When you compare this to the cost of “Little Swimmers” (essentially diapers for kids at the beach), which is about $6 for the same quantity, and knowing how many you can go through in the course of even a day, you can see what got her thinking along these lines. You get the kiddy diaper and you cut a hole in it to accommodate your dog’s tails. Then, ensuring that the nappy is of a “sack” shape (i.e. bigger at the end), put it on your dog. You’ll probably find that it’s a little more difficult to put on but once it’s on, it really stays on for a very long time - much longer than the specially-manufactured canine diapers that tend to fall off. The consumption level of these dog diapers can be very heavy with a dog that’s incontinent for whatever reason. We got a pack of 12 for our old Red Setter Thomas, who went through them in about three days. It certainly gave us a crash course in how to clean carpet, I can tell you. In addition to the cost of the dog diapers, I had the extra expense of having to buy odor eliminator to get rid of the urine odor from poor Thomas, who just couldn’t help himself. My husband knew some good techniques in how to get stains out of carpet, thankfully, and we had our house back to zero odor status quite quickly, but from now on, I’m going to get down to the store and buy me some kiddy swimming diapers for my dog. I just hope that they do St Bernard size!