Irish Setter pup like to eat cat pop from litter box

[bjdddworz]

the title say's it all, no matter how often i clean out the litter box my puppy still love to eat from it. how can i break this bad habbit?

 

[Brokendreams490]

Well hmm...When he goes near it redirect his attention to a toy or food or something he should be doing. Take him away from the situation, maybe keep him in a different room while you are gone so he cannot get to it.

 

[bjdddworz]

we do. she is crated during the day and we try to watch her as much as we can. but she like to eat the crap litter and all. we have put up baby gates to block the area off but she is a persistant pup.

 

[mamasobuco]

Well hmm...When he goes near it redirect his attention to a toy or food or something he should be doing. Take him away from the situation, maybe keep him in a different room while you are gone so he cannot get to it.

This is very good in theory. But, it does not work for a puppy who is addicted to poop. We're going through the same thing right now. Our plan of action is to spray bitter on all poop. It's just a matter of keeping an eye on 3 dogs and 2 puppies. We have 3 dogs and a pup and 1 foster pup.

This is a HUGE problem with pups that come from bad shelters. If they are not fed food that they can actually eat, they tend to get their 'nutrition' from their poop.

To ease your mind, I've talked to my vet about it and eating poop will not kill your dog. It may make her projectile vomit at times, but it will not kill her.

 

[Barb04]

Another member had me switch to Cat's Pride scoopable litter because it doesn't contain sodium bentonite which can do harm if swolled (dog's who eat poop & possibly cats when they lick their paws). I was using Fresh Step and called the company because there was no label with ingredients on the container and found out they use sodium bentonite.

Cat's Pride is actually cheaper to use and safer. I buy it in the local supermarket or some retail stores.

Here's the website to find a store near you and also info:

http://www.catspride.com/stores.php

 

[Brokendreams490]

Well it worked for myself both times my dogs were puppies. I guess just keep the litter cleaner then, scoop the poop everytime the cat goes.

 

[mrsgrubby]

I don't have cats but I have heard of people putting the litter box on top of the dryer, or on a shelf where the cat can jump up there but the dog can not.

 

[mwood322]

I've had luck using a large covered litterbox with the opening facing a corner. The cat can fit, but the dog can't. You probably won't have success with training her off the box if you aren't right next to her at all times. Poop-eating is self rewarding. The poop acts like a treat training the dog to keep doing it. The best way to solve it is to remove the ability to do it, otherwise you generally just get frustrated with the dog.

I have two accomplished cat box hunters, and just making it so they can't do it eliminated a lot of my annoyance about constantly having to watch them. I also switched to a corn based cat litter so that if they did eat it there would be less of a problem.

--Mia

 

[StillandSilent]

The Litter Box? My Radar calls it the Buffet! Radar is a champion poop eater. He ate Lilly's when we first adopted him and now tries to eat the cats. The only thing we found that works is to completly block off the litter box. We have a door turned on its side that completly covers the entrence to the basement where the litter box is kept.

 

[bcjake]

the pouch thinks its an hor' derve tray. One of our old dogs would snack on the litter pan and it would gross my wife to the point of her vomiting (worse when she was preggers.) Not to mension that the dog's breath would smell like a septic tank. On the up side, we didn't have to clean the litter pan as often...

On a serious note, we tried a few things that didn't work. We first tried an enclosed litter pan with a little door, but the dog destroyed the lid. We ended up moving the litter pan on a shelf, which worked until we ultimately found a new home for the cat for unrelated reasons.

 

[Jynx]

I think most dogs think cat poop is a delicacy (yuck)

I have my kitty litter box in a spare room that's gated with the gate just high enough off the floor so the cat can get in and out but the dogs stay out.

I have another one downstairs in a shower stall the I do not use, again, gated with opening just enough so the cats can get thru.

Ingesting kitty poop is bad enough, but ingesting cat litter is really not good for dogs or puppies I would think..
Diane

 

[Carolyn]

ugh aren't they disgusting sometimes? I have had this problem with past dogs and my two would get to it, and have had when I haven't been quick enough. With my cat Becker, he sleeps in the laundry at night, and has his enclosure outside, and comes inside too. He does his poop normally at night, so in the morning when i let him out of the laundry in the morning I empty the tray, clean it and it gets put back down in it's normal spot on the back porch.

So due to that I rarely have problems. I know it's difficult, but if you can't block the tray off, all you can do is empty it as soon as you possible can after the cat has used it.

Sorry I can't be more of a help