Problems with Incontinence in Maltese

Question
Our dog Heidi is a 14 year old Maltese.  She has always been a very good, nice dog.  She is taking 1/2 pills of Proin for incontinence.  We are just frustrated because it is hard to keep on top of when she is going to pee on our carpet!  It has so many of these places on it that we use Resolve on.  Obviously, when we do not have her anymore we will replace the carpet we put in new 6 1/2 years ago.
 Do you have any ideas about how to better care for her? She never has really told us when she needs to go out, except that sometimes you can kind of tell when she stands around or is near the front door. It is pretty hard to second guess her.
 My husband wonders about getting a baby gate to put up between the kitchen and great room, but I do not think we should keep her in there all the time.  Often she will sleep off & on more in the daytime and then again in later evening.  We know we should be taking her out more than we used to.

Answer
Hi Carolyn,
This is a common problem with older dogs. I would begin by taking her out more often.  She needs to go out more frequently than she used to. If she even LOOKS like she is going to the front door, take her out.  If this gets to be too much, you could always buy some of the potty pads to put on the floor.  She may use them and it would be much easier than cleaning the carpet.  I use them for my dogs if I have to be gone all day.  Here's a tip: instead of buying the kind made for dogs, go to a medical equipment store and buy pads made for humans. They are the exact same thing, except much larger and much cheaper!   If pads do not appeal to you, you could put training pants on her like a child wears while potty training.  Buy some small ones, cut a hole where the tail would go and pull them up!  I used to use these when I was breeding schnauzers for when the female was in season.  Training pants are very thick and will absorb any "mistakes" she makes.  That's why moms use them when potty training.  You can buy an assortment of colors too.  Just make sure they are "training" pants, not just regular childs underwear.  The only other suggestion would be to either crate her or have someone hold her all the time, but neither one of those ideas appeals to me and I doubt it would to you either.  With a little extra time and patience, you can still enjoy having your little maltese around.  I wish you the very best.
God Bless,
Becky