Poop Eater!

March 15, 2008 8:36 AM

Do I fix the dog, or fix the litterboxes? Or fix the cats, with some of that For-Bid stuff?

My dog, a rescue whom was likely abused before we adopted him about 4.5 years ago, finds the "kitty roca" left in the litterboxes utterly delightful. Unfortunately, his colon & intestines do not, and, well... I am sure you can guess what happens. Usually either my husband or I are home, and we can take him out to take care of his business, and keep his head out of the litterbox, but there are times we'll be out with friends for a few hours, and he goes straight for the litterboxes.

We have three cats, three litterboxes, cleaned daily. Of course, cats being cats, they must "restock" the litterbox as soon as it is cleaned. These are all covered litterboxes, but no trap door thing on any of them, they are in three separate areas in the house, so blocking dog access is difficult.

I see a few ways to fix this
-crate the dog when out.
-auto-litterboxes for cats
-the aforementioned For-Bid stuff, it makes the cat crap taste bad.

Crating we have never tried with the dog, but he is a medium sized mutt, about 50 lbs. The crate would need to be a decent size, and then we need to figure out where in the house it can go. The auto litterboxes I am willing to try, but one of our cats is smaller, and I thought many of them worked on weight? Additionally, all three of our cats are stupid, I am not sure they have the intelligence to deal with the littermaid or whatever it is. As for the stuff to make the cat crap taste bad? Well, does it work? And who is to say the dog would be deterred by this? The mutt has been checked by the vet, very healthy pup, no issues there.

I did search, I figure someone had to have dealt with this, but came up empty. Which is my best option? Is there another option I am not listing?

posted by kellyblah to pets & animals (16 comments total)

have you tried a dome style litter box, like the booda dome ones? They would be much harder for him to get into (him being the dog)...
posted by baggers at 8:55 AM on March 15, 2008

We've tried two ways to deal with this problem.

The first was to turn the litter box opening against a wall, leaving enough room for kitty to get inside, but not enough for a dog to get his head in there. This worked fine, although occasionally the dogs would figure out how to turn the litter box around.

Then we decided to put the litter box in the basement. We keep the basement door closed to block the dogs, but installed a kitty door so the cats can still get down there to take care of business.

In a different house, where we didn't want to cut into the basement door, we used a long hook and eye like this, but ours was about 6 inches long. We installed it in such a way that the door was propped open about six inches - enough for cat but not for dog.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2008

Unfortunately, the dome litterbox we have is his favourite "buffet".
posted by kellyblah at 9:01 AM on March 15, 2008

Ah, then my suggestion would be to try the For-bid stuff. My experience of automatic litterboxes has not been good; every single one I've tried has broken within weeks, and they all leave the poo exposed for a time. Either that, or try some more enclosed litter trays: I've seen some somewhere that were like rubbermaid boxes, but with a hole in the lid for the cat to get in and out of. I doubt he'd be able to get into them.
posted by baggers at 9:22 AM on March 15, 2008

We got the Clevercat litter box, which has an opening on top, and it stopped our dachshund from getting into the litter.
posted by amarynth at 9:28 AM on March 15, 2008

One of the things that worled for me in a one cat household was to put the litterbox up on something that cats could jump up to but dog could not get to. I'm thinking table in a laundry room or bench in a basement. I have friends who do the litterbox in basement that cats can get to and dog can not and that seems to work really well for their three cat household. Unless your cats have sharing problems you may be able to get away with one or two litterboxes, cleaned regularly which would make the logistical hoops you have to go through a little easier to manage.
posted by jessamyn at 9:48 AM on March 15, 2008

Just figure out a way to make the litter box accessible to the cats but not the dog. Cats are better climbers and (probably) smaller, so a barrier that they either have to climb over or enter through a small door would work. I'd caution against making it _too_ difficult for the cats -- sure, they can leap great heights normally, but what about 10 years from now, or if one gets sick?

I like the cat door idea, or putting the litter box up on top of something with a little ladder/step arrangement for the cats to climb -- that the dog could not climb (warning: do not underestimate your dog). Bonus if the height makes it easier on you to change the litter.
posted by amtho at 9:57 AM on March 15, 2008

Deny access to the room(s) containing the litterbox(es) with baby gate(s). Cats can jump right over them.
posted by desjardins at 10:14 AM on March 15, 2008

We use a baby gate about 5 inches off the floor. He's been around baby gates his whole life so he doesn't know he can jump over them. The cats go under or over without pause.
posted by iamabot at 10:34 AM on March 15, 2008

Another alternative to the baby gate is to rig a chain on outside the door of the room where you keep the box. Cats can slip inside, but the dog wouldn't fit. I've seen it work. Good luck!
posted by Stewriffic at 10:44 AM on March 15, 2008

I keep two litter boxes in the basement, and there is a swinging baby gate that allows cats to get down there (underneath gate) but not the dogs. So, those boxes are safe. Previously I did this with one room in the house: that was the no-dog room. That's where I put cat litter, cat food, etc, so the dogs can't get to it.

The other one is in my home office, under the desk. It's one of the dome styled ones, but rectangular shaped. The dogs just don't go under the desk to stick their heads in there. It's uncomfortable, or not worth the effort, or something. :)

But in the past, I've done as others have said: put the opening to the box against the wall so only small animals (cats) can get in there, and dogs can not.

Overall, my suggestion is to fix the litter boxes. Of course, training dogs to not do undesirable things is good, but we all like to raid the cookie jar from time to time when we're not supposed to.
posted by iguanapolitico at 11:26 AM on March 15, 2008

I do the baby gate thing, but this bench is pretty cool...no puppy access. Although three of them would take up a lot of room....
posted by lemonade at 1:36 PM on March 15, 2008

Crate your dog, too, though. When dogs are crate trained, they have a den - a safe place of their own. And you won't have to worry about the dog getting into things when you're not around.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 7:05 AM on March 16, 2008

I am thinking the CleverCat box mention might be the best bet. With the house layout & litterbox locations, we'd be locking the dog in a room (it's a bungalow, no hallways). Unless they make litterbox stands akin to fishtank stands, which would be rather nifty.
posted by kellyblah at 7:22 AM on March 16, 2008

If you have an older dog, it may be too late to crate-train him. I know very little about dogs, but when I adopted a 3-yr-old lab last year with my fiancee (who has lived with dogs all her life), we were told that he had never been crate-trained, and my fiancee said it was likely to be cruel to try at his age. YDMV.

Is it actually necessary to keep the litterboxes in separate rooms of the house? Our two cats have two litterboxes, but they're right next to each other, in one room. As Stewriffic suggests, I got a six-inch-or-so-long chain, a couple clips and quick-links, and a eye-bolt and eye-screw, and we can now adjust the door so the cats can get in but not the dog. Total cost about $15 and half an hour.
posted by FlyingMonkey at 7:13 AM on March 19, 2008

by the way, you may wish to consider the cats' abilities before getting crafty with the boxes. we've tried a couple different variations on the domed catbox before, with disastrous results: at first, one of the cats wouldn't use the domed box because (we think) it was too dark inside; removing the air filter fixed this, at least until the beast got so fat he didn't fit (or refused to accept that he could fit). On the other hand, he's a Maine Coon who now weighs about 25 lbs....

(And yes, we have tried putting him on a diet, but the other cat is so neurotic it's impossible to diet the fat cat without starving the thin.)
posted by FlyingMonkey at 7:21 AM on March 19, 2008