HELP: Neighbor's dogs attacked my dog

Okay here is the situation.

I own a small yorkshire terrier that lives indoors and only goes out for walks and to do his business all under our supervision.

My next door neighbors owns two dogs, a pomeranian and another larger mixed dog that they allow to run off leash in their backyard. The problem is that they often forget to close the door to their backyard and the dogs run around the neighborhood.

Now the fence to our backyard is often left open since we have gardeners and cleaning ladies who enter through the backyard. So the neighbors dogs often run into our yard to do their business their. And when we started to keep the gate closed, they broke our communal wood fence and came again into our backyard.

Anyways today my dad took our yorkshire terrier out to the backyard and i guess one of us forgot to close the gate to our backyard and our neigbors two dogs attacked my dog severely injuring him. By the time my dad could intervene the two dogs had run away.

My question is what can i legally do? My dad is extremely angry at the moment and wants to physically hurt the neighbor's dog the next time they step into our yard. I convinced him not to but i need to know what i can do and whether there is a law i can read about what to do in this situation.

Also a formal complaint will not work since my neighbors know about their dog's activities and other neighbors have complained as well.

check and see if there is a leash law in your county. If there is, your neighbors are responsible for their animals to be contained. And keep your gate closed, even if you have to put a sign on the door you go out of that hits you in the forehead. I would call the neighbors first.

CALL your local ANimal control in my town that is the POLICE non emergency number

Yes call animal control! What if their dogs attacked a small child? Whether they want to be or not, these people need to be accountable for their dogs actions.

it depends. was your dog on a leash? if not, and the other dogs were not on a leash, and your gate was open, then your 50% liable for your dog getting injuried.

you have to look at it from a judge's perspective. If you ( or a family memeber) left the gate open, then your also liable for letting the other dogs get in.

Is your yorkie going to be okay?

Originally Posted by MoochNNoodles

Yes call animal control! What if their dogs attacked a small child? Whether they want to be or not, these people need to be accountable for their dogs actions.

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Yes call animal control. However, there is a big difference between aggression toward other dogs and aggression towards people. Just because these dogs hurt your Yorkie does not mean they are dangerous to children or other humans.

I would also get copies of all vet reports and take pictures of your dog's injuries.

Call animal control and report the incidence. Then present the vet bill to your neighbor. Some people will respond when you hit them where it hurts: their wallet.

This just happened to me and my dog Max over the summer. My dog is a ~90lb lab/boxer mix... I was walking him down the street (on leash) when my neighbors two dogs came out of their backyard (their gate wasn't closed). Their male boxer jumped my dog, pinned him on the ground and was shaking his neck/head. Luckily some construction workers got him off my dog (using a piece of pvc) and they ran back to their yard.

What I did (and what you should do): 1. Take photos of your dog's injuries(whith the date/time set on on your camera). 2. Have your dad type (or write) out his account of what he saw (i.e. on tuesday the 12th at 10AM I took my dog out in our back yard, then, black and brown dogs attacked, etc.).
3. Call animal control- find out if there is a leash law. Report the incident, in person if necessary, and tell them exactly what happend...give them the typed account and photos if you can. It is important that you notify them because it takes so many tiems for dogs to have a "reported incident" before animal control can do anything about it..i.e. give them a citation.
4. Take a copy of all vet bills, etc. to the owners of the other dogs. Tell them that you have to report it. See if they will cover the vet bills, if not, then you can take them to court for the costs (or might be able to involve the sheriffs office, etc.).

Try to be as cool-headed as possible and I wouldnt' suggust going to see the owners of the other dogs alone. Go with your dad so that he can tell them what he saw. Tell them where/who your vet is and give them a copy of the vet bills/reciepts.

I know it's hard, but try to be as polite as possible. If they are not going to cooperate with you, they will be even more obstinate and angry if you are rude.

When this happened with me and Max, the other owners agreed to pay the vet bills (which they did), but we still had to report them to animal control so that the incident would be on record. We talked to our other neighbors and this had happend before to them too. It is important to report it, because you have no way of knowing if the other people reported the incidents before and AC has to have it on record or there is no proof.

Good luck and I hope your dog will make it!
Art

thank you for all your help and so far our dog is doing fine. He just has some nasty cuts that we will need the vet to take a look at but nothing life threatening. And we will be sure to file a formal complaint as well as seek compensation from the neighbors

I would call the animal control officer! sure your dad is mad at the dog, but its the owners that are at fault here. I hope your dog will be okay!

Originally Posted by baelfire

thank you for all your help and so far our dog is doing fine. He just has some nasty cuts that we will need the vet to take a look at but nothing life threatening. And we will be sure to file a formal complaint as well as seek compensation from the neighbors

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Good. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with being so irresponsible.

By the way - your username. Wouldn't be a WoT fan, would you?