Keeping dogs out of the litter box
Dogs are attracted to cat feces and will eat out of the litter box, creating health risks for the dog and raising stress levels for the cat.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Building custom wooden furniture to enclose the litter box.Did this help you?
- 2Adding deterrent powder to the cat's food.Did this help you?
- 3Placing the litter box up high on a shelf or counter.Did this help you?
- 4Using a top-entry or hooded litter box.Did this help you?
- 5Using a baby gate with a small gap that only the cat can fit through.Did this help you?
- 6Scooping the litter box immediately after use.Did this help you?
- 7Buying an automatic self-cleaning litter box.Did this help you?
- 8Using a large, lidded litter box to restrict access.Did this help you?
- 9Placing a baby gate at the doorway of the room containing the litter box.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“he’s obsessed with the litter box. he was making a mess so i got a big lidded box to keep him out of it and it worked as far as making the mess he was making but then he started taking the poop he can reach from the front.”source ↗
“to my HORROR i found a GIANT pile of cat poo he’d relocated. idk why he’s doing it … to snack on later? i find remnants of it in weird places.”source ↗
“so there’s just now this constant little pile of dry cat poop with litter around it behind our back door. idk how to get him to stop.”source ↗
“my dog is started eating and getting my cat's poop from the litter box and this has to stop for the health of my dog and my cats stress level are getting high all the time.”source ↗