Question:

House-training:  I’ve never had to use it myself, but most of the people I know (personally and online) swear by crate-training.  Get a crate that’s just big enough for the dog to turn around in.  Get the dog comfortable with the crate.  Keep the dog in the crate when you can’t supervise it, until it controls itself while not in the crate. Cat droppings:  I think this has been touched on in some FAQs, but I don’t remember the *cause*.  I think a *solution* would be to keep the litter box away from the dog (or vice-versa); if you can’t do this, sprinkle lots of black pepper on the cat litter so the dog doesn’t end up enjoying its dig for the droppings. Details are in/on various dog FAQs and web sites. Arielle — Permission Denied Manager; Our Lady of Infinite Loops                 Fluffy          %:->Iooo>===|                   Air+             I:->-8(@)==| Lucy dog:               http://adams.patriot.net/~arielle/lucy.html Genealogy:              http://adams.patriot.net/~arielle/air/geneal.html Bad Movie Night:        http://adams.patriot.net/~arielle/badmovie.html The Cult of The Lamp:   http://adams.patriot.net/~arielle/lamp.html

Response:

You can get tips on house training and manners training and cat box hunting on http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs Plan on training your dog a total of 30 minutes every day, but do it in short sessions – no more than ten minutes each.  You can do sessions as short as one or two minutes as long as it all adds up.  A training class will make a huge difference – ever try to learn to dance by reading a book?  Training is a physical skill.  You will learn faster and better if you take a class. Dogs eat poop because they like it.  simple as that.  If you sprinkle pepper on it some dogs will thank you for the spice.  My dog Tanith will eat food that is spicy hot by anyone’s standards.  Better is to make the cat box in accessible to the dog.  Use baby gates that the cats can jump over but the dog can’t – or install cats doors into the place with the cat box, or put the cat box up high, or use a covered box and face the entrance in such a way the cat can squeeze in but the dog can’t.  I use a combination.  One set of cats boxes is in my bathroom, the door is closed and a cat door gives access to the cats.  The other two sets of cat boxes are inside a "cat play pen" a large cage in which the box is on the floor of the cage, but the cats access it by an upper door about two feet off the ground. Please don’t post pictures to the newsgroup.  Use a website.  If you need help just ask.  If you want to know why not to post pictures I can help you with that as well. Diane Blackman –     –    -    -    -    -    -    -     – "Much of the tension [a dog] experiences results from fear — the more confidence he gains, the less fearful he will be; the less fearful, the less tension and stress he needs to dissipate."  "The Body Language and Emotion of Dogs" by Myrna M. Milani, DVM.

: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. : Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii : Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit : Hi,  Our dog Eraina just died of cancer back in August after raising and : feeding (yes feeding) 3 stray kittens.  We got a dog about 2 weeks after : Eraina’s death.  We weren’t looking for dog yet, because we were not : even close to being over Eraina’s death.  But we looked at a dog who : lived with a family who treated it very badly.  My mom felt sorry for it : and took it home.  Here’s the problem,  the dog is uncontrollable.  When : we took it they told us it was house broken, but Abby doesn’t go outside : and we tried paper inside in the basement and she won’t go there : either,  she also jumps on everyone, plays very rough with all the : cats,  esp.  the 3 kittens. (there bigger though) – but the weirdest : thing of all is (sorry if this grosses you out) but she eats cat feces, : we certainly don’t starve her.  plus we can’t take her for walks, : because when we put the leash around her neck she starts to whine.  SO : my question is what do I do to take control of this dog,  we have tried : talking and saying NO, we have tried treats for when she does things : right, my dad wants the dog to go.  But I’m scared that if we get rid of : her, no one else will put up with this behavior and she will be sent : from house to house, until one day put to sleep or worse.  If I don’t : get her to calm down my parents are going to send her to the SPCA! : P.S.  alot of people think I lie about my dog Eraina and those kittens, : so for those who are curious, here is a pic of them

Response:

>  Umm- there’s a fairly simple solution to this problem. Get a *covered* > litter box. Put it in a place where the cats can get in, but the dog > can’t…For example, one of our litter boxes is in a corner, with the > opening about 8 inches from the wall (ie the "mouth" of the box is *facing* > the wall), and the other one is under a work table.

  I guess you’ve never seen a GSD come skulking into the living room wearing the hood of a covered litterbox!  Or awakened to the sound of a happy little Maltese digging away inside of the covered litterbox that was placed inside the closet and behind a well-planned obstacle course! Dogs eat crap.  At least, some dogs do.  And it hasn’t anything to do with mineral imbalances etc.  They just smell something that they think is going to taste good.  And I guess, to them, it does, because even tho I’ve buried Alum inside a cat’s poop to disuade the dogs from eating it, they always go back for more.  I’ve given up.  Now I just make sure to use an unscented light papery cat litter so that it won’t block the dogs’ intestines.  And I try to scoop the cats’ poops as soon as they’re made (with six cats, that’s not easy). Let us never forget, these are DOGS!  I wouldn’t eat cat-crap, neither would you, but they will. cristine MARS (Maltese Animal Rescue Society)

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> My dogs used to eat cat poop, but it seems that the habit has worn off since I > started to give them a vitamin supplement.  could be a coincidence, I don’t > know.  They have however, since it started to snow, on occassion eat > poopsicles.  It’s they’re own poop, and it’s only one of the 4, but she seems > to love the frozen stuff.  Any ideas why???  It must be frozen solid for it to > be acceptable.  I think she spits it out, she just crunches it all up.  It’s > really rather disgusting.

Thanks — Jonathan Cates ICQ:    3575701

Response:

      Umm- there’s a fairly simple solution to this problem. Get a *covered* litter box. Put it in a place where the cats can get in, but the dog can’t…For example, one of our litter boxes is in a corner, with the opening about 8 inches from the wall (ie the "mouth" of the box is *facing* the wall), and the other one is under a work table. For about $20, you can buy a litter box that has a clamp-on lid- worth every penny. *EVERY* dog I have ever owned has liked to get into the litter boxes, BTW- I went to the covered-box thing about nine years ago after coming home from work one day and finding litter and dried cat poop all over my bed. UGH. (Oh yeah- the dog was NOT home alone, either!) Cheers Sarah (Alpha Bitch and Mamcat) Brenin, O-NAC, O-NJC, CGC, 1/2 OAC Gwydion, Wicked Cat Extrordinaire

Response:

I also have a dog that likes to eat feces.  She’s perfectly healthy otherwise, and now that she’s getting out of the puppy stage she does it a lot less often.  However, if you can’t teach her to stop eating the crap (forgive me, but I call ‘em how I see ‘em), my vet has told me there’s a product called "Forbid" that he can give her and she just won’t like the taste anymore.  I believe it’s an injection, but I’m not sure on this point. I didn’t resort to this, because I don’t like meds myself and will avoid giving them to my kids and my pets if I can.  But if all else fails… And as far as the housebreaking problem, I’d treat her like she was a puppy, as if she had never been housebroken.  And I’d use LOTS of praise whenever she did go outside. BTW – sorry for your loss.  Saying goodbye to a friend is never easy.

—— snip—— – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->and we tried paper inside in the basement and she won’t go there >either,  she also jumps on everyone, plays very rough with all the >cats,  esp.  the 3 kittens. (there bigger though) – but the weirdest >thing of all is (sorry if this grosses you out) but she eats cat feces, >we certainly don’t starve her.  plus we can’t take her for walks, >because when we put the leash around her neck she starts to whine.  SO >my question is what do I do to take control of this dog,  we have tried >talking and saying NO, we have tried treats for when she does things >right, my dad wants the dog to go.  But I’m scared that if we get rid of >her, no one else will put up with this behavior and she will be sent >from house to house, until one day put to sleep or worse.  If I don’t >get her to calm down my parents are going to send her to the SPCA!

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