How to stop pets from freaking out over wildlife outside the window
Wildlife approaching windows triggers intense distress, panic attacks, and dangerous window-smashing behavior in pets. Because animals are right up against the glass repeatedly, pets become puffed, hissing, and agitated, or risk severe injury trying to escape.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Closing the window and pulling the curtains
- 2Putting cardboard over the bottom half of the window
- 3Spraying water or setting up motion-activated sprinklers
- 4Sprinkling cayenne pepper or placing ammonia-soaked rags nearby
- 5Installing window screens
- 6Grabbing the pet's back legs to pull them back
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm sitting on the couch trying to unwind after a stressful week and out of the corner of my eye I see this numbskull literally smashing his head into the window to get it to open wider. Then he happily flings himself out towards a third story drop onto paving stones.”source ↗
“Cleo’s no longer snoozing and is puffed and hissing.”source ↗
“One is right at the window no more than 5 inches from her nose.”source ↗
“She’s hissing and puffing and these things just keep making rounds to her incessantly.”source ↗
“I remove her from the window and she’s just breathing making a hissing noise, almost like a panic attack.”source ↗