We use them mostly on male fosters we get in that are not housetrained. The alternative would be to keep them in a crate all the time and that's no fun. I use the belly band on my male when I go anywhere because although he is trained at home he will mark. I also have an older female who is getting to the point where she is having incontinence issues. She may get one, one day. So far since all the dogs are spayed or neutered before we adopt them out I haven't had to deal with the in heat issue. I am sure eventually something will come up where I will.