Why are dogs attracted to litter boxes? ?

Question

I had a golden retriever who was thirteen. She always tried too eat out of the litter box. We trained her not too but when we came home we could tell by looking at the litter stuck to her nose. When she passed, we decided to get another golden puppy. She does the same exact thing. We are training her also but she will still try to get in it. What is it that attracts her to the litter box? We have five cats.

Answer 1

Dogs like to eat the cat p**p, it is as simple as that, my dogs do it too.

Answer 2

the smell. dogs sense of smell is outstanding. also, what's left in the box. call it what you want, but dogs love it.

Answer 3

Well....they like the smell of the cats and i guess its a way of taking back territory

Answer 4

The vet told me that it's because the kitty p**p has a high level of protein. She says it's common.  ewww.  I keep the dogs away from it, because I can't stand the thought it when my samoyed comes around looking for some petting and love.    

Answer 5

I once asked my vet this very same question!

He told me that the protein in cat food is so high, that the cat can't digest it all, ergo, it has some nutritional value.

He also stated that if the cat doesn't have any internal parasites, that it wouldn't hurt the dog(s).

My biggest problem with it was, it seemed every time the dogs were into the "cat crunchies", they always wanted to l**k me.  YUCH!

I bought a covered litter box, and one of them still figured out how to get in it!

I never could break this one dog of checking out the box!

Good luck

Answer 6

It's probably the scent of the cats. Although the litter might taste good to them, a lot of bad things taste good to dogs, like antifreeze or chocolate.