Arrggh! Another thought. Puppies and kitty litter trays

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Patches

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Why has this never occurred to me before? Here was I thinking I was SO organised!

What do I need to do with regards to Harvey and the cat litter trays? We have a year old cat and a 4 month old kitten. One litter tray is currently in the living room, as we shut them in the living room overnight to prevent the 3 o'clock purring steam train in your ear.

The other litter tray is in the hallway, which is enroute to the door for Harvey to learn to go in and out of whilst house training.

We use non-clumping litter but the cats, especially the kitten, won't use a covered hood litter tray.

Eeeeep! What to do? Help!

I could, I guess, move one onto the stairs as there is a little landing halfway up, and get a stairgate for the bottom of the stairs. The only issue with that is blooming clumsy kids might fall down the stairs straight into the litter tray!
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Sit back and look forward to less cleaning of kitty litter trays?



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Our cats have always preferred the hooded litter trays but the ones we have now is a type built so the hood doesn't have any door. Is the one you've tried, the type with a swinging door? In that case, try and remove the door, the door itself will anyway probably be useless to keep the dog out, and see if your cats will use it door-less.

If they then use it, put the hooded litter tray with the opening facing towards a wall, leaving only a narrow cat sized passage between the wall and the litter tray. Admittedly cat size might equal puppy size in the beginning but they grow fast and until then you can perhaps use something the cats can get over but not the puppy?



Otherwise I've seen solutions where people have "sacrificed" a wardrobe or cupboard. It must be big enough for the litter tray to fit standing at the bottom shelf inside the furniture and then you make a cat sized hole in the door. I don't know how to describe it better but it should sort of become more roomy inside the furniture than compared with inside a hooded litter tray.


I realise that your kitten might object and I have joked a number of times with mother this autumn about how our tiny little kitten are the one in charge amongst us but when it comes to certain things, I like to believe that I'm more stubborn than a cat.
 
Jasper never went near them, but was an older dog when we had the cats.

The thing is, where can I move them to? I don't want them in my bedroom afterall.

Gah!
 
My stupid cats go outside for a few hours and then cry to come back in to use the litter tray. They hate going outside as we have a feral colony on the farm.

Millicent, the little blue/grey we have, won't go outside until she's spayed. The other gets chucked out regularly but the cry to come back in is deafening. We have another two which sometimes stowaway down here but they belong to the in-laws in the other half of the house.
 
When he heads in that direction, use a short, sharp 'no' word (or ah-ah or something) to get his attention then call him (get silly, roll around on the floor, whatever) and when he comes to you, reward him with a game, treat, toy, whatever.
So you are equal to lots of fun and games and he forgets about the litter tray.

If he gets persistent as he gets older you can put a little collar and lead on and make a physical barrier, so when he comes to the end of the line he gets tension (don't pull or jerk it as he is young and his bones will still be forming) and then distract him away using method above.
Gradually, lose the lead.

As with all puppies, you will learn to see what type of learner he is -

'If I DON'T carry out this action, I get a reward'
or
'If I DO carry out this action, I get corrected'
 
We have a hooded litter tray with a swing door. Ruby has worked out she can get in and clean it for us.....its disgusting!

Apart from moving it i cant see there is a solutions!
 
^^ Try some of those. Start off with her on the lead if she is a bit older. Present a physical barrier and reward her when she takes her focus off the tray and comes back to you when you ask her to.
 
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