Cat attacking my dog

pharmaton

As the title suggests, my little one is being attacked by a local tomcat. She's a very small chi and while she has plenty of attitude she's nowhere near big enough to put him in his place.
The tom is a little over a year old and when he was a kitten I used to find him outside on my doorstep and had difficulty trying to keep him out of my house when I opened the door, he always seemed friendly (I never fed him) but now he's grown he's a big fella and has started on my dog when I leave her out.
She's mostly a house dog but she goes out several times a day to clean for about five or ten minutes at a time and every time I hear the bark I know the cat is there and go out to find it taunting her.
One evening the barks turned to cries and I ran to find the cat lunging at her, another day she's over by the gate and the cat is swiping between the slats claws out trying to get at her and most recently while sitting out in the sun with the dog, the cat appears on my shed I look up say hello and down he comes, the dog barks and cat pounces and I'm now terrified he's going to kill her if I'm not standing guard over her all the time.

I've never hated cats before but I'm thinking of getting a bb gun or asking my brother to loan me his GSDs for a little while just to take the furker out now.
How do I get rid of this cat?

(ps, I was going to post in AH but thought I might get some better advice here first, if not can mods please move thanks)

biko

First of all, this is one cat - you shouldn't generalise to all cats "I've never hated cats before"..
Secondly, the cat was there first and probably considers the entire area its territory. It probably sees the dog as an intruder.

If the cat doesn't belong to anyone you can catch it and give it to the pound, no need to hurt it when it's acting according to its instincts.

pharmaton

biko wrote: »

First of all, this is one cat - you shouldn't generalise to all cats "I've never hated cats before"..
Secondly, the cat was there first and probably considers the entire area its territory. It probably sees the dog as an intruder.

If the cat doesn't belong to anyone you can catch it and give it to the pound, no need to hurt it when it's acting according to its instincts.

eh, no. This is my house, I've been here 15 years, my dog has been here 5 years the cat has been around the last 18 months. This is MY territory and my dogs territory. I had a feeling this would be the response here. If my dog attacked someone there would be no sympathy for her, this cat is a menace and is attacking my dog I can assure you something will be done about the cat.

noodler

pharmaton wrote: »

this cat is a menace and is attacking my dog I can assure you something will be done about the cat.

Brilliant, well thanks for bothering to ask for opinions when you have already made your mind up.

pharmaton

noodler wrote: »

Brilliant, well thanks for bothering to ask for opinions when you have already made your mind up.

you're welcome. I'll post the pictures when I'm done.

westies4ever

could you mybe use a deterrent? ive heard leaving out some milk with a load of pepper in it works. the cat will hate it and then hopefully clear off.

PucaMama

pharmaton wrote: »

you're welcome. I'll post the pictures when I'm done.

as i said in ah contact your nearest spca/animal shelter

Arciphel

OP, you must be a special sort of individual if you are coming into the animals and pets forum and expecting people to give you tips on how to hurt someone else's pet. If I was you I'd be taking a long look at myself.

honerbright

Do you know the owners? You could always talk to them and suggest neutering, which could help with the territorial issues. If he's a stay, get onto a cat/animal rescue, I'm sure they'd help with either trap/neuter/return or to rehome him.

I just don't understand wanting to hurt an animal to stop that animal from hurting another, is that not very hypocritical?

There's another thread here where someone mentioned using a water gun to deter cats. Effective and painless for the animal. You could try that?

SillyMangoX

Get a run for your dog when you leave it out in the garden, that way the cat won't be able to get at her.

pharmaton

PucaMama wrote: »

as i said in ah contact your nearest spca/animal shelter

just contacted them and said unless it is feral they can't come out otherwise I can pay fifty for the trap and they will take it in and neuter it, which I'm willing to do. He seems to think that if it's neutered it will help?

Arciphel wrote: »

OP, you must be a special sort of individual if you are coming into the animals and pets forum and expecting people to give you tips on how to hurt someone else's pet. If I was you I'd be taking a long look at myself.

I was looking for humane solutions, my dog has been attacked, several times and tbh the response that it's the animals territory/intsincts just doesn't cut it with me. I got more helpful responses in AH, feel free to close this thread.

DBB

OP, if you'd read the forum charter before you posted, you'd have seen that advocating cruelty is not allowed in this forum.
Moreover, had you familiarised yourself with the forum before posting, as is recommended in the site-wide guidelines, you would know that your posting style, and what you're suggesting, is rather at odds with the ethos of the forum.
I don't know what they think of posts such as yours in AH, but let me assure you, this style of posting is neither allowed nor welcome here.
Should you wish to continue posting in this thread, I'd advise that you seriously rethink how you ask for help on an animal related topic, in an animal forum.
Do not reply to this post on thread.
Thanks,
DBB

pharmaton

honerbright wrote: »

Do you know the owners? You could always talk to them and suggest neutering, which could help with the territorial issues. If he's a stay, get onto a cat/animal rescue, I'm sure they'd help with either trap/neuter/return or to rehome him.

no, don't know the owners but they obviously haven't neutered him if that's the case and I don't mind offering to do it for them if it will help solve the problem.

I'll try the water thing until I can get a trap.

pharmaton

DBB wrote: »

OP, if you'd read the forum charter before you posted, you'd have seen that advocating cruelty is not allowed in this forum.
Moreover, had you familiarised yourself with the forum before posting, as is recommended in the site-wide guidelines, you would know that your posting style, and what you're suggesting, is rather at odds with the ethos of the forum.
I don't know what they think of posts such as yours in AH, but let me assure you, this style of posting is neither allowed nor welcome here.
Should you wish to continue posting in this thread, I'd advise that you seriously rethink how you ask for help on an animal related topic, in an animal forum.
Do not reply to this post on thread.
Thanks,
DBB

you can close it now, I sought advice elsewhere.

fathead82

We used to have a very large aggressive tom cat visiting us,he would attack our cats & terrier.We threw water at him,let the bigger dogs chase him, nothing worked. We never fed him but he looked well fed & kept coming around every night.I ended up taking him to be neutered & have never seen him since i let him go the next day.
Maybe if you ask the owner or the local spca to neuter him it will stop.

kylith

honerbright wrote: »

Do you know the owners? You could always talk to them and suggest neutering, which could help with the territorial issues. If he's a stay, get onto a cat/animal rescue, I'm sure they'd help with either trap/neuter/return or to rehome him.

I just don't understand wanting to hurt an animal to stop that animal from hurting another, is that not very hypocritical?

There's another thread here where someone mentioned using a water gun to deter cats. Effective and painless for the animal. You could try that?

Are you honestly saying that you wouldn't kill an animal to protect your pet? I sure as hell would. If I came upon one of my dogs being attacked I'd do whatever was necessary to deter the attacker and if that meant killing someone else's pet so be it.

OP, the best I can come up with, if the cat is a stray, is to cat proof your garden, there are many products online for this. I'm really not sure how neutering would effect the cat's prey instinct; which is what it appears to be seeing your dog as. I've never heard of cats being less efficient hunters because they're neutered.

If the cat isn't a stray I'd recommend getting video of what it's doing and taking that to the owners, and asking them to keep their cat on their property before you have to take steps to protect your own pets.

ameee

Don't think you need to go to extremes here. Just keep a bucket of water by your door and chuck it in the cats direction it Will soon learn your garden isn't somewhere it wants to go . There is no need to be evil about the cat, dogs and cats love winding each other up i have one of each but my dog being much bigger than the cat Will put him in his place when he gets fed up. Its normal animal behavior and if you dog wasn't so small he would have given the cat a hiding by now and your dog probably would have enjoyed the bit of sport chasing the cat around. The fact that you would hurt an animal purely because you chose a dog who's size ment a cat wouldn't be scared of it means you probably shouldn't have a dog in the first place .

honerbright

kylith wrote: »

Are you honestly saying that you wouldn't kill an animal to protect your pet? I sure as hell would. If I came upon one of my dogs being attacked I'd do whatever was necessary to deter the attacker and if that meant killing someone else's pet so be it.

When there are humane and unnecessarily cruel ways to deal with an issue such as this, then I would in no way consider intentionally harming another animal.

Multiple ways have been suggested to the OP, such as throwing water/neutering etc which are more logical and kind than just getting a BB gun or a Large dog to attack/kill the cat.

I completely understand the OP wanting to protect his/her dog, I have a small dog myself who is smaller than your average cat and if I was having this issue I would resort to all options already posted here and contacting owners/spca/neutering the cat myself before even considering doing anything to else.

DanWall

Yoy can get a high frequency sound gun which chases cats or dogs

Pumpkinseeds

Neutering is the obvious and best solution. The cat isn't attacking the dog for fun. Puss will be a lot happier and healthier if he is neutered as he won't have the biological imperative to chase females and fight with other males. It isn't the cats fault he isn't neutered. Another added benefit will be one less cat contributing to the unwanted kitten crisis in Ireland. I will never understand why people just don't get their cats spayed/neutered. The same with dogs.

biko

pharmaton wrote: »

eh, no. This is my house, I've been here 15 years, my dog has been here 5 years the cat has been around the last 18 months.

Sound, I read it like you recently got the dog and the cat was used to roaming your area before this.

kylith

honerbright wrote: »

When there are humane and unnecessarily cruel ways to deal with an issue such as this, then I would in no way consider intentionally harming another animal.

Multiple ways have been suggested to the OP, such as throwing water/neutering etc which are more logical and kind than just getting a BB gun or a Large dog to attack/kill the cat.

I completely understand the OP wanting to protect his/her dog, I have a small dog myself who is smaller than your average cat and if I was having this issue I would resort to all options already posted here and contacting owners/spca/neutering the cat myself before even considering doing anything to else.

It's easy to descend into revenge fantasies when other courses of action don't seem to be working, especially if the pet you love is at risk.

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Neutering is the obvious and best solution. The cat isn't attacking the dog for fun. Puss will be a lot happier and healthier if he is neutered as he won't have the biological imperative to chase females and fight with other males. It isn't the cats fault he isn't neutered. Another added benefit will be one less cat contributing to the unwanted kitten crisis in Ireland. I will never understand why people just don't get their cats spayed/neutered. The same with dogs.

Can you please explain how neutering will stop this behaviour? I haven't much direct experience of cats but I'm under the impression that it lowers aggression towards other cats rather than prey animals, which is what this cat appears to see the OP's dog as. Neutered cats still hunt rats and mice, why wouldn't this one continue to hunt the dog?

Nody

kylith wrote: »

Can you please explain how neutering will stop this behaviour? I haven't much direct experience of cats but I'm under the impression that it lowers aggression towards other cats rather than prey animals, which is what this cat appears to see the OP's dog as. Neutered cats still hunt rats and mice, why wouldn't this one continue to hunt the dog?

Because it's not hunting the dog; if it was hunting the dog it would not sit on one side of a fence trying to paw it or hiss at it but rather stalk it quietly and pounce on the dog (this also excludes that the dog is too big of a prey but let’s leave that for now). What the cat is doing is defending its territory (and being a tom it's very territorial) from an perceived intruder (yapping dog) by the way it would defend it against a cat (show him who’s boss rather than outright fighting as cats don’t like to fight and prefer hissing/pawing/growling/posturing).

Pumpkinseeds

kylith wrote: »

It's easy to descend into revenge fantasies when other courses of action don't seem to be working, especially if the pet you love is at risk.



Can you please explain how neutering will stop this behaviour? I haven't much direct experience of cats but I'm under the impression that it lowers aggression towards other cats rather than prey animals, which is what this cat appears to see the OP's dog as. Neutered cats still hunt rats and mice, why wouldn't this one continue to hunt the dog?

+1 for what Nody said, sorry, I nodded off in the sun and only just saw your post. People often ascribe human traits to cats. The fact is cats don't do things out of spite or malice the way that humans do. The aggressive territorial behaviour normally settles dramatically after neutering. We have 3 males that were all strays when they arrived to us and each has settled down since they were neutered.