Dog Terrorizing the Neighborhood!

A big German Shepard that evidently lives a street over has just come around for the second time in a week! He chased our neighbor's elderly kitty up a tree and was barking at it in a frenzy and jumping on the tree going crazy! I think he would have killed that kitty if he could have!

My husband and I ran outside and the dog tore around our house. We heard someone calling and the dog ran away the opposite direction. Then a guy holding a leash came walking along, and my husband was livid!

My husband said, "There's a law that your dog has to be on a leash!" and the guy lamely holds up the empty leash and shruggs. Not a good response! I told the guy, "We have a little kid who plays in our yard and this is the second time your dog has come terrorizing everyone!"

He said, "We were having dinner and he jumped the fence," then he shruggs again. This made my husband furious and I thought he was going to slug the guy!

The guy saw he was in trouble and finally muttered, "oh sorry" and the dog came bounding back, right past the guy, and onto the street on the other side.

Another example of a person who is not fit to own a dog.

Next time I see that dog, I'm going to grab his collar, tie him to a tree, and call the CRD!

Dog owners like that are so irresponsible and are the ones that give dogs a bad name. I'm glad no one was hurt but I hope the kitty is ok after he calms down.

To play devil's advocate here, Jake is known for opening the gate if one of the kids leave the clasp off of it. He does the same thing. Chases everything in site!
As soon as we see he's gone we round him up and bring him home. Of course Jake just wants to play with everything. And he ALWAYS has his collar and tags on!

I know dogs are hard to control, especially if your fence isn't high enough to keep them in -- but that's not the issue: the issue is the safety of the neighborhood. No matter how much we may understand the difficulty the dog owner faces, even an occasional slip can lead to tragedy -- especially with a dog who is obviously aggressive. It's a problem he's got to solve immediately.

But I'll play devil's advocate, too, because the neighbor shouldn't be letting her cat outside, either.

The guy needs either a taller fence or a shorter dog.

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

I know dogs are hard to control, especially if your fence isn't high enough to keep them in

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Absolutely not true! Maybe I'm just lucky in picking dogs, but all I need to do is put a 1 foot barrier up in front of my 75 & 95 pound dogs and tell them they can't cross and they don't do it. Dogs are so easy to control if you know how to train them and do it. The problem is that most obedience trainers don't have a clue on how to properly train a dog for practical matters like jumping fences. They teach sit, stay, heal, down, etc, but not the commands that really matter, like: this is your territorial boundary and you will not cross it under any circumstance. That's the first thing we teach ours right after sit/stay. Ours don't even try to pick up cat toys because they don't belong to them and they know it. It's not part of their territory.

Don't mean to go off, but the fault is clearly with the owner not the fence or the dog. You can call animal control now and complain about the dog getting loose, but your neighbor will probably know who did it and might be vengeful.

I keep a slip lead handy for just such occations...lol.. plus we have a semi feral hybrid running loose ...

I have lost control of Gigi on occation...she is off lead trained and sometime s forgets she is only allowed to stroll in her yard ...

I too have a short fence and mine doesnt get out and the neither do the three others that could nearly walk over... This owner needs some classes

We live by the shore where people walk their dogs all the time and we sometimes get a dog who is being walked (and is unleashed) and who wanders into our yard to do his business. We also have a neighbor's dog who jumps the fence on occasion and greets us by jumping on us with muddy paws. This dog was different.

He attacked without provocation. He was completely out of control. He was agressive. He did not respond to his owner, in fact he bolted the opposite direction when he was being called. The owner had a "who cares" attitude. This was the second incident in one week. He outweighs our daughter by at least 40 pounds. She spends hours at a time playing in our back yard in the summer.

We can't take this lightly.

i'd call animal control next time. you just never know what a strange dog might do. and with the owner being such a , he obviously needs to learn that letting his dog run free has consequences. he might care when it starts costing him money.

I agree - you can't take this lightly. If the owner shows that kind of attitude then the only way to hit them is when/if they get a fine. I hope that it can be resolved!

Our neighbour behind has a dog that escapes (through our yard) constantly. He is a huge brindal pitbull that hates men, so my hubby can't go near him. I can get him back home, but now that we have kids I am afraid of him doing something to them. It isn't the fact that he is a pitbull - I know many sweet pit bulls - it is his aggression.

My hubby told them that they better take care of their side of the fence because if he ends up in our yard again we will call Animal Control. Everyone in the neighbourhood is afraid of him.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Next time I see that dog, I'm going to grab his collar, tie him to a tree, and call the CRD!

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Don't!
Call animal control for sure, but don't try anything physical with that dog or you very well may end up hurt.

like that should not be allowed to own a dog. And it's always the bully breeds they go for.

Yes, I agree -- you could get hurt trying to grab the dog yourself. Is it possible to just call the appropriate authority and ask someone to come talk to these people about the problem?