how to stop open warfare in the backyard between cats and my dogs sick of dead cats & taking my dogs to vet?

Question

fenced backyard there always cats or kittens floating around the place. park and bush area on other side of fence. my dogs dont always eat all their dinner straight away and you can see the cats on other side of fence waiting for there chance. if i bring the food inside cats will still try for it. i seen 5 cats at one time eating from their bowls . backyard belongs to dogs i am not going to start shuting back door so dogs cant get out. just need a safe way to keep cats out

Answer 1

There are soft muzzles that are low cost and will not allow a dog to bite.

You can also set food out separately for the cats. If they're taking their lives in their hands trying to reach food inside a dangerous place, they have to be starving andit's doing them no service enticing them in. Can the dogs be fed INDOORS eliminating the food entirely from the back yard? Can you get a neighbor to feed the cats? Can you put a food bowl out front for the cats? I have a feeding station--it costs me one bag of dry catfood a month, basically $8, to keep the neighborhood cats not starving. If you offer a safe area they can eat from, you stop them from going in with the dogs as a desperate attempt to stay alive. They have a hard life, doing a small shift in your setup would help everyone immensly (and earn you extra karma points).

Answer 2

Take your dog to training classes and educate it to leave the cats alone. It obviously does not understand its strength and maybe sees the cats as something to play with. I guess if the cats are not yours, your neighbours will not be too pleased. In the UK the dog could end up with a fine and forced to wear a muzzle.

If you live in a warm country where you can leave the dog outside, it may be advisable to build a special enclosure for the dog. If the dog is chained, make sure to unchain it every 4 hours and with a break in between. A chained dog is equal to a working dog.

Glad you are not my neighbour though. I would be most upset if that were my cats, I can tell you. If these are your own cats, it is possible to teach them to live together, but you will need to be very careful as to how you handle your dog, especially now he has already had a taste for killing cats.

It is not a good situation. I wish you well.

Answer 3

You could try reading Jan Fennell's book "The dog listener". It has a lot of excellent tips on training the dogs to learn that you are the pack leader and what you say goes. If you have more then one dog they are proberly using the cats as a way of pack hunting. Is one of your dogs the obvious leader? Anyway read the book, get it from the library or online or from a book shop.

Answer 4

How are your dogs contained? Kennel? Chain? Fenced in Yard? Cats usually avoid dogs. So I'm going to assume that your dogs are not contained in any way and are "hunting" these cats, Probably the best way to avoid any more trips to the vets is to kennel or chain your dogs when they are outside.

Answer 5

if your dog has killed cats it is obviously not been well socialized and should be euthanized.. a dog like this is a liability and there are so many nice dogs who need a loving home...

if your dog is out when you are not there.. and isnt in a proper covered kennel you are knowingly taking a risk - in some places you can even be sued if your dog kills somebodies pet.

Answer 6

Huh? can you ask a clearer question I don't understand what you are trying to say.