Dog hates neighbour’s cats

[sianyb]

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Hello,
This is more a post about cats really but with my dog’s best interest in mind! I wondered if anyone knew of any cat deterrents that we could use in our garden to keep the neighbour’s cats away. Our dog gets really wound up and chases them when they come into the garden and I’m terrified he’s going to catch one as I’m not sure what he’d do. They are very bold and come really close to the house, or sit on the fence, or on the other side just out of reach... if I didn’t know better I’d say they were taunting him! Do cats do that?! I would be absolutely devastated if he hurt one of them, not to mention the extremely awkward situation it would put us in!
We have been working on impulse control in other areas but removing, or at least lessening, the trigger would be a lot safer.
Advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance.

 

[arealhuman]

What seems to work for some people, doesn't seem to work for others, but here are a few suggestions:

• Specific scents you can put around you garden, although rain will lessen the impact and it may also have an effect on your dog.
• A cat cutout - you can get steel cat shapes with big eyes to scare off cats.
• An ultrasonic deterrent, but this may affect you dog and other animals.
• If you're really in to tech, there's a guy online who set up a Raspberry Pi to control water spray "turrets" so that when it spotted a cat, the system aimed and squirted water at them!
• BB gun (a bit tongue in cheek)

I'm sure other suggestions will follow

 

[Mad Murphy]

My OH got a water blaster like the kids have,, he used to it soak the cats and after a while they just learned not to come into the garden..
Sorry if anyone doesnt like that but we spend a fortune on our garden which they crap all over then they kill the birds we love so much and upset our parrot. If people want cats they should control them.

 

[Nanny71]

Hello,
This is more a post about cats really but with my dog’s best interest in mind! I wondered if anyone knew of any cat deterrents that we could use in our garden to keep the neighbour’s cats away. Our dog gets really wound up and chases them when they come into the garden and I’m terrified he’s going to catch one as I’m not sure what he’d do. They are very bold and come really close to the house, or sit on the fence, or on the other side just out of reach... if I didn’t know better I’d say they were taunting him! Do cats do that?! I would be absolutely devastated if he hurt one of them, not to mention the extremely awkward situation it would put us in!
We have been working on impulse control in other areas but removing, or at least lessening, the trigger would be a lot safer.
Advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance.

Neighbours cat does sit on the fence and taunt him. Cats are very clever. He is terrified of d

aughter's kittens. Can just be seen hiding under the table while they stalk him

 

[Nanny71]

My OH got a water blaster like the kids have,, he used to it soak the cats and after a while they just learned not to come into the garden..
Sorry if anyone doesnt like that but we spend a fortune on our garden which they crap all over then they kill the birds we love so much and upset our parrot. If people want cats they should control them.

I really like cats. Although we don't have one.

 

[Nanny71]

What seems to work for some people, doesn't seem to work for others, but here are a few suggestions:

• Specific scents you can put around you garden, although rain will lessen the impact and it may also have an effect on your dog.
• A cat cutout - you can get steel cat shapes with big eyes to scare off cats.
• An ultrasonic deterrent, but this may affect you dog and other animals.
• If you're really in to tech, there's a guy online who set up a Raspberry Pi to control water spray "turrets" so that when it spotted a cat, the system aimed and squirted water at them!
• BB gun (a bit tongue in cheek)

I'm sure other suggestions will follow

Electric fence ?

 

[Mad Murphy]

I really like cats. Although we don't have one.

I love cats too I just cant stand the (bad,stupid,irresponsible) owners.

 

[Josie]

Are you on good terms with your neighbours?

You could also speak to them and say that you’re worried about what would happen if they didn’t move in time? Not that your neighbours can stop them going where ever they like but it may help if they are aware of the situation

 

[Caro Perry]

As a cat and dog owner cats have minds of their own - and yes they do taunt dogs, mine does. However most cat owners are aware of this and if they let cats wander outside they accept that the cat is taking an element of risk. I just chase the neighbouring cats out of my garden so that along with having a large cat of my own and a terrier we're seen as "unfriendly" territory and cats pass through very much on their guard.

 

[JudyN]

I love cats too I just cant stand the (bad,stupid,irresponsible) owners.

Do you expect all cat owners either to keep their cats indoors the whole time or somehow cat-proofing their gardens (which pretty much means building a cat enclosure)? That's not meant to sound like I'm attacking you, I'm curious. Most (not all) cat owners do think it's right to let cats have their freedom and accept that this means there is a risk from traffic, dogs, and predators. And most (not all) non-cat-owners I know also accept that cats wander some distance round a neighbourhood.

 

[Mad Murphy]

Actually i cant see why people accept cats wandering . The damage they cause. The accidents both to them and because of them . The risks they are exposed to such as antifreeze, dog attacks, cat killers etc.. Its high time that cats had more protection from careless owners and prevented from roaming as they do now.

 

[JudyN]

Yet you can't take cats for walks, train recall and let them off lead the way you can dogs - OK, some cats you can, but I can't see it working for most - so not letting them wandering would mean giving them considerably less freedom than we do our dogs. We let our children go out on their own at a certain age and accept a degree of risk - it's just a case of how we balance the different risks and the 'cost' of lost freedom.

I'm not convinced about the damage cats do to wildlife either, at least when compared with the damage humans do to wildlife.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing you - I'm on the fence, though not in a 'sticking my tongue out at the dog next door' sort of way What is seen as acceptable changes in time - a couple of generations ago people would kick their children and their dogs out the house in the morning and tell them not to come back till tea time, and that's certainly changed.

 

[Caro Perry]

Actually i cant see why people accept cats wandering . The damage they cause. The accidents both to them and because of them . The risks they are exposed to such as antifreeze, dog attacks, cat killers etc.. Its high time that cats had more protection from careless owners and prevented from roaming as they do now.

Cats are independent spirits. If you do that you are effectively sentencing them to 15-20 years life imprisonment. I would rather my cats had a shorter life but experienced being a cat than keep them safely indoors sadly watching the world through a window.

 

[Mad Murphy]

OK this is a subject that really gets me hot under the collar. There are loads of studies that show the devestating impact cats have on local wildlife. That can be added to the impact humans have because its human laziness that causes the problem.
Cats can be trained to walk onlead and to come when called so that isnt an excuse. If you want a cat acccept the responsiblity dont just make excuses. Do whats necessary to keep your cat safe and make sure it isnt being a nuisence to neighbours. I dont want my grandchildren playing in cat crap just because you chose to let kitty roam into my garden.
Im glad that people feel able to live with themselves when kitty is poisoned or killed under a car ,,,never mind the poor driver who has to come to terms with whats happened or the cat who had its brains splattered all over the road.

As for the excuse that its the nature of the animal to wander and hunt well left to their own devices so would dogs.. Look at many developing lands where dogs revert to feral behaviour roaming and hunting. You wouldnt say that was acceptable.
The whole idea of cats roaming and being unregulated is outdated. I think the time is coming when this attitude to cats will change and it cant come fast enough. In Germany they have already had enough in Bremen stays have been neutered and hunting groups shoot about 300,000 feral or stray cats each year just to keep numbers down and damage to a minimum. ...300,00 deaths is not acceptable but its not the cats or the hunters its the owners who allowed the cats to roam and breed that are the ones responsible. But hey if thats the risk owners feel happy with then kitty will just have to dodge the bullets.

 

[Dinky Dillon]

A good bucket of water = soggy cat, do that a few times, it will not come back for more

 

[sianyb]

Thanks for the replies! You’d think that a big hairy beast running at them barking bloody murder would make them think twice about hanging around the garden! Perhaps we need to shoo them out more as well when we see them and he doesn’t.

 

[leashedForLife]

.

there's a hosepipe attachment that gives any moving-object a blast of water -
this gives 24 / 7 coverage, so U don't need to stand in the garden at 2-AM with a water pistol, the Scarecrow rotates to cover a wedge of the yard.

installation & video review:

Just set it up to aim it in the general area where the trespassers enter - or split the water source with a Y junction at the hosepipe tap, & use TWO Scarecrows to cover 2 different wedges.
Move them as needed, if a particularly persistent cat chooses a different angle of approach -
CC-TV cameras with night vision will let U see where the cats access the garden.

Or add cat-proof fence, faced OUTWARD rather than in, to exclude the little &*%$#@!.

The cats, I would agree, are not the root of the problem - owners who let them roam are the ones to blame. But telling-off my neighbor publicly is IMO a waste of time & breath; if they're determined that their darling kitty just must roam for her / his mental hygiene, nothing i might say can sway them.
So poor Kitty will pay the price, by being hosed unexpectedly.

Making the world's wildlife into chew-toys for housecats, & making the world into a giant litter-box for them as well, is incredibly rude, thoughtless, & irresponsible.
I well remember when cigarette-smokers thot dumping their overflowing ashtray onto the tarmac during a stop-light was perfectly acceptable behavior - open the car-door, & throw dozens of butts & a pile of ashes onto the public way, in a heap; shut the door, drive off.
NO ONE would expect to get away with that, now, in the USA. Littering is not 'dead' as a practice, but it's a helluva lot more subtle. It's not blatant & wholesale, as it once was, with no social or legal repercussions.

Dogs used to roam at large, too; in my great-grandparents' era, even in cities & towns, & in my grandparents' era, in small towns & rural areas. // Today, any dog running off leash over 99% of the U-S is hunting during the season, training to hunt in the closed season, UNDER VERBAL CONTROL OF A HANDLER, or stray / lost, or dumped / discarded.
Very very few dog-owners let their dogs roam unsupervised - which is, IMO, as it should be.

I can't wait until the same can be said of housecats, around the world - that if they are free-roaming, they're either feral or abandoned or lost, not OWNED & allowed to roam.

Our Siamese queens, dam & dotter, died at 19 & 21, respectively - both indoor-only cats.
None of our outdoor cats on the farm made it past 7-YO, & that was *one* cat. The rest all died between 9-MO & 4-YO.
Since my own childhood ended, all of my cats have been indoor-only. I have no intention of seeing them ripped apart by dogs, as our 9-MO kitten was, or finding them smashed by a passing car, or sickened by poison, or suffering from injuries after a fight.

- terry

.

 

[Flobo]

A friend has a retired greyhound, the neighbour had a cat that walked around their garden wall taunting said dog thinking it was just out of reach, one day the dog jumped a bit higher and grabbed the cat, the cat survived but lost a leg! The cat's owners were aware of the taunting and accepted, though obviously upset, what had happened. Personally I think cats are cats and other than responsible neutering, how can you control what they do?? And the idea of house cats to me is as bad as house dogs... maybe in an ideal world we would no longer have cats as 'pets' but then that surely opens the question/debate on many other animals too...