Neighbour doesn’t want cats walking on her fence

[Mowyourlawn]

My next door neighbour came round today and said that she’s getting annoyed that our two cats keep walking along the fence in her back garden. She said that it upsets her dog and makes it bark. She has a huge dog that barks at everything.

It took me a bit by surprise as I am not sure what she expects us to do. We still have litter trays that the cats come inside to use and we don’t intend to train that out of them, but that’s not her complaint anyway. She doesn’t want them on the fence or walking in her garden.

We left it as if she can think of anything to let us know but I’m just a bit confused. DP thinks this is the start of bother but I really want to avoid that if I can. Has anyone else had this?

Picture of the main offender, who I don’t think is too concerned…

get a bark deterrent from amazon, they're brilliant. ours is in our garden and stops our neighbour's dog barking. they can't be heard by humans and only sound off to dogs when they start barking - they learn very fast not to bark

It belongs to the cats of course.

Teaching her dog to stop barking at everything would solve this.

No you're dead right 😂Just the OP said she doesn't want a bother with the neighbor specifically, and as I said, many other cats will be using the fence so it is ridiculous in the long run. But If she's happy to put up plastic spikes that don't really work to resolve the issue I just agreed with a suggestion of the rollers..if OP doesn't want to cause an argument with the neighbour they maybe living beside for years it might be as easy fix.

She might as well ask the sun not to shine, cats gave the attitude that they do exactly what they want

Not picking on you specifically @Isitfridayyetsophie but I had the same problem as OP's neighbour (7 cats) until the my dog actually killed one. She wandered in and the dog who is in and out was out at the time, right under the fence she walked across, caught her by the back leg and then neck and after a scrap, broke her jaw and she had to be put to sleep. All my fault, so it serves no purpose saying cats will be cats. It should be a work together mentality.

Can you put a bit of trellis across the top of the fence that is just spikes at the top but looks a bit nicer? Would drive me nuts if my dog kept kicking off about a cat at random. nobody’s fault but it needs stopping.

🤣

And many cats enjoy teasing dogs.
{I say this as a dog owner}

This cat exercises the dog.

{Wonderful Russian Village cat who exercises ''his'' Whippet on a treadmill when the snow is too deep for walking.

What to the snails? 🐌🐌🐌

They keep eating my new shoots.

I have a greyhound and two cats. Personally I wouldn't have a woofy/yappy dog who is always in the garden, barking at things. Even if you could keep the cats in, what about the squirrels? And our next door neighbour's dog used to bark just because we were out in our own garden.

That handsome moggy can come and walk along my fence any time.

I have a border terrier . We have a very small patio ( not really a garden. ) He will bark at pigeons on the wall any day of the week . But we are occasionally visited by the most beautiful bengal cat who sits on the garden wall & my little dog would not say boo to a goose to her. She just fixes him with a Basilisk Stare ( at last I can use my user name ) and I think he knows who's boss - Such a pretty cat. 😀

One experience but a nice one

Maybe the dog barking is the problem as opposed to the cats walking on the fence?
We have dogs. They bark at neighbours' cats occasionally. I just tell the dogs to stop and/or bring them inside.

The spiky plastic things don't work. We do have the netting now though which does.

😄

There used to be some cats who did this to my dog until one of them fell off the wall into the garden and straight into his Jaws.
He didn't hurt it much because he was well trained enough to drop it when I told him to but they never came back.
If he had hurt or killed it, it would have been the owners fault for letting it roam on MY property

That's impressive!

No it is the cat's fault.

Or it would be your fault if you were around and didn't call off your dog.

Simply because cat's aren't under their owners control unlike dogs. Cats are allowed to roam. They will find another human to give them food and comfort if they don't like the ones they live with.

You are expected to control your dog and not allow it to attack other animals including humans. After all you don't allow your dog to attack leaflet posters who put junk mail through your letterbox?

If the walking along the fence is the issue, p'raps you can now train your cats to ride a unicycle along the fence whilst juggling...although the lack of opposable thumbs may make that bit tricky. I'm sure the dog wouldn't bark at that.

I did this once to our batshit neighbours who complained that our cat was coming in to their house - when they left the front door wide open! I asked them if they'd complain about getting robbed because a burglar came in through the door - strangely they had no answer.

Tell her you don't have cats.

If cat comes up to you while you're at the door, roll your eyes and say that that cat is always coming in.

Cats are allowed to roam, but it's the owners hard luck if they get injured or killed while they are roaming.
I don't have leaflets posted through my letterbox for exactly this reason. I have an outside postbox. If an uninvited stranger comes on to my property they will have broken a lock to get in, so are fair game

I always ask what if it was the other way round?
So would you be happy if her dog came into your garden, or would you ask her to keep it out?

Completely different situation. By law dogs have to be under control but cats are free to roam. Therefore if the dog came into the garden it would be out of control and the owner would be responsible for getting it back under control. That's why dog owners with neighbours need to fence off their gardens to stop the dog getting out but cats can go anywhere they please.