**UPDATED**
So I went to take a picture to show Kira the mess that Persia
makes while eating. While I walked over there, the cat jumped
up to eat and knocked some more food off - Of course this got
Darla's attention and she spotted one in the litter box. I ACTUALLY
had my camera out and ready to take the picture so it was
perfect timing!!!!! Looks like Darla is constipated, doing her duty
BUT she is actually eating a piece of cat food: HAHAHA
Had me laughing pretty hard!!!!

So Persia's litter box is in the corner, under the bar/counter,
beneath her food bowl. Since she is still kinda "special" she
manages to spill over 50% of her food out of her bowl, and
SOME of it (a few pieces) fall off the counter, into her litter
box.

WELL . . . . Darla (dog) is VERY aware of the food falling and
takes advantage of it whenever we don't notice in time. Some
doesn't fall in the box, some does. We started noticing litter
on Darla's nose lately and have caught her with her front
paws and face in the box, eating FOOD. Today, something
hilarious happened and I didn't grab my camera in time.
Darla was full on standing in the litter box, looking as though
she may have done her duty in there. We yelled at her too
fast though. Was curious if dogs ever do their duty in a
litter box ever?

We don't want to encourage it, since she knows to go when
we take her outside. But I think it would be SO hilarious if
she actually trained herself to go in the litter box - But I
realize then Persia would probably end up going on the
ground, or worse, our beds! haha

If it happens again, I promise to get a picture of her ASAP!
We couldn't stop laughing at how silly she looked

I have a friend who has 2 small dogs that only use a litter box. She started training them to use it as soon as she got them.

I am not sure this is something you want to encourage. It is not unknown that dogs will eat cat poop. Perhaps you can find another place for the litter box, if this is a problem. Normally cats do not like to eat near their litter boxes.

Mine are not smush-faced and they no longer eat dry food -- except for treats -- but I find that putting a tray under their food dishes reduces the food scatter. Smush-faced Persians, I hear from others on this site, are notorious for scattering their food. Ask Kira.

My sister in law has two mini dachshunds who use a litter
box. I sure wouldn't encourage it, but s-i-l is physically
unable to walk the dogs. It works for her.

my little dog Cricket use one.

Don't let Darla eat cat food, it is really bad for her kidneys. Cats need a much higher fat content than dogs do, and their food can actually be fatal in large doses over a period of time. We had a shih tzu, Sassafras, growing up that would eat Miss Kitty's food and she kept getting kidney infections and we couldn't figure out why... it was the cat food she was sneaking. I would say put Persia's food somewhere up higher where Miss Darla can't sneak it!

And yes, Lou, will eat cat poo given the opportunity... it's full of fat so it tastes good to them, the same reason they'll eat the food. I have, in the past, gotten a type of baby lock to put on the door so the cat can fit through the closet door (or whatever) to the potty but the doggie can't fit. It worked for me.

I love hearing about Darla and Persia. They are babes

Oh... and we tried to litter box train Lou..

(here is Lou with my friend)


he got in that litterbox and dug like he was digging to china. Litter was flying EVERYWHERE, he got really excited for some reason... we were laughing too hard to stop it. He dug all the litter out of the box in about twenty seconds. So... it works for some dogs... but not the special ones

Lola my mini schauzer is one of those dogs that will eat cat poop.. I've heard it's because of how aromatic the excreta is however it stinks to me so it's really too yuck for words when I've caught Lola doing that! She is not allowed to go into the bathroom where the litter box is or into the kitchen where one of the cats eats because she will eat their food (I have to feed Alaska on the bed and she'll jump up there and chow down too). I have caught her eating cat poop in the litter box before tho that's been quite a while ago~

There are litter boxes for dogs as well at the pet stores. I don't want to train Lola to use the litter box tho as my cats are older and I doubt as you said they'd use it if she did and probably decide to go other places as you mentioned.

I bet Darla looked real cute in there and even cuter when you startled her and she had to scram outta there!

Hi Kira!
We have the cats food VERY high up on the bar counter where Darla
has NO way of getting to it. It's just that Persia is a messy eater, so
about 50% of her food makes it outside the bowl (on her placemat)
and about 3 pieces each meal will fall off the counter and either on
the ground or in her litter box (we moved it from out of the guest room
but probably putting it back in there). So Darla sees her FOOD (not poop)
and will try to eat them before we see. She doesn't eat her poop because
we don't give her a second to even think about it. When we are home
with them, they are both in the house, so when the kitty does her
business, we clean it up ASAP. When we leave, Darla goes outside, so
if the kitty poops, Darla has no way to get to it.

So no worries about her eating too much! I think because she has seen
a few pieces of kitty FOOD land in the litter box, she might think theres
a ton in there and wants to go on a digging rampage to find, what she
thinks it "treats" - Now if the kitty would start eating a little less messy,
then we wouldn't have this issues. Maybe she does it to tease Darla? lol

Beat this. CHunk's daily post-meal mess. I finally got him a giant placemat with raised sides.

I'm sorry.. I didn't read well enough. I"m an idiot So glad she isn't eating kitty food, I still feel guilty about poor Sassafras. If Lou comes to visit Puffy will knock food off the counter for him. They are diabolical