How to stop a cat from coming into my garden?

easyeason3

As the title suggests, how do I stop a cat from coming into my garden?

The reason I ask is because my dog is going insane barking as soon as he gets a hint that the cat is around. I don't know if it belongs to one of the neighbours, cat tends to run away as soon as she sees someone because the dog is usually with us.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to stop this happening?
I got woken up at 3, 5 & 6 am the last few mornings.

EDIT: OR how to stop my pooch barking so much at night?
I realise it's probably impossible to stop cats coming in , so even if I found a way to keep him quite.

MsFifers

In case you get the often-made suggestions of orange peel, tiger/lion poo, and full water bottles left around - can I just let you know, they won't work!

The only thing I think my cats would respond to is getting a blast from a water gun. You may have to do a stake-out for this though, so its a bit troublesome! I think after a few soakings though, and the cat would learn to avoid your garden.

kylith

I now keep a super-soaker on my windowsill to scare off the big orange fecker that likes to sit on my back wall and taunt the dogs.

I also took down the tree in the back garden. There were many reasons, but the fact that the cat would be hunting the birds in it and annoying the dogs was a big factor.

I've not seen him around for a while, and we've been getting an uninterrupted night's sleep for the last few weeks so it seems to have worked. I'm still considering driving a load of nails through a plank and putting it on top of the wall to make sure he doesn't come back.

peasant

easyeason3 wrote: »

EDIT: OR how to stop my pooch barking so much at night?

That one's easy ...let him sleep inside.

bad2dabone

super soaker is pretty much the way to go for me too. We have 2 neighbours cats who bully our one (even though our guy is bigger than them!) and to stop them from coming in to bash our fella I got a super soaker and sniped the other guys. Just the sound of it alone was enough to send them scarpering after a day or two. Now our cat is the master of his own garden.

easyeason3

peasant wrote: »

That one's easy ...let him sleep inside.

If he would stay inside for the night then I'd have no problem but I think we made his run a bit too comfortable for him!

It usually starts during the night so I can't imagine myself with a water gun trying to soak a cat when it's pitch black outside, but thanks for the advice.

Would locking his kennel door stop him barking?

kylith

I doubt it, he could still hear the cat.

Would you get a motion-activated light? That might be enough to put the run on the cat in itself, or it would at least give you enough light to aim at it.

easyeason3

kylith wrote: »

I doubt it, he could still hear the cat.

Would you get a motion-activated light? That might be enough to put the run on the cat in itself, or it would at least give you enough light to aim at it.

I thought about that but there's a fox that I see a good bit & loads of rabbits that roam around so I'd be afraid they would set it off every few minutes.

From what I can gather this cat is tormenting my dog. She won't just pass through & be on her way, I actually saw her sitting in front of the run when I got home yesterday grooming herself while he had nearly had a fit from rage!

kylith

If I were you I'd be tempted to get a loan of a trap and either take it to a rescue to be rehomed, or if it has a collar hand it back to the owners and ask that they keep it indoors at night in future.

MsFifers

kylith wrote: »

If I were you I'd be tempted to get a loan of a trap and either take it to a rescue to be rehomed, or if it has a collar hand it back to the owners and ask that they keep it indoors at night in future.

Thats a bit extreme. Tie a note onto the collar, or put up a few notices asking the owners to contact you before going with that option.

kylith

MsFifers wrote: »

Thats a bit extreme. Tie a note onto the collar, or put up a few notices asking the owners to contact you before going with that option.

I hope you didn't think I was advocating holding the cat hostage :eek: I meant hand the cat back to the owner, not just the collar.

PCros

MsFifers wrote: »

Thats a bit extreme. Tie a note onto the collar, or put up a few notices asking the owners to contact you before going with that option.

A bit risky for stranger to be reaching for a cats neck, you would most likely be scraped I'm afraid.