Fellow pet owners, in a bit of a sticky situation that I hope someone has good advice for me.

A new cat has moved into my neighbourhood and like any other outdoor cats, he loves to wander around, exploring. Now, I live on the second floor, have huge windows that you can turn the electric blinds down when necessary.

My dog spottted that cat the other day and he went absolutely bonkers trying to get to the cat. I called him away and distracted him. However, ever since then, the cat has been constantly back, sitting at the bottom of the building, watching in amusement, as my dog goes bonkers. I had to shoo the cat away many times. F***king cat.

My dog has also taken to sitting at the window trying to spot the cat and having a go at it. I've called him away from the window every single time I've seen him do it. However, he would walk away, sulk in a corner and less than 5 minutes later, he will be back sitting at the window again hoping to see the cat.

I've also tried to sit in the lounge watching him, and as soon as I see him go to the window, I've told him off. But that hasnt seem to solve the problem - he has developed an obsession. Windows = cat. I cant be there 24/7 to watch him. I shut the electric blinds when I go out, but I cant watch him all the time when I am at home as I need to work and do other stuff around the house.

Short of shutting the blinds which makes the house extremely dark, I am exasperated. I rather nip the problem in the bud to make him stop, than avoiding it.

Any training ideas? Appreciate it.

Is it an insane cat?..

Rather than punishing (in a way) your poor dog for following his animal instincts, may I suggest spraying the cat with water from your balcony (you know, from a squirt bottle of some sort)? If you do it enough, he will go away...

Not to sound insenstive but it sounds like my cat back in Peru, she loved annoying my dog and my dog was terrified of her, she would sit in the windowsill and stare like saying Muahahaha I am the boss you sucker!
I hope your dog is not getting too stressed...
There are some plants that you can put outside to scare the cat away...

Somehow I imagine the cat with a psycho-killer grin "I'm watching you, Dog! MUAH AH AH"

Go with the cold water squirting. Just make sure you don't hit your groundfloor neighbour clothes

Really??? I did think of it but was wondering if thats cruel.

But since JLF, a cat owner recommends it, I will definitely invest in a nice soaker gun and wage war on the cat

It's cold water... Outside cats get wet all the time during the wonderful "summer" of Switzerland (it's freaking rainning again... the sky is black with thunder storm...). He will get a scare, but won't harm him in any way. That's how I kept the bully neighbourhood cat-mafia boss away from my own kitties.

maybe get a huge plant so the dog cannot sit at his favorite spot by the window ?

hehe...well be a little careful there. If the water pressure is high, you can hurt him. So be wary of that but it is a place to start to see if you can "shoo" him away.

Back in the US my dog learned that windows=squirrels. So he loved to sit by the window and watch the world go by. He'd watch people, cars, dogs, cats, etc etc etc, but whenever a squirrel was out there, he'd go apeshi1.

I haven't ever been able to break him of it. I tried calling him off and rewarding him when he listened, but that didn't stop the behavior. I tried getting up and leaving the room. That didn't work. I tried leaving the blinds down. That didn't work either. It got to the point where the squirrels would show up at the same time each day, and somehow knew that at 4:30 each evening I'd be taking the dogs for a walk. They'd wait there, perched in a tree, armed with their buck teeth and their bushy tails, waiting, just to taunt the dog.

It works great and certainly isn't cruel. If you snap your fingers or make some other distinctive sound while you hose him down, after some time you won't need the water any more, just the sound. Maybe record your dog barking and play that back when you squirt the cat?

Put lion poo around the area where the cat lurks?

Nice red eyes. That is one scary looking kitty, no wonder the dog was intimidated

That wouldn't work on the obviously malevolent psycho cat. It would just make him go home, home-train, pump some steroids, and come back Rambo style, looking for the stinky bigger cat trying to steal his neighbourhood.

Then we would be sure the dog would never leave that window!

Water pressure?! from the second floor to a cat on the ground? What type of spray bottles do you use?

Anyway - this thread explains perfectly why cats are cooler than dogs.

Rambo kittehs is skeerie.

This cat doest take no for an answer. Most cats will run away after you make shoo-ing noises but this one's brave enough to sit at the bottom of the building and look up.

What plants do you recommend Angie?

BTW, if you've recently moved to a new neighbourhood, the owner of a large, grey cat, I do apologise for squirting him in advance but it has to be done.


Fixed that for ya!

Water on the cat, ignore the bad behaviour of the dog. Combining the noise and the water is a good idea too, I'm just wondering what you could get that makes a consistent and loud enough sound.

Any left over firecrackers?

We tried endlessly and in vain to ‘train’ our cat not to scratch on the bedroom door in the small hours. The only thing that finally worked was a smart little device called ssscat. It is completely harmless for animals, but does the trick wonderfully. Now when the cat sees the device put out in front of the bedroom door, he doesn’t even try to approach it.
It might be a bit difficult to place the device on the pavement, though...