[ArchieSp]

Okay. Will be bringing a new 10 week old puppy home this Saturday. We also have two older, extremely tolerant and friendly cats. Thus, there is a litter box in our house.

Litter boxes to all dogs are like little chests of buried treasure. Thus, I want to keep this area off limits. In addition, the cats are free fed and I want to make sure he doesn't eat the cat's food as well. So, that goes together.

Now, if I just wanted to make the area off limits, that's easy. But, the area must still be accessible by cats.

As the puppy gets older, it is easy. I can either get a gate that has a small pet door that the cats fit through and he does not, or I can do an e-collar that won't allow him in that room. And when he first comes home, it will be easy as he will not be left alone to explore the litter box.

But, need an idea for that in between age. Any thoughts, recomendations?

 

[Murphys Dad]

I know of some people who have cats and got a dog. What they did was just elevate the litter box. The cats have no problem getting to it, but the puppy won't be able to.

btw - that's what I would recommend to do with everything you value, as puppies, especially Beagle puppies tend to chew the heck out of everything!!!!!

 

[ArchieSp]

Well, though the kids are now 5 and 9, we still haven't un-babyproofed the way our house is set up. I have nephews that are 4, 2, and 8 months, so have not moved beyond the phase in life where all social events include toddlers yet. The act of baby proofing and puppy proofing is very similar, the only difference is what they do with stuff when they get it (suck and throw on ground versus chewing).

We do have an enclosed litter pan (look like a pet carrier), so it is somewhat high. Plus, there will be no unsupervised time near the littler box for a while. I am more worried about when he is about 5 months to a year old.

I have thought about elevating the litter box, but have no idea how/ where. Plus, with cat food and a garbage can in the same room, am looking for a way to beagle proof the entire room. Which also happens to be the laundry room.

 

[LuckyBeagle]

I just have a baby gate up to block off my cat's food and litter box from Lucky. Lily has no problem jumping the gate to get to the food/litter box and Lucky cannot reach either. This has worked since Lily was a kitten.

 

[ArchieSp]

Yeah.... I found a smaller baby gate (the one cat is not much of a jumper) that will work in the interim, and I am leaning heavily that way.

 

[rad]

Either the baby gate or putting things out of reach will work. The former will work unless the dog figures out he can climb the gate, but the latter will work into adulthood.

Shortly after we got Chica the wife and kids brought home a stray kitten. We set up his food on the clothes dryer, which was too high for Chica to jump up on and too smooth to climb. For the litter box we put a peice of carpet and cardboard on the crate we got with Chica and put the litter box on that. We don't keep Chica in that crate anymore since she destroyed one of the latches to get out, so we use it as a safe place to store bags of pet food. Anyway, it is all up high enough to keep Chica and Monty out of it. In our case a baby gate would not work because Monty figured out how to climb them.

 

[Zookeeper]

We tried the baby gate, but since Phoebe (our cat) has her box and food in our room, it was a pain to climb over it each time we wanted in. Plus, as Duke got a little older, he could jump it easily.

We took an old microwave cart and moved it in our room for Phoebe's litter box. Then we put her food/water on our dresser. Duke can't get into either of them and it works great for Phoebe, because she has a little more privacy from the dogs that way.

Good luck and congrats on the new family member!

 

[LuckyBeagle]

We don't baby gate off a room just a closet. Lucky has his own room so I have the closet doros open and a baby gate up. The cat can get into the closet but Lucky cannot. Lucky can climb gates too but since there is not room to jump the gate into the closet, he cannot jump this gate.

 

[Erin]

Well I can help with the trash can thing. Our two monsters used to get into the trash any chance they got. It had a lip on the edge (one of those with the foot part to open it) and they would stick their noses under the edge and then pull the hole thing down. We finally went to Sam's Club and found a heavier stainless steel one with a lid that's flush with the top of the can. The lid also is in the center of the top portion and doesn't extend to the edge of the can(if that makes sense). So they can't get their nose on anything and it's heavy enough that they don't even mess with it.

 

[ArchieSp]

Yeah, once he gets older, the solutions are simpler. Litter box, garbage can will both be in laundry room where they are now. Problem is a puppy. I plan on getting a small baby gate. Once he can defeat that measure, I know he is probably ready for a more permanent solution.