Cat Proofing The Yard

[Alba]

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Someone I know has a staffie dog who adores people but is death on cats and can't be trusted with other dogs. C. rescued the dog whose previous owner had been training it for dogfights, so he always muzzles this dog when he takes it out. Most of the time the dog stays outside in a large well-fenced yard with a kennel (dog house). The fence isn't good enough, however, to keep out cats. The neighbour's cats, who are raised with dogs, have not been adequately intimidated by the presence of a dog in the yard and a couple have been killed. The neighbour wants to the dog to be muzzled full-time which C. doesn't want to do (for the dog's happiness). I suggested there must be things he could do to keep cats out of the yard. Would a trellis type border at the top of the fence keep out cats or are they too agile? Is there some type of deterrent coating that could be sprayed along the top part of the fence? Any other ideas?

I did suggest a smaller covered run within the garden but that would be a considerable expense and would mean the dog would get a lot less exercise. C. has a kidney problem so he doesn't walk his dog as much as he would if he were well.

 

[J.T.]

Cats are very agile & will be able to get over most barriers if they want to. Have the cats been killed by this dog?? If so then I'm not surprised the neighbour is asking for the dog to be muzzled, I think this is pretty lenient of them if a couple of their cats have already been killed by this dog. I know that dogs will chase cats & there are no laws to prevent the cats from roaming into the garden but if it were my dog I would rather have him muzzled than PTS as a result of a complaint.

It all depends on how well the neighbours get on & how co-operative they both want to be.

The cat owner could try to keep them in more but then the cats would be unhappy.

The dog owner could erect a safe dog run..expensive but peace of mind.

Maybe someone could walk the dog so he could possibly then go into the house instead of being in the yard, I don't think there is an easy solution to this but I hope no more cats are killed

Good Luck :luck:

 

[FeeFee]

There's no easy way of keeping cats out of a garden. Could the dog not live in the house and only go in the garden when there is someone to supervise and scare any cats away (a water spray is good!)? If the dog has to live outside, then I think a roofed-in run would be the only answer.

Legally there is nothing the neighbours can do, in law it is seen as 'natural' for dogs to kill cats. Pretty awful for the cats and the neighbours, though.

Just as an aside, it's unusual for staffies to be used for fighting. If the previous owner was involved in dog fighting I hope he's been prosecuted.

 

[fallenangel]

When we had show cats we never let them out of the garden and we were shown of a breeder how to do our fening to keep the cats in so I presum if you do it in revers it will keep them out.

heres it reversed firts you need 6ft fencing up we had waynylap and on every post you have to fixs a metel bracket we got long wall brakets and opend them up so there at angled out a few degres you could get striips of metal abouut 3 ft long fix a foot lengh to the fence pole and bend 2ft out over your fening so its hanging out. Put theas breakets on every post and then get chicken wire 2ft wide and run it round the fencing onto the brackets your making a lip sticking out from your garden so if the cats jump up they just hit the overhang and go back down and there not abell to get on or over your fence its probaly sounds more comnplicated than it realy is. I will see if I can do a sketch and put it up sio you can see what I mean and it dosnt realy work out expensice as you only need very cheep chicken wire

 

[midlanderkeith]

When we had show cats we never let them out of the garden and we were shown of a breeder how to do our fening to keep the cats in so I presum if you do it in revers it will keep them out.  heres it reversed firts you need 6ft fencing up we had waynylap and on every post you have to fixs a metel bracket we got long wall brakets and opend them up so there at angled out a few degres you could get striips of metal abouut 3 ft long fix a foot lengh to the fence pole and bend 2ft out over your fening so its hanging out. Put theas breakets on every post and then get chicken wire 2ft wide and run it round the fencing onto the brackets your making a lip sticking out from your garden so if the cats jump up they just hit the overhang and go back down and there not abell to get on or over your fence its probaly sounds more comnplicated than it realy is. I will see if I can do a sketch and put it up sio you can see what I mean and it dosnt realy work out expensice as you only need very cheep chicken wire

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Cant stand the buggers myself, thing is, i have a large shed at the bottom of my garden, i normally take my 2 dogs in ther to clean em up when weve been out for our walks, last couple of mornings ive gone in the shed and theres this big blackhite cat fast asleep, in the dogs basket, it rubs up my leg so i give it milk, so now im never gonna get rid of it, it couldnt give a monkies about my dogs, they chase it off but back it comes later on

 

[midlanderkeith]

When we had show cats we never let them out of the garden and we were shown of a breeder how to do our fening to keep the cats in so I presum if you do it in revers it will keep them out.   heres it reversed firts you need 6ft fencing up we had waynylap and on every post you have to fixs a metel bracket we got long wall brakets and opend them up so there at angled out a few degres you could get striips of metal abouut 3 ft long fix a foot lengh to the fence pole and bend 2ft out over your fening so its hanging out. Put theas breakets on every post and then get chicken wire 2ft wide and run it round the fencing onto the brackets your making a lip sticking out from your garden so if the cats jump up they just hit the overhang and go back down and there not abell to get on or over your fence its probaly sounds more comnplicated than it realy is. I will see if I can do a sketch and put it up sio you can see what I mean and it dosnt realy work out expensice as you only need very cheep chicken wire

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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Cant stand the buggers myself, thing is, i have a large shed at the bottom of my garden, i normally take my 2 dogs in ther to clean em up when weve been out for our walks, last couple of mornings ive gone in the shed and theres this big blackhite cat fast asleep, in the dogs basket, it rubs up my leg so i give it milk, so now im never gonna get rid of it, it couldnt give a monkies about my dogs, they chase it off but back it comes later on

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black and white lol, :- " must put the whisky away

 

[05whippet]

When we had show cats we never let them out of the garden and we were shown of a breeder how to do our fening to keep the cats in so I presum if you do it in revers it will keep them out.   heres it reversed firts you need 6ft fencing up we had waynylap and on every post you have to fixs a metel bracket we got long wall brakets and opend them up so there at angled out a few degres you could get striips of metal abouut 3 ft long fix a foot lengh to the fence pole and bend 2ft out over your fening so its hanging out. Put theas breakets on every post and then get chicken wire 2ft wide and run it round the fencing onto the brackets your making a lip sticking out from your garden so if the cats jump up they just hit the overhang and go back down and there not abell to get on or over your fence its probaly sounds more comnplicated than it realy is. I will see if I can do a sketch and put it up sio you can see what I mean and it dosnt realy work out expensice as you only need very cheep chicken wire

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

​

Cant stand the buggers myself, thing is, i have a large shed at the bottom of my garden, i normally take my 2 dogs in ther to clean em up when weve been out for our walks, last couple of mornings ive gone in the shed and theres this big blackhite cat fast asleep, in the dogs basket, it rubs up my leg so i give it milk, so now im never gonna get rid of it, it couldnt give a monkies about my dogs, they chase it off but back it comes later on

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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black and white lol, :- " must put the whisky away

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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:lol: :lol: :lol:

I like the first version!! (w00t)

 

[nannypony]

There's no easy way of keeping cats out of a garden. Could the dog not live in the house and only go in the garden when there is someone to supervise and scare any cats away (a water spray is good!)?  If the dog has to live outside, then I think a roofed-in run would be the only answer.
Legally there is nothing the neighbours can do, in law it is seen as 'natural' for dogs to kill cats.  Pretty awful for the cats and the neighbours, though. 

Just as an aside, it's unusual for staffies to be used for fighting.  If the previous owner was involved in dog fighting I hope he's been prosecuted.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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What an excellent idea from Fallen Angel. Did you know a company in the US sell kits similar to what you described (and charge a fortune for it). I don't have any cats now, but wish I had known of that method when I did.

 

[Alba]

someone pmailed to suggest coating the top of the fence with honey and pepper (the pepper is the deterent, it sticks to honey) but does that work?

anyway thanks for comments which I have posted on to the dog's owner (we don't live near each other)

What an excellent idea from Fallen Angel. Did you know a company in the US sell kits similar to what you described (and charge a fortune for it). I don't have any cats now, but wish I had known of that method when I did.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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[billyboy45]

In reference to keeping cats out of youre garden ,has anyone ever tried an electric fence.The type used to keep Sheep n horses n cows in a field,or in a certain part of it.these fences consist of a 9 volt transmitter,and a roll of electric fence wire+special nails or stakes.Will cost about £140 all in,with the battery needing replaced about every 6 months at a price of about £20,the rest will last a life time.In fact once the cats have had a few jags you can even turn the thing off and as long as the wire is still visable they wont come near youre garden.You can either put it about 6 inches from the ground around the perimeter of the garden with stakes or along the top of the fence with the nails.Works 100%as my neighbour has at times over 50 cats,and when we moved in,the smell of the lawn and flower beds was awful.Not a problem now.

 

[Seraphina]

I have what i thought was a cat proof fence. Well it kept my cats in for many years, that is untill we got Coco, she was out in few seconds flat. So i spent the past few weeks organizing a cat enclosure for her, and everytime I think i have got it and stop watching her, she escapes. So it all depends on what the neighbors cats are like. To keep them out you would have to slope the top of the fence into your neighbors garden, which may be fine with the cats owners but may not with the people living in other houses.

The only way the dog owner could prevent the cats geting killed would be to have a kennel run with mesh on top. Or if the cat owners confine their cats to their own property. :luck: :luck: :luck: