Where would we stand?

[Mommabear20]

So basically, we have 2 dogs, we have a pretty big back garden and they spend most of their day outside, all year round. We don't have many (I've never seen 1 in the 5 years we've lived here) in our area so the dogs aren't used to them. Our neighbors got a cat just before Christmas and have just started letting it outside, and our dogs think this is a brilliant new toy to chase! 🤦‍♀️ we do reprimand them when they do and hopefully they'll learn not to chase it soon but just wondered, where would we stand if they were ever to catch or injure it? They're in their own garden so I don't feel like we should be to blame but at the same time I'd be upset if a pet of mine was injured by someone else's no matter the circumstances so I'm honestly not sure. Any help would be appreciated!

My honest advice as both a cat and a dog owner is to look into cat proof fencing as soon as possible because imo they’ll either be an accident one day where they catch and injure or kill it or it’s presence (or anticipation of its presence) is going to start stressing them out and they are going to start fence running, constantly hunting for cat etc.
In my experience police will not act unless a dog injures a person but it certainly won’t foster pleasant neighbour relations!

Hi OP, I'm not sure what you mean by reprimand but I assume you mean something that your dogs find negative, such as shouting or something physical. Whatever it is, your dogs are more likely to associate the reprimand with your presence or the presence of the cat than associate it with their actions towards the cat.

Are the dogs outside unsupervised for most of the day?

@Happenchance we recall them into the house, they're pretty responsive so don't feel the need to do anything 'physical' as I hate the idea of hitting them and know animals don't actually respond well to that kind of treatment. Yes, they're outside most of the day, we have a conservatory that leads from the house into the garden so they have the conservatory door open all day with their water bowl in there and glass sliding doors between the conservatory and lounge closed to keep the cold out, but I'm able to see them at all times, if I need to go anywhere in the house where I don't have view of them I bring them in temporarily while I do what I need to as I've had friends whose dogs have been taken from their backyards so scares me to leave them and not be able to see them, they're only small dogs so wouldn't be hard to pick them up and walk away. I always hope that they wouldn't hurt the cat as they've never shown any aggression towards, well anything, but if they chase as part of their 'fun' and happened to catch it, it could injure the cat without them meaning too 😔

Cat proof fencing is the solution.
Cats can’t get in them 😊

Secure a cat is one company I’ve heard of but there will be others, there’s a bamboo system which is quite pretty or the usual is brackets with very taught wire at an angle pointing downward.
I’ve also heard that a very taught single thread of wire suspended an inch or two above the fence works as they can’t balance on it.

Thank you!

I think I may have misremembered the name Some links anyway for companies in the uk:

This is the bamboo one
www.katzecure.com/

These are some mesh ones
purrfectfence.co.uk/
protectapet.com/
felisafe.co.uk/

Ah, I did remember correctly
www.secur-a-cat.com/contact

As you've already correctly spotted, OP, this is neither aggression nor something that can realistically be trained out of them.

There is no reprimand, short of something truly horrific, that can counter the excitement of a cat chase if the dog is that way inclined and has experienced the 'fun' of it already.

There is long term distract and reward techniques but as you're dealing with the intermittent arrival of someone else's cat, you are not in control of enough elements for success to be likely.

Therefore, I see two options:

1. The cat learns (quickly) to steer clear of the garden with the dogs
2. The cat is physically stopped from getting into the garden in some way

Cats are pretty sharp and I would not be surprised to see option 1. come into play - or at least for the cat to pause before entering the garden, long enough to check if the dogs are there. To that end I think I would also attempt to shoo or scare the cat out the garden if I ever saw it without the dogs (for the cat's benefit, to break the habit of entering).

Personally, I would see option 2 as the cat owner's responsibility but you may be kinder than me on that one

My neighbours dog went for my cat when she was younger. Didn’t hurt her but got her collar off. She avoids the garden now.

It’s nice you care. I overheard this horrid neighbour laughing saying he wished the dog had killed her. I have awful neighbours🥺

If you are pretty confident they wouldn't hurt the cat then I'd just call them in when they chase her but other than that, take no action. Either she'll learn to stay out of your garden or she'll stick up for herself and the dogs will develop some healthy respect for her claws.

Mine chase cats given half a chance. My friends cat just randomly stops running and stares at them and they just sort of look at him and each other confused like, No, you're meant to run. So I'm pretty sure it's just a game and no harm will come of it with them.

What kind of dogs are they out of interest? To be honest I think the cat will learn to stay out of your garden pretty quickly