The steps below are designed to help resolve substrate and location preferences and substrate and location aversions that are commonly experienced by cats. These steps are intended to help reinforce a cats appropriate litter box use. Please remember that the feline social system may also be having an effect on the behavior of a cat who is not using his or her litter box. please note any interactions that might be compounding the problem.

1. All affected areas must be cleaned with an odor eliminator. They include Nature's Miracle, FON, PON, EliminOdor, Equalizer, and KOE/AOE. The last three appear to be particularly effective.

2. After cleaning cover the area with heavy gauge plastic to both change the tactile sensation for the cat and to prevent further penetration in the event of elimination.

3. Encourage the client to get multiple litter boxes, generally one more than there are cats, unless there are more than 5 cats; large numbers of cats may render the stimulus too strong. These litter boxes should be placed in a variety of locations and be of a variety of styles (open, covered, deep, shallow, big, small).

4. Litter should be scooped daily, and most litters should be dumped totally every other day. The exception to this is the new litter EVER CLEAN; this does not have to be discarded but does need to be topped up. Many cats differ in their preference for litter depth. Boxes should be washed weekly. Some old boxes may so permeated with scent that they should be discarded.

5. A variety of litters should be offered to the cat in a variety of boxes. If the cat is using soft substances consider softer litters: number 3 blasting sand, playground sand, shredded newspaper or toweling, sawdust, wood chips (NOT cedar). Many clients at the Behavior Clinic at VHUP are now using recyclable, clumping litters like EVER CLEAN, or the knock offs, with almost universally excellent results. Be creative and persistent. Consider trying one of the new trays where urine passes through rocks onto a pad below. Watch the cat and find out what works for him or her.

6. Cats are not trained to litter boxes; this is a behavior that develops in the absence of human intervention as kittens. Accordingly, we cannot train a cat with an elimination problem to use a litter box; however, they can be encouraged to do so by taking the cat to the litter box frequently, waiting with it, and praising it whenever it uses the box.

7. If the cat is seen to squat outside the box, negative reinforcement will work if the cat is scared in the first 30 - 60 seconds of the onset of the behavior (that includes circling, facial expressions, and digging) and that the scare is sufficient to make the cat about the behavior and leave. Foghorns, water pistols, whistles, and tins of pennies all work with some cats. Foghorns are usually inappropriate in apartments, although owners get a great deal of satisfaction from their use. Regardless, physical punishment, including rubbing the cat's nose in the soiled area, is useless after the fact.

8. Some cats may need to be confined to a restricted area at first. If you do this, make sure that the cat has the same choice of litter/boxes above and that you pay lots of attention to the cat during its confinement. If this was a very social cat beforehand, confinement has to be arranged to meet the cat's social needs. If the behavior of the other cats in the household changes when one is isolated, this hints to a social problem that may need to be addressed as part of the theory for the elimination disorder. Access to the rest of the house can be expanded once these cats are using litter boxes appropriately in the confined area. It is important that the expanded access be closely supervised both because of the potential relapses and because of potential social problems that may not have been previously recognized. A bell sewn to the cat's collar can act as a reminder that supervision is necessary. Access should be gradually expanded-don't give the cat free access to the entire house all at once after 6 weeks of confinement. If the cat has truly learned and demonstrated a preference for a litter or box style, this will generalize to the rest of the house if the reintroductions are gradual. Please remember that the number of boxes still has to be maintained at the increased number and all cleanliness rules still apply.