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Anyone think "clicker training" can help with erratic bathroom behaviour

This forum is for discussing all topics related to the challenges (and joys!) of keeping your house clean while living with cats. Here you can share tips, recommendations for products and techniques, and more!

  
Gypsy

1210790		 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '13 8:14am PST 
gypsy uses the box just fine, but sometimes after she digs, when she start to pee, her butt goes up (just like elevator butt).

If I'm there, I'll hold her bum down, and she doesn't seem to mind. If I'm not there, she overshoots the high-sided litterbox some before she makes it back into the box. And then she digs forever trying to cover up the smell.

Other times when I'm scooping, there's nice little round blobs of scoopable pee, so I know she's remaining squatting the whole time sometimes at least.

(I think it might be related to how long she's holding it, but don't want to really get into that part of it here)

I'm clicker training her for other things. She knows "sit", "high five!", and "speak."

Do you think if I kept a clicker nearby and she got a click following by a treat when she remained seated for the entire performance, it would help?

There's be no punishment if she started to lift her butt, but no click afterwards either.

She's already using the box well, I certainly wouldn't want to try an experiment that started her eliminating in appropriate places because I was bugging her in the bathroom.

(she's certainly not pee shy, though. She's most likely to go when she notices me scooping)

Thanks.
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Righty

1283879
 
 
Purred: Tue Feb 19, '13 6:44pm PST 
I have several cats who perch on the side of a litter pan when using it, probably because they don't want their feet to get dirty and I have several who stand up when they urinate. I'm not going to even try to change the way they use the litter pan, I'm just glad they DO consistently use the litter pan.

I've seen some good ideas, which I'm going to try with my cats, about taking a large plastic storage box, cutting an entrance hole in it, and using it as a big litter pan. This certainly would solve any problems of a cat getting pee outside the box. If it works, it probably will end up being superior to my current system for my cats who will not use covered litter pans.
Here are some links to how to make these DIY litter pans.
http://petprojectblog.com/archives/cats/make-your-own-cat-lit ter-box/
http://catsadored.com/LITTERBOXES/LITTER_BOXES.htm
http:/ /lifehacker.com/5433450/repurpose-a-storage-bin-as-a-mess+free-litte r-box
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/217069/make-your-own-litter-box-f rom-rss-feed
http://musingsfromasahm.com/2011/11/do-it-yourself-6-m ess-free-cat-litter-box/

My current system, which I've done for many years now, for keeping kitty messes from ending up outside of the litter pan on the carpet is:
I take cardboard boxes that are a foot tall or taller and big enough for me to set a litter pan inside them, cut out the middle front part of the box so the cat can enter and exit the litter pan, and the tall sides of these cardboard boxes prevent wastes from ending up on the floor. To prevent the cardboard from soaking up urine I put contact paper on the sides and floor of the cardboard box after cutting the entrance hole in the box and before putting the litter pan in the box. I also keep a sheet of plastic such as you can buy to insulate windows with, etc, on the floor under the entire area where my litter pans are at. I put cheap woven throw rugs in front of the entrances to the litter pans with the edge of the rug just enough under the box that the weight of the box will hold the rug in place. These cheap woven throw rugs are great for catching any litter that gets tracked out of the litter pans, are easy to shake out, easy to wash, and cheap to replace when they become worn out. The contact-paper covered cardboard box catches any urine or feces that end up outside of the litter pan. The contact paper, having a plastic coating on its non-adhesive side, is easy to wipe clean with a paper towel.
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Brownie

I'm the Alpha- cat!		 
 
Purred: Tue Feb 19, '13 8:07pm PST 
Gypsy, I'm still saying that the plastic pee slip & slide I wrote about in my other post on this subect are simply and no headaches for cat or owner. Since you are not am to train 24/7 it may not work and then what?
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Gypsy

1210790		 
 
Purred: Sat Feb 23, '13 12:18am PST 
I'm not referring back to you other post, but I did implement a plastic pee-n-slide this weekend.

Gypsy's box is on the floor of a tiny linen closet. I basically took out the bottom drawer and staple gunned heavy black vinyl to the brackets the wood shelves on, then replaced the shelf.

Re-insert litter box, making sure the new black pee curtain went over the lip of box into the box. Then some trimming with scissors, and I probably have about what you're talking about.

It's the bf's job to remove the litter box and clean back there from before the curtain was installed sometime.
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