Keeping a dog from eating cat food?

[MonaLyssa33]

Does anyone have any suggestions to keep a dog from eating cat food? My puppy is 5 months old and she keeps jumping over the baby gates to get to the cat food that I now have on my dining room table. She is still able to get to the food from there too. I have been considering different things like putting a shelf in next to a cat tree that the cats can eat from or putting in a cat door in a basement bedroom door, but I 1. don't know if the shelf thing would work, and 2. don't want to go downstairs to feed them twice a day. I can't do that upstairs because all of the doors upstairs are solid wood and I am not going to destroy good doors.

 

[neely]

I don't know if this would work for you but when we adopted a second cat, actually 8 mo. old kitten, with our other cat and dog I had to feed him away from the dog too. I used 2 tension rods with fabric between the upper and lower rods and attached them to the door frame. It was a deterrent for the dog but did not damage the doors. Our dog was a full grown german shepherd and never tried to knock the tension rods down or jump over them. If you try this idea you can make the tension rod as high as you want it to go. I left enough room near the lower rod for the kitty to get under.

The other suggestion is to feed the dog first so maybe that would help deter her and start training her to ignore the cat's food. I understand she's still a puppy but it's never too early to start training. Give her a sharp no once, twice tops and do not keep repeating the command. Praise her, offer treats, a favorite toy or chew, whatever it takes to distract her.

Good luck!

 

[Willowy]

Door Buddy:
DOOR BUDDY Door Latch Plus Door Stopper, Grey - Chewy.com

Or. . .are your walls drywall or lathe/plaster? If drywall, it may be easier to put a cat door through the wall instead or ruining a door. Drywall is easy to patch if you ever want to remove the cat door.

 

[LTS3]

The Door Buddy latch thing works well. I use it to keep the laundry closet door open enough so the washer door can be left open and the inside can dry out and not get gross and moldy. There are instructions on the package how to remove it if needed.

Or maybe temporarily replace one of the solid doors with a cheapy hollow core one and use the Door Buddy latch on that just in case you worry about possible damage trying to remove the latch later.

I don't know if a microchip feeder would deter a puppy?

Look into puppy training classes. You can likely find some basic puppy training videos on YouTube to start and do more formal in person classes later.

 

[Bubblesmom2014]

Shoot, my dog Sadie is 11 years old and still tries to eat the cat food. If she is left alone with cat food on the floor, she will absolutely eat all the cat food.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I have 4 dogs and 1 cat in my home country, so what we do is feed the cat inside the crate. The crate is large enough to fit 3 dogs so my cat Pepsi wouldn't feel so contained in there. Otherwise, we have to keep watch while they are eating.

 

[VioletReaver]

I can't stress impulse training your dog enough! Honestly the most rewarding thing we taught our dog. She's 13 now and good enough that she wont eat a cheeseburger if we put the plate on the floor and leave the room. This means we can bring her with us to more places and she can live a fuller life because we don't have to worry about her eating something poisonous/unhealthy someone drops. All of our friends want to steal our dog because "she's just so easy to have!" and she definitely was not an easy puppy

The idea is basically to teach your puppy that controlling her impulses will lead to greater rewards. The easiest way to start is to get two types of treats - one the puppy likes and one the puppy LOVES. You put the lower value treat on the floor near your hand and tell the puppy to wait. When she goes for it, cover it with your hand. The moment she changes her focus from treat or steps back, praise her and give the the high value treat from the other hand. Never give her the treat you've been tempting her with under your other hand; she'll learn that although she doesn't get that one, she gets something better, and your praise!

Of course, you'll want another solution to protect the cat food while she works on this, but once she learns this you can teach her to just leave the food alone!

 

[Kflowers]

As others have said the Door buddy is a good thing, you want to protect the cat's litter box from puppy for both their sakes.

We did have a set of cat stairs built. In the form of a triangle with a landing at the top. The top is 5.5 feet above ground and the stairs are an inch wider than your widest cat. We carpeted the steps. We used blue, I suggest a hounds tooth check would be better. The cat bowl goes on the landing. In the first house the landing was braced on a shelf. Currently it's above a cabinet resting on a plastic milk carton and a couple of books to stabilize it.

 

[VegasJeff]

So what I did was to stop the dog from eating the cat food is I put the cat food high up on top of two boxes. The cat has no problem getting up there to eat and I don't think the dog is smart enough to get up there lol.

 

[Kflowers]

Now protect the litter box. Just because you have a covered litter box doesn't mean doggie won't stick his head inside. If the cat is inside when he does that, your problem will, probably, be solved.

It's actually important to keep the dog from eating clumping litter as it can form a solid in his stomch which will require surgery to remove.

 

[Java Lady]

Does anyone have any suggestions to keep a dog from eating cat food? My puppy is 5 months old and she keeps jumping over the baby gates to get to the cat food that I now have on my dining room table. She is still able to get to the food from there too. I have been considering different things like putting a shelf in next to a cat tree that the cats can eat from or putting in a cat door in a basement bedroom door, but I 1. don't know if the shelf thing would work, and 2. don't want to go downstairs to feed them twice a day. I can't do that upstairs because all of the doors upstairs are solid wood and I am not going to destroy good doors.

my aunt puts cat dished on counter in kitchen preventing dogs from eating it back of counter may work she used to put it on the top of fridge for a while too, my sister puts the cat food in another room with a baby gate so dog cannot get in there

 

[CarmiesMom]

i put a food dish on the cat tree and ob top of my computer cabinet and a third& fourth on my utility room counter's either side of the sink (was a kitchen before reversion to a SF home in the 80's) this works for my 4 adults and 1 juvinile cat my 8 week kitten eats in a pack and play he has been staying in to keep from being injured at night(i'm a live-in caregiver and my 92 year old grandfather most nights spends half in his electric recliner) with a crib sheet over the top to keep him in. but my cats will eat the dogs food as well as their own well 3 out of 6 anyway aren't pickey so i've taken to feeding her in her night time crate as well as the cats wont go in it its left open for her durring the day and the food dish is removed at night.

 

[Java Lady]

my aunt puts the cat dishes on the counter and my sister puts them on cat tree in office works for both of them