Cats at the end of the garden = Barking Frenzies!

Max, my 2 year old, blue roan cocker spaniel has a phobia of all cats except ours. There are a pair of cats who sit on our back garden wall and stare at Max until he practically explodes! I have tried putting fencing up, but they just stand half on the fence and half on the wall... He has created a 'mud path' up the garden as he runs back and forth every time we let him outside... It is beginning to annoy the neighbors as he has a very loud bark and I have received a formal complaint from the housing estate behind my home! They can't do anything as our council is very dog-friendly, but my next-door neighbors, of whom are very close to me, have a 7-month old daughter whose bedroom is at the back of the house and so Max wakes her up and i am beginning to feel bad... I have looked at those spray-collars, but I don't have €400 to spend on a collar, does anyone have any suggestions, EVERYTHING is welcomed!

Not sure about prices in Ireland -- Id love to visit there someday! =) -- but there are remote training collars here that are around $100 USD and they work well. You could probably buy one off Amazon.com and ship it to your address... We have one. They have a 1-5 or 1-10 intensity setting for the shock and a beep setting. Our dogs know that a shock will follow the beep if they dont stop.. so we rarely have to shock them.. This seems to work well for barking and such. Other than that.. I dont know.

We have a lot of bushes in our backyard that are home to birds and the dogs love to stand at the back sliding door and bark and whine until we let them out and then the birds fly away.. We pretty much just verbally correct them. Although I dont think ours are as extreme as your barker..

=) Hope something helps.

My dogs live with indoor only cats & they know all of them, but will still
bark or chase any neighbor cat near the back yard. Can you just shoo the
cats away when they decide to park there?

Perhaps what you need is cat repellant. Can't recommend any myself because I feed the feral cats. ;)

I know PETsMART sells many types, most of which are under $20.00 US.

Put "Cat Repellant" in Google and see what comes up for Ireland distribution.

Good luck!

Maybe teaching the cats that sitting where they do isn't the greatest idea.....such as pointing a ready hose in their direction and leave it there and set it going from the house whenever you see them sitting in their usual spot. They will soon learn to go elsewhere. Alternatively, you can use this on your dog for when he starts to bark at the cats, pointing the hose to where he usually slams his anchors on and give him a quick sharp squirt. You might have to change the hose position if he learns to stand elsewhere but he might learn to avoid the behaviour in future...especially as he may believe the water is coming from the cats themselves. Make sure the hose is full of water if you want to squirt either so that there isn't a time lapse caused by the amount of time it takes the water to travel all the way up the hose.

I bought a shock collar from petsmart for $40 USD. It is battery powered so its the cheaper version of the collars. It works great. All I have to do now is pull it out of the drawer and my Cockapoo automatically stops barking before I even put it on her. Yes, its rough at first to hear the dog yelp but a smart dog would learn quickly and therefore be in less pain. I tried everything with Amaya and once she sees something she likes, she wont stop barking. Any animal outside or even a fallen leaf puts her on a barking frenzy for as long as the item is in view. She wont even go for a treat if I try to get her attention and she is one to never say no to a treat!

Only keep the collar on your dog while he is outside so that it can still bark as a dog should do. If you know something is going to trigger him, put it on before he starts.