My Pet World: How to teach a cat not to use a plant pot as a litter box

Q: For Christmas I was just given a gift of a 6-foot palm tree that is in a 24-inch wide pot that is sitting in my living room. However, my issue is not with the tree but with my 2-year-old indoor cat who, for whatever reason, likes to use the soil in the pot as a litter box. She jumps up onto the pot and somehow finds the room to dig a hole in the soil and poop or pee in it. She still uses her regular litter box as well, so I have no idea what criteria she uses when deciding to use the plant or her litter box. I tried spraying her with water from a squirt bottle when I see her digging in the pot but this only seems to teach her to do it when we are not home or at night. Are there any suggestions you can give me to solve the situation? -- Karen Greco, Allentown, PA

A: She is using the plant basically because it is there and she can. To her mind it is just a big tall oddly shaped litter box. The potting soil feels and smells appealing to her, enticing her to use it. The fact that you spray her with water when she is using it she just chalks up to our confusing human behavior that we expose our pets to regularly.

What you need to do is to make the potting soil unattractive to her. The easiest way to do this is to insert a multitude of toothpicks half their length into the soil around the plant. They will not hurt her should she try to paw at them but it will make the pot impossible for her to use as a toilet.

Putting a layer of white marble chips over the soil as mulch or sticking spiky pine cones in the soil will also work and look more attractive for you. But then it is hard to tell if the plant needs water.

It will also help if you get a bag of plain potting soil -- one that does not have any timed release fertilizers or any chemicals like that in it -- and throw a handful of it into her litter box for a while. She seems to enjoy the smell and texture of it, so a bit of soil mixed in with her litter will get her attention away from the palm tree and re-direct it back to the litter box.

As time goes by the novelty of the tree will wear off and you can then gradually start to pull the toothpicks out and eventually you will no longer need them.

Q: We got a coonhound mix puppy six months ago. He is very smart, is potty trained and is an amazing dog. However, he is now as big as a pony, has a mouth as big as a bear trap and is tall enough to reach on top of our counters and devours any edible we leave on them. Loaves of bread or fruit or a box of cereal -- everything goes down his throat. We scold him when we see him doing it and he seems contrite for a minute but after the minute is over he is back at it. One day he even got a bunch of bananas that were left on top of the fridge. Do you have any training methods that could help with this problem? -- Harry Rosenberg, Orlando, FL

A: This is not really a training issue but actually a management issue. If you could follow the dog around all day, every day of the week and correct him -- note I say correct and not punish -- every time he goes for a food item that is not his, then he would surely learn what is correct.

When I was a kid there was an elderly man on my block who knew a lot about dogs and taught me a great deal. He always taught his dogs to never eat anything found lying about. So any dog can be trained to do this -- if you have the time.

If the corrections are random, as you are likely doing, then the dog cannot learn consistency, which is the number one rule in training a dog. So the whole family needs to apply themselves to not leaving any edibles out that the dog can have access to; since he can climb as high as the fridge, then that means everything needs to be locked up.

When you can apply yourself to a training session, you can then put out a loaf of bread and take the dog into the kitchen and correct him every time he goes for it. When the lesson is over, put the bread away so the dog no longer has the opportunity to take it off the counter and thus the memory of the lesson is retained.

He will learn this all in time if he is as smart as you say he is. Like most issues in pet keeping, it is a matter of looking at the situation from the animal's point of view.

NOTE TO READERS: Last week I printed a letter from a cat keeper whose kitty would turn on the kitchen faucet and then never turn it off, thus resulting in the water running all day. My suggestion was to change the faucet to a type that the cat could not turn on with its paws.

Many kind readers sent me helpful letters that said if you just turned the water off from the main valve under the sink, and then turned it back on when you used the sink, then the cat would not be able to turn it on when you were not home.

This is a great idea, however, I know for sure it would never work in my house. The cupboard under our sink at home has empty bottles and other such sundries that date back at least 20 years or more. To get to the shut off valve would involve being on my hands and aching knees for far too long a time period. However, it is a clever and affordable solution for those who are more organized than me.

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(Marc Morrone has kept almost every kind of animal as a pet for the last half-century and he is happy to share his knowledge with others. Although he cannot answer every question, he will publish many of those that have a general interest. You can contact him at petxperts2@aol.com; please include your name, city and state.)