cat teasing dogs please help

My neighbours cat has just decided to start and wind up my dogs whenever it feels like it. It is the most brazen cat who does not flinch at any of their barking and seems to know that if it sits in a certain spot they can not get to it but it can tease them, hissing and meowing at all hours.

It walks along the fence where they can not reach, right by them and they go off it, it is where they go toilet I have a closed off section to my garden and this where the dogs go when I am out, they have their doggy door and have always had this set up. The owner used to keep the cat round the front of the house so it did not come into this area but now they have got rid of their dog (poor neglected thing) they have brought the cat round the side of the house and it is on the side the dogs use. The cat is equally as neglected as the dog was and gets left outside all day and night prowling and meowing as I said before. I feel a rather sorry for it.

So the question is how do I deter it safely and without detering the dogs. A lot of the pre made solutions are cat and dog repellents and I do not want to repel the dogs !
I am only worried about when I am out as I am really scared it will hurt them or even just winding them up to the point where their barking will become a problem for other neighbours. I do not want to harm the cat just want it to p/off and leave the dogs alone.

It is mainly along the fence line, anyone have any suggestions. There is no point in chatting to the neighbours as they are useless animal owners and would probably do more things to wind up the dogs if they knew how much it bothered me.

You can try some cat repellants along the fencing line perhaps. You can put something on the top of the fence that makes it impossible for a cat to walk there. You can mention to your neighbours anyway that you are afraid your dogs might get hold of the cat, but unless they switch the cat to being an all-indoor cat, or keep him in more hours, this isn't going to make much difference. But really, you cannot restrain a cat left outside -- cats living outside roam and generally will not remain confined to a given area. They also find it very interesting to go check out dogs from a safe distance -- they aren't really taunting, they are just curious and know where they are safe. Much more interesting to watch barking dogs than look at the flowers grow. Just as for dogs it is far more interesting to go bark at a cat than to lie quietly by the back door. :lol:

You could (and probably do need to) view it from the cat's/cat-owner's perspective as well -- it is as valid for them to feel your dogs need to be kept inside where they don't come out to rile up and attract the cat! This is just as reasonable a perspective.

I think the only 'compromise' is going to be for you to keep the dogs from having the opportunity to get overstimulated by keeping them inside if the barking bothers you and/or neighbours (it is probably very entertaining and enjoyable for your dogs -- feeling they are being taunted is just placing a human subjective view on the situation. Squirrels and birds for example don't really taunt dogs either, but they stimulate many of them in just the same way ), and also training them on recall and to the 'quiet' command so they will return or learn to ignore the cat.

It's a shame the owners cared little for either pet but that sadly is not uncommon.

PS My dogs LOVE barking at the cats they don't know, through the windows. I control this though so as not to annoy my neighbours.

As Karlin said, my Dad has these plastic things with big spikes on, which stops them walking, there was also a thing about putting garlic or old tea bags on the fence....not really sure if that works.

I know that over here, a fence line is owned by both parties, so you wouldn't be allowed to place anything onto the fence to stop the cat from being a "fence sitter".

I agree, all you can do it keep the dogs in while you are away.

We have the "squirrel" problem...lol.

I keep my dogs in when I am out. We have fenced off a piece of our garden just last week to stop the dogs going down to the end of our garden to bark at the six :yikes ( yes six!) cats that live in the house behind ours,because the dogs were running up and down by the wall making a trench in the grass! while the cats, who are mother cat and five 9 month old kittens sat on the wall looking down at them. I figure the cats have a right to be on the wall as they live in the house behind.

I try to keep the dogs away from them by letting them look through the patio doors but keeping them in until the cats go away. If I let them out without noticing the cats are around ,I will call the dogs away.( they don't always come!)

My daughter and I last summer held a dog each on our knee sitting in the grass while the kittens then three months played in our garden watched closely by their mother. It was so cute the kittens came right up to the dogs and we managed to stop them barking at them for a few days but then instinct kicked in again.

It does look likes the cats come round to tease them,but I don't even know the people who own them and feel I couldn't ask them to keep them in as the kittens just like to explore and never go very far.

Try keeping the dogs in when the cat is around or calm them down by going over and stroking the cat if you can ,if you get stressed and try to get the cat to go away the dogs will pick up on this and join in.

I may be totally wrong but it worked for me! Good luck.

It seems like cats are cats no matter what country you live in. I have a chain link fence and my neighbors cat will sit just beyond the fence looking directly at the dogs who are going nuts (even though I own two cats). I really believe that the cat knows that the dogs can't reach her. The newf will come when called, sometimes Scout will follow her, sometimes I have to go and retrieve her.

Be careful! This hits really close to home with me. A few months ago, Kingston's eye was punctured when a cat swiped its paw at him. He required major surgery.

Yep, we recently met a cavie who had their eye taken out by a neighbours cat so I would keep an eye on them.

Realisitcally though, it's a bit hard to get upset about the cats being outside on their fence. It's pretty hard to confine outdoor cats to one area even though a lot of non cat owners find it annoying that neighbours cats find their way into their yards, kill birds etc.

I'm sure your dogs are actually loving barking at the cat. At night the possums come out at our house and Fergus loves nothing more than spending hours barking at possums even though they just sit in their tree and look down at him - seemingly teasing him. Fergus however is having a ball and hates when he's forced to come inside for bed.

Maybe they need to be kept inside when you are out and have access to the doggy door when you are home and you can keep a bit of an eye on them with the cat.