Does Your Dog Raid the Litterbox?

  Posted on July 1, 2011  by Joy of Living  No comments

Jessie, diva dog she may be, does have some rather nasty habits. Topping the list is raiding Marty’s litterbox in search of tasty “morsels”. The other day, I was busy doing things around the house, didn’t see Jessie, but lo and behold, when I went upstairs there she was in the litterbox, she even had a little litter on her nose!

When you catch your dog doing this, there are a few things you can do to curb the behavior.  First, keep the litterbox as clean as possible.  It’s rarely possible to scoop immediately after your cat’s visit, but do scoop the box daily.

Another thing is to limit the dog’s ability to access the litterbox.  Try moving it to a higher location that your dog can’t reach.  A baby gate to limit the dog’s access to the room where the box is can also work quite well.  With both of these options, be sure your cat will still be able to access her litterbox.

There are also certain models of litterboxes that have openings small enough that cats can access but many dogs can’t.  Changing the type of litterbox can be risky, though, as cats tend to have very definite preferences, so making the change may solve one problem (dog raiding litterbox), but create a new one (cat not liking and not using new litterbox).

I recommend the baby gate, that way you can keep the litterbox in the same location but restrict your dog’s access to it.  The gate can make it a little inconvenient getting around the house, but it’ll keep your pooch’s nose out of the litterbox!