Why Does My Cat Bite My Dog’s Neck? 7 reasons

Being a pet lover isn’t that easy, you guessing why? Then let me tell you why. I’m a huge fan of pets, especially cats and dogs. I absolutely love to see both my cat and dog being friendly and playing together. But sometimes we see just the opposite, they fight each other.

During the fighting, you may have seen that cats are usually more aggressive than dogs. Moreover, you will find your cats tend to bite your dog’s neck each and every time they fight.

I decided to do a little research on this topic, and here is what I found.

Why Does My Cat Bite My Dog’s Neck?

Why Does My Cat Bite My Dog’s Neck? The biting neck is a hunting technique for wild cats. As most house cats are the breeds of wild cats, they got this behavior from their ancestors. Cats tend to bite dogs’ necks because they think it’s the weakest point to attack to defeat dogs and other animals.

If you leave your cats and dogs for fighting, ultimately dog will defeat cats, dogs are strong and large in size compared to cats.

How to Stop a Cat from Attacking Dogs?

Cats can attack dogs or other animals for a variety of reasons. Following are the steps to stop cats from attacking dogs:

• Introduce your cat and dog in the best possible way. When introducing the puppy to the cat, hold the puppy, and let the cat smell it.
• Don’t let the new pet run out of the house right away, wait a minimum of two weeks.
• When you leave your cat with dogs, provide them treats and toys to distract them from fighting by playing with toys.
• Some cat’s breeds have aggressive behavior. So end them getting along if things get too rough.
• If your pets show normal behavior when they are introduced, increase the length of supervised visit.

If everything goes well it will take about 4 weeks to reach your goals. However, if you build the foundation correctly, your pets will be lifelong friends and you can enjoy one big happy family.

Understanding Dogs and Cats’ Relationship & Behaviour

We all are very familiar with the phrase “fighting like cats and dogs.” Whenever we humans get into any odds situation or fights with each other, we like to point out this phrase. Even though we think cats and dogs are always fighting with each other, it’s not actually true always.

It may seem strange/weird, but I must say that great relationships between cats and dogs are possible. A good relationship between them will depend on their characters and their owners’ calmness and understanding.

Dogs are predators by nature. We often see dogs chasing things smaller than them which includes cats too. On the other hand, the cat is proactive, while an unconfident cat is reactive.

Since each cat is unique, their behavior varies too. Each cat’s and dog’s behavior can seem different to each of them.

There are a lot of interactions between cats and dogs. The natural tendency of each species can lead to conflicting interactions too.

Suppose a dog raises his paw to a cat for play. But the cat can take it as a sign of an attack or not. Besides, a cat that tries to rub up against a dog may be acting friendly, but the dog can interpret that as a threat and can growl or bark.

Whatever the situation, it all depends on their mutual understanding and how you introduce your dog to your cat. Keep in mind that for a better relationship the owner must take precautions and some proper steps. Also, read my article- 5 tips for first-time cat owners.

How to Tell If My Cats and Dogs Are Fighting or Playing?

Seeing my cat biting my dog’s neck forced me to think about so many possible reasons. Is my cat doing this for fighting or is it just playful acts? To be honest, it’s very much challenging to give any straight answers to all of these questions.

Understanding a cat’s motive is very confusing. Sometimes I also can’t make up my mind why my cat does that?

I know they both love to accompany and play together. But it can go to fight level many times. Any fight between them is apparently very normal like hostile or carving. We actually don’t need to worry about it.

But you must figure out if there is any constant hatred or tension going on between them. If there is then you have to be more alert. To determine if they are playing or fighting, observe their body language closely.

During fights, if you notice they make relentlessly violent sounds, you must need to consider that they aren’t playing anymore. You must need to break up the fight by making a loud noise or by placing a barrier between the cats and dogs.

Understanding Cat’s Biting and Scratching Behaviour 

Cats usually prey on wild predators and like to use their muscles to attack. At times I also faces many weird incidents where my cat’s behavior was less than friendly or aggressive.

Unlike me, you must keep in mind that cats never do anything without a reason. Cats are very predictable animals.

If they do anything strange including biting or scratching other animals or you, don’t judge immediately. Each cat’s bite and scratch is different which they can do in different cases such as:

Playful Biting and Scratching

Cats sometimes chase a ball or mouse toy to capture and control the object. They like to win whatever game you are playing with them. They use their nails and teeth to dominate or defeat their prey.

I always liked to play with my cat by portraying my hand as a toy. Don’t do this mistake. Don’t teach your cat that your hand is a toy. Even I was unaware of the fact that this includes threats too.

They will start to think about your hand as a plaything. They may even start attacking your hand even when you are not being playful with them.

Aggressive Biting and Scratching

Did you ever face this situation like you were petting your lovely cat, and suddenly your cat bites you? I personally have these types of experiences. Even I have seen my cat suddenly get aggressive and attacked my dog several times.

You can understand if they are being aggressive by closely monitoring their expressions like howling, hissing, or scratching. There can be many reasons why the cat gets aggressive. Such as, if they are over-stressed, unwell, or scared, or have redirected aggression.

How to Stop Kitten From Biting and Scratching You?

Biting and scratching is normal behavior for kittens. But there are a few things that you can do to get them not to scratch and bite you.

• Use moving toys to play with your cat. Moves the toys frequently to get noticed by your cat.
• Don’t play with your hand & don’t twinkle your fingers at them. Don’t let your cat thinks of your hands as prey.
• Use toys to redirect their biting to an appropriate target. Let them think your hand is not biting or scratching an object.
• Don’t be a tease. Never tease or taunts your kitten with toys.

Common Types of Cat’s Aggressive Behaviours and the Reasons Behind Them

Aggression is the most common imagined behavior seen by animal behaviorists. Why would a cat suddenly become aggressive? There are so many reasons why cats can show aggressive behavior. Such as they can show aggressive behavior if they are suffering from any diseases. Following are the types of cat aggression:

• Fear of Aggression
• Play aggression
• Petting-Induced Aggression
• Transmitted Aggression
• Pain-Induced Aggression
• Status-Induced Aggression
• Territorial Aggression
• Maternal Aggression
• Inter-Cat Aggression

What to Do To Prevent The Aggressions of Cats?

• Cats can’t be intimidated easily. So their attention must need to be diverted.
• Try to keep your cat and dog away from any kind of fight.
• Try to give more attention to your cat.
• If you can’t calm your cats then left them alone for a while to get normal.
• Appreciate your cat’s playful behaviors and reward them with treats more often.
• Separate your pet’s resources. Reduce competition among your cats and other animals by providing multiple, identical food bowls, beds, and litter boxes in several areas of your home.
• Stay close to the cat and monitor them properly.

Treatments Of Injuries From Cat’s Bite

Cat bites can be dangerous both to other animals and to humans. Although cats don’t always bite loudly. But if they do then you need to see a doctor to treat the injury properly soon. Treatments that are needed for these type of injuries from cat’s bite is given below:

• For instant treatment, you can clean the wound by mixing 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of salt in 2 cups of water. Or you can apply an antiseptic lotion or cream or sterile bandage.
• Avoid using tape or butterfly bandages to close the wound.
• Apply pressure with a clean towel to the injured area to stop any bleeding.
• Don’t scrub the biting area as this may damage the tissue.
• You must observe if there are any symptoms like fever, increased redness or pain, swelling, fluid leaking, or red streaks from the bite. These could lead to infection.
• Call your physician to know if any further treatment is needed or not.

Final Thought

Considering everything, it was understood that cats bite dogs’ necks and other animals for various reasons which may be due to fear, maybe due to playing tricks & may be due to an increase in hunting skills.

Biting is a normal behavior of cats and they do it until you teach them what to bite and what not to bite. All the steps explained in this article will surely help to make your cat & dog get friendly with each other.

Tips: Never leave your cat & dog alone together, until they get along.