Best way to restrict a cat from leaving your yard....
 

Life is moving on after my divorce: met a great gal, planning a future, but my 3 year old cat Zoey loves to scale 6' fences. My gal's dogs have access to the back yard via dog door for potty-purposes.

I'm trying to either keep the cat from leaving out the dog door or Keep the cat inside the back yard, which has about 150 linear feet of 6' fencing.

Most electronic dog/cat doors operate where the door is closed unless a collar activates it to open, to keep out wild animals: this wont work for this application as the dogs charge in/out the door: one of them being older with dental issues: could create big issues if he knocks out teeth: unfair to retrain them. Of course I couldn't consider this unless I found a door that remains fully open unless a collar activates it Closed upon sensing.

Yard restriction could really only be done using a cat-fence horizontal extension towards the top to keep the cat from reaching the top fence pickets to hang on/climb up over.

Other than these two hurdles, are there any other things I could consider to keep the cat within the back yard or fully inside the house (not being able to use the dog-only door).

And no, I cant consider not using the dog door for the dogs or locking the cats in another room permanently: unfair.

Thoughts guys?

wrap it in bacon. the dogs will get it the moment it leaves the house.

no more leaving the yard.

no more much of anything really......but it is a cat so not so bad right?

I seriously doubt you will ever be able to keep the cat in one place! They have just too many "wild" parts in their brain to completely tame once they are allowed outside.

wrapped in lights sure, but not bacon. Put some time into your cats like you do your dogs, you have great cats.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1457378779.jpg

I'll echo what others have said... cats will tend to find a way out...

I honestly think the dogs would "retrain" pretty quickly to the new door mechanism...

Yes I saw those fence kits: This is my inclination though for my length I'll make myself...HomeDepot has most all of what I'd need.

Thanks Amail.

I still can't find the correct locking dog door, even after chatting with people from PetDoors.com about it. :/

Electric fence

Do a 6 wire topper on existing fence, stagger a live line, then ground line. There must be no place the cat can squeeze through or jump over.

A 2 joule farm zapper will do, I bet the cat only touches it once. ;)

yes I thought about that too: not sure 2j wouldn't be way too much either.

Certainly an option.

electric fence?

An outside cat is pretty much disposable in my neck of the woods. Keep the cat inside if you like it.

You can get a smaller one.

My daughter has chickens surrounded by electric fence netting with a 2J zapper I saw the cat touch it once, only once, the cat is still alive. ;)

Its a decent neighborhood but not a nice dog next door...worried about that too. Best if I could keep her inside the house.

If the cat is accustomed to going out it will be tough to stop her from making the great escape.

put in a bird feeder. grow cat nip. make your yard more interesting so that he doesn't want to stray. but ultimately the others are right. once outside they do what they want. ours vanishes for days at a times. we've stopped worrying.

unfriendly dogs and coyotes make for a dangers post-fence environment :/

This is probably the only way you can keep a cat contained in an outdoor area. No matter what else you do they will eventually find a way out.
http://kittywalk.com/deck_patio.asp

i cant do that with the dogs, but plan to do that with an added cat door for her...she'd love this.

PetSafe does make one door that appears to work in the way I wish: I'll probably buy one this week and try it out.

Maybe if your gal took her dogs to her house.....your cat wouldn't feel the need to scale the fence.

Just a thought.

Yup. As a bonus your cat won't be crapping in other people's yards, walking on their cars, etc. Yes, I have neighbors who think their pets have no boundaries......

Mark, that is sort of like asking how to keep the tide from coming in.

How has this thread gotten this far and nobody has mentioned Invisible Fence yet? In addition to dogs, it works for cats.

Does the Invisible Fence® Brand system work for cats?
Yes! Cats can be successfully trained to use the Invisible Fence® Brand system, both outdoors and indoors. Our featherweight MicroLite® Computer Collar® Receiver is the smallest and most advanced collar available. Weighing in at just one ounce, it’s easily worn by cats.

Frequently Asked Questions - The Invisible Fence® Brand

Not a bad solution John, though I've decided to go with the $204 PetSafe Elec smart door: it comes with one collar and can be reverse-programmed so that the collar wearer is not permitted through the door: looks like it's tested enough to try :)

Thanks everyone, will chime back.

Mark

I like the fence kit...

Yesterday I drew up plans for a 'catio', basically a 8'x8'x12' enclosure that our cats will access through a open window. (plus is we can put the cat box outside)
Material cost ~ $250

Make sure to crank it up for a 100 lb cat, then there won't be any more problems.

Great dog-safe catbox and cat food (box).

Take a medium size storage container with a lid, and cut a hole high up on one longer end big enough for a cat's head to poke through, then fill with litter and put the lid back on. Cats can squeeze through but the dogs cant.

For cat food, do the same with another box, but glue down cat food dish on the other end (spill proof of course as the dog will try to get to it but will be restricted by the hole size.

I did this years ago to keep my bassets from eating the kitty kernels and it worked...a few teeth marks around the hole but that adds character :)

I would question how well the invisible fence would work on cats, for one thing any collar (cat or dog) should be loose enough that the animal can wiggle out of it for safety reason (should the animal get hung up on a fence or other object) and our cats will arbitrarily shed their collars because... well... they are cats.

The invisible fence also doesn't address the problem of predators (coyotes, etc.)

^^ This! :)

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo...t20n-1-web.jpg

:)

Controversial

I actually do love cats. I never had one that would have done well inside. Now with hunting dogs, they love cats even more - so will have to wait until the dogs are geriatric before adding a kitty. Only if the dogs come in as a pup with an established cat in the household already is it possible to make sure the cat is fine.

G

You're trying to control a cat..

Good luck. Thank God I'm deathly allergic to them..

One of the worst days of my life was when my neighbor's cat ran into my garage and jumped straight into a 5 gallon bucket full of used motor oil. Of course, my neighbor was not home and I wasnt going to let the thing lick itself clean...

Had to hold the cat while washing off oil in the sink.. That sucked

How to contain a cat in the yard? Really quite simple. Overfeed like it crazy. Mickey D's or anything the cats wants to eat. Just like a human glutton. Once cat is grossly overweight it will not be able to climb the fence. Of course now the kitty is compromised it becomes the victim and not the predator.....

I'm thinking sheet metal flashing on top of the fence, slanted over. Kitty can jump high enough to reach it but slides off. Sort of like how you keep squirrels from climbing trees. For other ideas, visit the zoo and check out the big cat enclosures.

We've got an invisible fence, and it works great for the dogs. I'm leery of trying it with the cats though. They're more nimble, and I think would just as likely jump over the fence when shocked. Now they're fenced out!

I'd like to try the fence topper thingy, but we've got trees near the fence and an outdoor fireplace with a chimney that goes up beside the lanai. Too many places the cats could get around the topper, so that's a no-go for us.

An outdoor caged area like scottmandue describes is probably our best compromise.