Belly Band for a senior dog?

[savannah]

Sorry that every post i make is about the senior we adopted, but i have a question about his peeing habit.
It has been confirmed with many members of this board that i should not attempt to crate him. (if you see my other posts you will know why).
He 99% of the time never lets us know when he has to go out. We just have made it into a habit to let him out at certain times of the day. Since someone is mostly always home, he hasn't had a large number of accidents (maybe 12 in the past 8 weeks). Lately he has been waking me up at 4am to go potty, and i let him go and then he goes back to sleep. Last night, he did not wake me up, and i thought it was a good night. Then i see his accident (pee) in the kitchen. So instead of waking me up to go potty, he just went to the kitchen and went back to sleep.
Should i buy a belly band for when we are going to be away from home for more than 3 hours, and more importantly for him to wear at night? Will this turn into a bad habit, and do you think he will always be peeing when we are home and he doesn't have a belly band on?
DH thinks we should crate him at night (right now he has access to all of our main level but he only sleeps in the living room in his bed). Does anyone have any thoughts on Belly Bands? My main concern is that they will make his bad habit even worse, and that he will have to have it on 24/7 once i start using them on him at night.
Please, any thoughts would be very appreciated!

[tenderfoot]

I think a belly band might be a good idea. You can try to get him out more but there will be times when he tries to sneak. I don't know how senior he is but it just might be tougher for him to hold it these days.