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We seem to have two tags for the same thing.

Issues related to housebreaking, training a pet to use certain areas and problems encountered with toileting issues, such as marking.

Refers to the indoor place set-aside for felines or rabbits to do their business.

The only difference is that one is used for dogs, and the other for cats. So should litter-box be a synonym for toilet-training? Looking through the questions tagged with most seem to be combined with the tag anyways.

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  • By the way, you can vote to make one a synonym of another if you want. I would encourage all of the high-rep users to have a look at the synonym queue from time to time.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 14:19
  • 1
    I haven't used either tag, so I can't vote on synonyms.
    – Spidercat
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 16:12

2 Answers 2

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Honestly, I am not sure we should even have both tags - litter box, to me, seems like a somewhat useless overly fine-grained tag, when toilet-training (or something of that ilk) seems to cover those sorts of issues. I'd say making some sort of synonym woulds work.

Mind you, I can see a case where the pet is past the active toilet-training stage and still is having litter box/bathroom related issues being a point of contention where there might seem like there is a need for a second tag, but really, I think there should be one "waste elimination" type tag - otherwise, well, it just gets too hard for people to find things. Tags are supposed to be broad searches, not fine-grained things.

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  • I'm with Ashley, I think the litter-box tag is a synonym.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 14:16
  • I made the proposal here go vote.
    – James Jenkins Mod
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 15:38
  • Tag synonym voting is limited to people with a certain score in the tag. JSYK.
    – user53
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 15:42
  • True, but the bar is pretty low for voting.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 21, 2014 at 17:04
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Though this has already been handled through what I feel was misapplied synonym, I have a different opinion and think we should keep both tags separate, and their uses distinct.

The issue with these sorts of questions and the answers that go along with them is that no one seems to try and differentiate the tags through a list of tag-specific questions.

is simply that; how to handle your pet's behavior when conducting its business. The site has plenty of examples of this.

regards the actual appliance sitting in wherever the heck it is.

Questions topical for and not would include, but not be limited to:

  • Where should I locate my litter box?
  • How do I stop my pet from dumping all the litter out?
  • What are the benefits of a rubber-based litter over a cardboard-based litter?
  • Are there any downsides to an automated litter remover?
  • What should I consider when buying a litter, emphasizing sustainability?
  • How do I clean a litter box?
  • How do I clean this very specific litter box with its unique design?
  • How do I get my pet to stop sleeping in the litter box?
  • How do I stop my pet from eating litter box litter?
  • Which litter filler is the most delicious?
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  • I'm not convinced that many of these questions don't fit under toilet training. Choosing litter location/shape/etc is dependant on what the cat will tolerate, so is appropriate for toilet training. The pet sleeping/eating litter box material really doesn't need to be tagged with the location of the behavior.
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 16:06
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    If Pets were a high-traffic site like, say, Stack Overflow, then more tags would help to break the questions down to a more manageable level and I might agree with you. As it is, though, neither of these two particular tags was used so heavily as to cause overload, no matter what you were looking for.
    – ClickRick
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 12:40

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