I have a 10 week on miniature jack russell and over the past couple of weeks she has just started going into the cat litter tray and taking the poo from it and eating it, she has been wormed and i am trying to keep the door pushed to so the cats can still get in.
Everytime she goes in i shouted no and sometimes she comes back out
has anyone got any advice on what i can do to stop her going in?

Cat poo is tasty, it cropped up recently in last few weeks.

Ensure you're feeding a good puppy food, with all the minerals, protein and energy that a rapidly growing pup needs.

Supervise and try to prevent opportunity to get at the cat litter. Umbilical tethering of pup to you may help with house training anyway (training lead or old line around your waist) so you have pup with you, not able to wander so freely and find mischief when you're distracted.

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For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...

My JR says cat poo is AMAAAAAZING. He will leave if told/if i'm around, but leaving him in the vicinity of a used tray unsupervised is asking for trouble.

Trouble is, this habit is self-rewarding, so why should she give it up really. Work on a good leave command in other situations so you can eventually get her to leave the cat poo, work on a good recall so you can call her away from the poo, and limit access. And avoid kisses

dont worry she gets no where near giving me kisses after she eats the poo
she get the science plan puppy biscuits and has 100kg a day.
i wouldnt care she has loads of different toys to play with and she perfers cat poo and cat litter.

* CHAIN the door so that the pup does not fit

* BABY-gate the door so the cats can leap over it & pup cannot

* install an indoor cat-flap WITH A LOCK that the cat's collar dangle can open
[thus locking-out the dog who has no collar-doodad]

* put the litter pan into a cover that requires access THRU THE ROOF of the cover

* buy the cover-up that has an L-shaped entrance [cats are more flexible than dogs]

* park the covered pan inside an exercise-pen too tall for the dog to hop over...


and other similar variations - THE POINT IS, do not let the dog have access; s/he Must Not repeat the behavior.
every time any behavior is repeated, & IS REWARDING, the rut of habit for that action is made deeper -
& it becomes harder to change that UnWanted behavior for another, much preferred behavior.

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

prevent - manage - supervise.

there IS a quick fix, associate very bad stuff to the cat litter box or the room. though I wouldn't do that at 10 weeks. 8-10 months. maybe.

10 week puppy should be supervised anyhow. give the puppy more interesting stuff to eat that cat poo...

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Cambridge Dog Training School | G3 Dogs
www.g3dogs.com

Edi,
can U please specify precisely what "bad things" U'd associate with the litter-box or the room it's in?
and how U would "associate" them? what would be the process?


for any other readers, & specifically for the OP, i would Not Recommend making bad associations
as a "fix" for anything - making a dog fearful or anxious in their own home is potentially disastrous,
& as edi notes, any such frights, discomforts or avoidance which are memorable are worse
in their side-effects, depending upon the age of the dog, their temperament & resilience.

a soft-natured dog of any age whatever could be severely affected by such "memorable" bad events,
especially in their own home, which even more than the norm for all dogs, must be their safe haven.
ANY puppy, no matter their temp or rebound from startle or forgiveness of accidental pain, is just
beginning to learn about the world; learning that their home is not safe, or their handler would hurt
or scare them deliberately, is a violation of trust - which is the foundation of a good lifelong relationship
with humans. It would be utterly appalling to frighten, hurt or punish a puppy 'memorably',
since the fallout could affect that pup's response to humans for life.

and if it isn't "memorable", there's no bloody point in scaring, hurting [even mildly] or any other
bad associations being made - it serves no purpose & is merely petty vindictiveness, IMO - speaking
frankly, it is not apropos to allow a dog access to things that U do not want them to access, and THEN
blame the dog - if U do not want them to have access, then Don't. Simple.

OTOH if U want to teach a dog to do X when Y is present, that is teach an alternative behavior,
that is reasonable - but don't expect it to be perfect behavior, especially to begin: teaching a dog
to lie on their bed, not Ur sofa, is reasonable; leaving the dog unsupervised in the room & expecting
s/he will not get onto the sofa is Not Reasonable, particularly when it's only been a few days.

if Ur dog is 10-YO & has never gotten on the sofa, & U come in to find her/him on the sofa,
rather than freak out & yell at the dog, i'd suggest wondering what has changed: my first suspect?
advancing age means tender joints, & floor-level is drafty; a well-positioned orthopedic bed on the floor,
with a bolster to block the drafts, could solve the problem & address the root-cause,
instead of this endless game of 'Blame the Dog!'

i also strongly agree this pup is not being supervised adequately for their age,
& has too much of the house floor-space at their disposal - baby-gates, umbilical cording,
tethering to an eye-bolt in the baseboard with the pup under adult eyes on a puppy-proof
EASY-CLEAN surface or waterproof mat over the wall-to-wall, etc, are all options.

letting a 10-WO pup wander the majority of the house-floor at will is not IMO & IME an option -
pups invariably void on, chew on, EAT, puke on, etc, things we'd rather they did not.
blaming the pup when we allow unfettered, unsupervised access is mean;
it's our fault when pups pee on carpet, chew on precious items, swallow pills, etc -
NOT the puppy's fault. **access** needs to be controlled, & pups need supervision.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

I know this can depend on each persons circumstances, but could you possibly scoop the poop and flush/dispose of?

I have two indoor cats and they each poo once per day and pretty much as soon as they're 'done' I scoop and flush. When I had a Pup a few years ago, this was a bonus because that way there were no cat poops laying about in the litter tray for the pup to 'get to'.

I guess this isn't a total solution though as there might be times where you aren't able to get to the litter tray straight away. But to be honest, like others have said, I wouldn't allow a 10 week old puppy access to other rooms without my supervision anyway. Allowing such a young puppy to roam freely will let him get upto all sorts, like eating cat poo .

i dont let my puppy wonder from room to room but its a bit hard when the cat litter tray is in a cupboard in the sitting room
yeah maybe your cat only has 1 poo but mine doesnt and sometimes like for e.g. when iam on the toilet i cant scoop the poo up straight away.

and i dont agree to associate the cat litter tray as something bad i had her at the vets yesterday for her 2nd injection and micro chip injection and the vet said thats just puppies and to tell her no when she does bring it out.

umbilical cording the pup To U solves this problem easily: put the 6-ft leash round Ur waist, slip the clip
thru the wrist loop, connect the free-hanging clip to the pup's collar; U go to the toilet? so does the pup.

tethering the pup away from the litter-box or putting the pup in an exercise-pen keeps pups safely out
of things we don't want them to get into, with no scolding needed.
'No' after the fact is no help. she's already got it; walking toward her to take it from her mouth will only
teach her to gobble it before U get there, or to eat it while standing over the litter-box... and there U are,
back at square-one.

denying access is the simplest solution. Think of a way instead of saying it's impossible.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007