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Hello Again!

 

My Athena is such a good girl, but I do have a few problems with her.

 

First, she's obsessed with the cat's litter box. It's such a disgusting habit, but I don't know how to positively deter it. I can't have a "cat room" like some people have. I already have to keep the cat food up high to keep her from getting into that. The litter box stays in the laundry room with a door that swings shut. The cat knows how to open it and it closes behind him. Unfortunately, Athena can open it too. I've scolded her for it, but she just wags her tail at me and then gets into it when my back's turned.

 

Also, Athena is completely house-trained, BUT...

 

She NEVER has accidents in her kennel, and at 6 months old she can hold her bladder for 8 hours. She puts a paw on the door when she needs to go (which is adorable and I didn't train her to do) and never purposely has an accident. But every once in awhile, she just pees. I mean, she'll be playing or running around, and pee just runs down her leg. When this happens, she panics and runs to the door, drizzling pee the whole way. It's obvious she doesn't mean to do this. I've never seen a dog do this before. If she can hold her bladder in her kennel for 8 hours, why does this happen almost every day? Will she outgrow it? Anyone else have this problem? I feel so bad for her when it happens, she has a sad little face like she's ashamed. :(

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While you can't have a "cat room", it sounds like the laundry room can do the same function. Rather than having a swinging door that your Athena can open as easily as the cat can, how about installing a baby gate or pet gate? You can get a pet gate that has an opening large enough for a cat to pass through, but with an actual gate that you have to open for yourself to pass through, and that would prevent Athena from being able to access the cat litter.

 

Here is a link for one example.

 

Some cats will jump a baby gate but some will not. One with a cat opening like this will work to keep the dog out (if she is big enough at this stage of life, and I would think she is) but let the cat have ready access to the laundry room. It is the same brand that I have in my house but without the cat door.

 

You don't want to simply mount a baby gate high enough for the cat to pass under as it would mean you'd have to always take a "big step" to go through yourself.

 

As for the unintentional peeing accidents, I would wonder if it's simply not a full bladder that she can hold when she is quiet and still (in the crate) but that she isn't able to hold when she is very active - rather like a child that is preoccupied with play, and may have an accident because she should have gone much sooner but was too "busy" to stop and tend to business, and finds herself unable to hold it any longer. I have had a child or two that experienced this a few times, just putting off stopping play to go to the bathroom until it was too late.

 

Like people, sleeping/resting animals produce a lower volume of higher-concentrated urine than awake/active animals do for the same amount of time. So an animal that can hold it all night comfortably, is not going to be as comfortable holding it during a shorter but active period of daytime because a greater volume will be produced. So you can't equate eight hours of sleep time with eight hours of (at least partly) awake time, or a much shorter period of very active time.

 

My suggestion would be that you make sure that you take her potty at somewhat shorter intervals - remember that the potty times are when waking up, after drinking or eating, and after play or activity. She may just be playing too long and too hard to "stop and go" on her own occasionally.

 

My Dan, who came here at eight weeks of age and by nine weeks was spending almost eight hours several days a week in his crate/xpen arrangement and holding it without ever peeing there, still had to be taken outside to pee every hour or two when he was loose in the house until he was about six months old, or he would have an accident. Too busy to heed the call of nature until it yelled at him!

 

I am sure others will have better advice to offer.

 

PS - If this persists, you might even consider a UTI and have her checked by a vet but I would think that she would not be holding it in her crate if that was the case.

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Thank you for the advice!

 

The reason I haven't put up a baby gate is because my cat hates them...lol. I have a "swinging" baby gate mounted to the doorway that separates the Den from the rest of the house, making it the "animal room" to keep the critters out of trouble. Unfortunately, this area includes the laundry room, hence my problem. The cat causes a lot of grief with the baby gate. He likes having control of the entire house and gets upset even if you keep a door close, yowling loudly at the door if you do. He won't jump over the gate at all, and most of the time will wait for someone to open the gate rather the crawl under it. It's high enough he can, but he doesn't like to, and we had to lower it because Athena tries to FORCE her way under it, especially if the cat or someone else is on the other side. She seriously has almost taken the gate off the door way.

 

But you are completely right, a baby gate makes the most sense and the cat may have to get over it. I would like to see if there's a way to deter Athena from the litter box before installing a gate though, to see if I can fix the problem or just end up preventing the habit with the gate.

 

As for the peeing, that does make sense, and I didn't think about "resting" bladder versus "active" bladder. Do you think she will just grow out of it? Part of it is paranoia since my last BC died of bladder cancer, which was eventually diagnosed after a series of bathroom problems. Athena shows no other signs of a UTI though... Since I've had two dogs die at a relatively young age, I'm paranoid of anything "unusual".

 

Thank you again!

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Might a simple fix work?

 

Our litter box is in our bathroom, and we have TWO kitty-poo munchers in the house. So, we set up a string latch that hooks from the door knob to a hook on the door frame, so the door stands open just wide enough for a cat, but the dog can't push it open. :) It does mean we have to un-hook the string when us humans want to use the people potty, but it keeps the dogs out of the Kitty-Roca. :P

 

~ Gloria

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Might a simple fix work?

 

Our litter box is in our bathroom, and we have TWO kitty-poo munchers in the house. So, we set up a string latch that hooks from the door knob to a hook on the door frame, so the door stands open just wide enough for a cat, but the dog can't push it open. :) It does mean we have to un-hook the string when us humans want to use the people potty, but it keeps the dogs out of the Kitty-Roca. :P

 

~ Gloria

 

 

I was going to make the very same suggestion. I have used this technique for many years because I usually have a cat as well as the dogs. If it is a regular door, as opposed to a swinging door, I put a rock on the floor at the opening so that the door cannot accidentally be closed all the way, trapping the cat inside. Works great!

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we've had good luck installing the baby gate so that there is space beneath it -- enough for the cats to slink beneath it, but not enough space for Bonny to satisfy her grosser appetites.

 

Our model wedges against either wall, so it can be slid up and down to adjust the height. Some also have cat-doors in the gate, but Bonny is small enough to squeeze through it.

 

 

 

The reason I haven't put up a baby gate is because my cat hates them...lol. I have a "swinging" baby gate mounted to the doorway that separates the Den from the rest of the house, making it the "animal room" to keep the critters out of trouble. Unfortunately, this area includes the laundry room, hence my problem. The cat causes a lot of grief with the baby gate. He likes having control of the entire house and gets upset even if you keep a door close, yowling loudly at the door if you do. He won't jump over the gate at all, and most of the time will wait for someone to open the gate rather the crawl under it. It's high enough he can, but he doesn't like to, and we had to lower it because Athena tries to FORCE her way under it, especially if the cat or someone else is on the other side. She seriously has almost taken the gate off the door way.

 

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I was going to make the very same suggestion. I have used this technique for many years because I usually have a cat as well as the dogs. If it is a regular door, as opposed to a swinging door, I put a rock on the floor at the opening so that the door cannot accidentally be closed all the way, trapping the cat inside. Works great!

 

 

Yes, that's it! Just the string latch to keep the dog from pushing the door open, and a rock or block of wood to keep the door from accidentally going shut. Costs pennies and 2 minutes to put together, and keeps dog out of the KittyRoca for ever. :P

 

~ Gloria

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