To set the scene here: I moved in with my boyfriend. He has 2 big dogs, one has bad history with cats.
The house is 2 stories and we just adopted a kitten. So far, we've been keeping the kitten inside our bedroom while blocking off the stairs.
However... the 'barricade' that we have isn't very good and the dogs do occasionally make their way up stairs if we don't make sure it's blocked off well. since we keep the bedroom door closed they never come into contact but my issue:
I have to keep the litter box in the bedroom for this reason. Can anyone help me come up with a way that I could keep the dogs and the cat separated but be able to have the litter box in a different room so that the smell isn't overwhelming?
-OR-
Recommend a really good litter box/ cat litter brand that helps eliminate the odor very well? We are currently using a Arm and Hammer "double duty" odor control brand right now, and it does decent. But the smell is pretty overwhelming for about 10 -20 mins after he does his buisness. So, what can I do?
Seems training the dogs would be easier. Or just let the cat roam free while you're home to give the room time to air out with the door open. Training a dog (most anyway) to be good with a cat takes less than a week.
I'm not sure how well that would work out with training the dogs just because of their personalities.
However... do you have any specific tips or hints? I'm not good with dogs lol.
It's simple really. Put the dogs on a leash and let him get to know the cat and let the kitten get to know the dogs. Do this several times a day and when they get ready to do something they shouldn't do just tug the leash. You can also get a clicker and do the same thing. When you tug the leash make them sit. Never yell or anything but be firm like you would if you were teaching a child something new. Doing this once an hour or so then weaning to taking them off the leash and letting them become friends while supervised should do it. A hyper overactive, chase everything, pick everything up and shake it dog can become a cats best friend very easily. My 10 year old dog was horrible with cats when she was little but we trained her. Since then she has actually nursed 2 kittens who had lost their mother and she still prefers to sleep with the cat instead of the other dog we have.
first, not all dogs are willing to accept cats. the saying, it takes two to tango applies here. even if you get the dog to tolerate the cat, you must get the cat to accept the dog. the first time the cat swipes its claws across the dogs sensitve nose...the truce will be off. as paradigm implied...the dog that has an issue about cats needs to be desensitized where they are concerned. you can do this yourself, but it takes comittment. and remember to never let your guard down. your big dog can kill that little kitten in the blink of an eye. i would suggest watching videos on youtube and/or getting some dog training books that deal with adjusting behaviour in a positive manner. truly study the subject before you tackle it. as for litter, be very careful about using scented litters and crystals...some cats, especially kittens are highly sensitive to them and can die from them. the best litter is simple clay litter. it is the safest, as well as the safest on the environment. it controls odors very well. NOTHING will stop the stink when a cat first poops. that is something in the cats diet. perhaps you might consider getting one of those little room freshensers that you plug in that keeps the room smelling nice.
Take the one dog to cat sensitivity training. I originally meant this as a joke, but it wouldn't surprise me if such a service actually existed.
Purina Tidy Cat has a scoopable litter for Multiple Cats and Small Spaces. It works beautifully. We only have the one cat, but we lived in a teeny tiny apartment for a while and we had to find something that worked and that was the one. You may also want to try keeping it somewhere the dogs can't get to it as they tend to treat a litter box like a buffet. BLECH!!
Good luck!
P.S. If you can't find small spaces, the 24/7 works well also. Arm & Hammer also makes a powdered 'cat litter deodorizer that helps a LOT!
Try Fresh StepĀ® Crystals. It's expensive but it works amazing with odors for a single cat. The "crystals" are made of silica gel and they absorb the urine and dry out the poop pretty fast which makes it not smell anymore or at least a LOT less. You're not going to get anything better than that. If that fails you could consider building a cat walk where the cat could go over the dogs, through a hallway to another room. Of course you'd have to enclose it so they couldn't jump off and that might be more than you want to do.
The brand of litter you are using I feel is great. We have been using it for a little over a year now. We use it in combination with the Arm and hammer cat litter deodorizer that removes any litter smell at all. Also have you thought of getting a cat door that is too small for your dogs to fit through but allows the cat to use the litter box with the dogs intruding! They help as well.
by Shil1978 14 years ago
Are you a cat person or a dog person and why?
by Crazdwriter 15 years ago
My 5 month old kitten, a male gray, tan and white tab who we rescued from Cats In Needs is really driving my husband and myself MAD! Tiger, as his name is of course, has been peeing nonstop ON my rub in the bathroom so I have closed the door but now he has taken to peeing in my husband's...
by inkera 13 years ago
I saw your article on the outdoor cat litter box. We are looking at building one, and had a few ?'sAs we are looking to have a kitty door to an outdoor enclosed kitty litter box ~ we were wondering if 1) does nature self-clean? 2) is there much odor after a few years of use? ...
by PhoenixV 9 years ago
What Is The Best Cat Litter For Odor Control That Is Also Inexpensive?
by RighterOne 12 years ago
Do Cats or Dogs make better pets?My cat is so cute sometimes - and smart. And he knows how to be nice when he needs something... But he is not selfish - he lets me mess with him sometimes when I'm in a bad mood.
by Ron Karn 13 years ago
What can be done with an older cat, previously litter trained, that stops using the litter box?Do cats get senile and forget where the litter box is? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get her to stop urinating on the carpet and various other places?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |