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Some people just don’t get it.


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I live in a small, rural community with a population of 2200. Needless to say, it’s a pretty safe, quiet place. Unfortunately, I have a neighbor who is an irresponsible pet owner. He has two large, unsocialzed dogs that are tied up outside 24/7/365 and one of them barks constantly. When I moved in with my elderly mother Nov 2004 I had to talk with the idiot neighbor about not letting his dog wander over into the back yard to do his business. I also reminded him that there is a leash law and letting his dog wander was in violation of that. He got the hint and kept Cowplop dog home.

 

Both dogs are now always tied up, but Cowplop dog barks loudly and incessantly. I can’t step outside the back door without Cowplop dog barking. And his bark carries! He is a big dog with a big voice. I tried talking with the neighbor again about the constant noise. He and his wife don’t seem to care; they’re gone a lot. But, what I don’t understand is that even when they’re home the barking doesn’t stop. It’s like they completely tune it out. So, I talked to him yet again. When it comes to the barking, I’ve gotten nowhere with him. He’s flip, cavalier, smart-alecky, just doesn’t take it seriously. And it’s not just the barking; the dog is a real menace if he gets loose. Most dogs will leave the yard if you even open the door. Cowplop dog is, I believe, dominant and aggressive. He’ll stare back if you make eye contact with him and it takes a lot to get him to back down and leave the yard. I was out doing yard work one time. I turned round to see the dog stalking me! Another neighbor told me he had the same experience. It’s really creepy to have a big, unsocialized dog trying to sneak up on you.

 

After getting little satisfaction from Idiot Neighbor, I finally reported the barking to the police. One of the other neighbors and I finally made a formal complaint. The police must have talked with him because the barking became less. So, here we are two years after the last incident. Needless to say, I think the neighbors are idiots and I’m sure they think I’m a b!tch, which is fine by me.

 

But, now it gets better. Last evening about 8:30p, I put Lewie out on his tie-out to go potty before I put him to bed. I don’t normally leave him out more than 5-10 minutes and I’m never too far way. I was puttering in the living room and heard, thumptythumpthump. I assumed something had spooked him and he ran up on the deck. I headed toward the deck door to bring him in and the next second I heard DOG FIGHTING! I flew to the door, yanked it open just in time to see Idiot Neighbor pulling Cowplop dog off Lewie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hollered at him to get his dog out of here. He grumbled something about Lewie being OK. Lewie’s fur was wet so I know Cowplop had had his mouth on him. Plus, his fur smelled bad, kind of a rancid wood smoke oder, so I know Cowplop was all over him. I was so livid I couldn’t think. I checked Lewie over and thankfully didn’t find any blood, punctures or abrasions. He seems to be acting OK so maybe it was all noise but it scared the he!! out of me. Lewie couldn’t even have run if he wanted to.

 

I’m so up in the air as what to do about this situation. I know dogs get loose and wander. I’ve had it happen to me with my last two but they were never aggressive or scary. Last night I’d plan to call the police in the morning to report it but I’ve since calmed down and am rethinking it. Perhaps I should try talking to Idiot Neighbor one more time, calmly, telling him I don’t blame him for the dogs getting loose, which I don’t. But, Cowplop is obviously a danger and Neighbor really needs to address it. Or, I could just ignore the whole situation for now. I do have plans to fence-in my back yard soon.

 

I’m so confused!

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Ugh, I am so sorry poor Lewie had to go through that and you, too. I am so glad he is okay, but as I am sure you know, often an attack like that will have an emotional effect on your dog, creating reactivity issues for Lewie where there were none before. Remember what happened to poor Liz's pup last month? Try to make sure Lewie is okay on the inside, too...

 

That said, I have two pieces of advice for you:

  1. Never, ever, ever leave Lewie outside alone on a tie-out. Lewie is defenseless on a tie out, not just against this dog, but against anything that might harass him. It isn't fair to him and could lead to more aggressive behavior, both because he is left defenseless and because being tied out may cause frustration if he is repeatedly faced with stimuli he cannot investigate.
  2. In addition, I'd get that fence installed ASAP. Otherwise, especially with a known combo of an aggressive dog and an irresponsible owner living nearby, you really ought to be out with Lewie every time he is outside. Period.

I feel your pain. I just installed this in my front yard because there is a loose-dog (some of whom are indeed aggressive) problem on my street:

IMG_0208.jpg

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Thanks, girls.

 

Laurae, I know you're right; I have to take some responsibility for leaving Lewie outside unattended. I don't normally do it but it was just this one time... :rolleyes:

 

And yes, the emotional scars do concern me. When I took him out this morning I was concerned he'd be afraid but thankfully he was his normal, happy-go-lucky pup-self. Of course, I was standing guard, coffee cup in hand, ready to kick some Cowplop dog butt, if need be.

 

Tomorrow could be another issue as it's a day-care day. I'll be sure to let the day-care provider know what happened so they can keep a close eye on his behaviors.

 

Hopefully he'll take it in stride and we won't have any issues.

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This is quite a coincidence: Just got back from a long walk with Sky, had a bit of lunch and read your post, and I glance out the window, and there is a dog running loose in the dentists yard. Never seen it before, he seemed quite confused, looking around aimlessly, running back and forth. Then he dissapeared behind some other houses .... :rolleyes:(( Dogs in this town seem to get away quite often.

 

Most people around here have fenced yards if they have dogs, but I know a few dogs who live their lives on a chain like your neighbors. They are always out there, alone, acting agressive (some), barking like crazy. I feel sad for them, even the ones that might rip my head off, if they got loose.

 

Our neighbors kitty corner across the street have several St. Bernhard's and Great Pyrenees (sp.?). When they first moved in those dogs barked at every leaf that blew in the wind .... They are behind a 6' fence, I was never afraid of them, but the people were gone at work all day, and even with my windows shut, that deep, deep, loud barking drove me nuts. Luckily they relaxed after some years (!). I heard the people who live directly next to them scream at the dogs to shut up quite often in the beginning. :D))

 

I'm glad Lewie seems ok!!! So frightening. We had a black lab sort of dog attack Sky once when we were walking. Didn't even notice the dog until it came rushing at Sky and grabbed her on the neck. Aaaah. Sky was on the leash of course, couldn't really get away. We screamed and hollered and threatened the lab, and I guess scared it enough. Sky was fine, but I have noticed that her neck hair goes up when she sees black, big dogs .... Those people just let their dogs be in the yard unsupervised, they have several, none of them friendly. The others are Rottweiler type dogs. We don't walk there any more!

 

As far as what to do, I don't have any good advice, I'm afraid. If you already called the police and your neighbor still can't or won't handle the dog ... that makes it really hard. If you still think you can talk to him, do that first. If you can get a fence that will help. We don't have a fence either, well just partial fencing. Nothing that would keep a dog out or in. Since I'm paranoid about Sky getting lost again anyway, she does not go out without us and on a line. This means we are outside a lot more. :D)) But I know what you mean: You should be able to leave your dog outside for a few minutes without fearing for his life. I feel for you!

 

Andrea

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To remove any possiblity of "he said, she said" and the old "but officer, that couldn't possibly be my dog that was loose", it's time to install the best video or camera monitoring system you can afford. (If being nice and talking first doesn't work)

 

It's amazing how those belligerent, loud mouth, uncaring yahoo's that let their dogs, children or whatever run amok suddenly decide it's not in their best interest to let it continue----if there's the possibility of getting caught on camera.

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I feel your pain. I hate my neighbors. Not all of them, they don't all suck, but for some reason in the last few months a whole lot of uber irresponsible folks moved into my building. I use the peephole in my door before I open it and go out with my dogs. I use the window in the elevator door to make sure none of them are out there before I get off the elevator with my dogs. Still, we get jumped pretty regularly by dogs whose owners seem to think leashes are optional in the halls. Combine this with neighbors who think it's OK for their dogs to urinate on other apartment doors (not mine -- thankfully), and I'm counting down the days until I get the hell out of here.

 

The best part was that I caught a neighbor using my door as a distraction while she was clicker-training her dog. Solo has become extremely reactive to dogs snuffling at the door (predictably) since we have a couple of new neighbors who think it's a big kick to let their dogs "fence fight" with Solo through the door. So yet another neighbor was letting her dog sniff at the door (thereby setting Solo off), then calling him away and clicking him for calling off, and then letting him go back to the door again (thereby setting Solo off again), calling him off, click, etc. I opened the door and said "What the hell are you doing??" She muttered "sorry" and shuffled away quickly and it hasn't happened since. WTF???

 

If I were you I'd call the police every single time that dog is loose. It's not only unsafe for the dog's neighbors, it's not safe for the dog to be loose. And like Laurae said, never ever leave Lewie outside alone.

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***********He’ll stare back if you make eye contact with him and it takes a lot to get him to back down and leave the yard. I was out doing yard work one time. I turned round to see the dog stalking me! Another neighbor told me he had the same experience. It’s really creepy to have a big, unsocialized dog trying to sneak up on you.********

 

Another reason to have video/motion camera monitoring------if that dog finally attacks you in your yard--------Mr. Mean dog owner would really have lots of "slaining to do".

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Wow Melanie, that is so disturbing. I'm sorry you have to put up with that!!!

 

Andrea

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Ugh! That's awful. Rural life ain't so great either, I guess!

 

One kind of good thing about a densely populated neighborhood is that it's kind of expected the neighbors will call the police on you if your dog is barking allatime. So people are generally aware enough not to have dogs out barking anytime there might be sleeping neighbors.

 

Three doors down, though, there's a beagle chained out in a condo yard while the owners are at work 8 - 10 hrs per day. The dog barks all day, from what I can tell. Poor thing!

 

Wish I had good advice for you. I keep Buddy inside a very tall chain link fence - because I don't trust neighbor kids and/or dogs not to invade and get attacked by him. ::Sigh::

 

Mary

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Very nice! Having just priced fencing, I know it is expensive! But so so worth it. I'm already loving my new fencing in the front. I especially love no longer having to clean up all crap left behind by the other dogs in the neighborhood and no longer hearing the screaming Sophie did when she knew they were there (baiting her, I think). HA! They can go crap on someone else's yard now!*

 

 

 

 

*Not that I want these dogs to crap or pee or otherwise antagonize any other innocent party's property; I am JUST SO GLAD it's not my problem anymore!

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Living in a rural area myself, no one really thinks about their dog disturbing another person on their property....dogs just kind of roam where I am. But I have been in your shoes and let me tell you...it CAN leave major emotional scars. To this day, (and thankfully every day gets better and better) I am still trying to "undo" the emotional scars that my family/neighbor's dog created over two years ago.

 

This boston terrier of my relative would come over w/ back hair raised, full out attack mode and get my dogs started. AFTER we got the fence put up, she still wouldn't let up. She would make a point to leave her yard, cross the field in between us and make a bee line to one spot of our fence starting a major fence fight. I did everything that I could think of (talk till I was blue in the face, call police, call animal control, which of course around here isn't much help at all, tried to catch her to take her to the pound myself...you name it I tried it) and nothing worked except for me to be out w/ my dogs and try to make it at a time that I knew she was off harrassing the other neighbors dogs until she finally died of heartworms. Even though my two were not on a tie out, they were still in a confined area (my back yard) and I've had to work majorly hard to get the kinks out when it comes to other dogs. We have now gotten to the point that I wouldn't dare trust them w/ other dogs w/o supervision, but as long as I'm there to control the situation, they do fine w/ meeting other dogs.....as long as they don't come to the fence to meet.

 

I'm telling you all of this so that you will think twice about not doing anything further since you've had a cooldown period. I went back and forth w/ that for quite awhile and I will tell you firsthand, if you let it go, then you will never get any peace w/ the neighbors dog. Don't be a pain in the butt and complain about every little minute thing that happens, but definitely take action for your dog being attacked in your own back yard. Hindsight 20/20, I wish I would have taken further when I had the chance instead of cooling down first...maybe then my dogs wouldn't be so reactive and fearful. Believe you me, its been a LOT more work on both human/canine efforts in getting them anywhere near normal and we still aren't there yet.

 

Good luck in whatever you decide to do, but do consider having the authorities doing all that they can do in this situation. It really isn't fair to you and especially Lewie. :rolleyes:

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I am just glad that it wasnt any worse than it could have been!! Good thing a fence is going up, but I definitely wouldnt give ole Cowplop another chance to attack. Sucks that you cant even live a normal life when said dogs like that run loose. As for the barking, I feel you! The neighbors next to my parents house have a small little fenced in area where they let some of their small dogs out (well they are ALWAYS out there most of the time) if you are doing ANYTHING they bark bark bark bark bark! SHRILL yappy barks that are extremely loud! Your ears will literally start ringing from it. Thank God I dont deal with it everyday anymore! We have had all sorts of dogs get loose and go in the yard over there, from Great Pyr/Anatolion mixes, to Coonhounds, stray mixed breeds, and well we even have gotten a couple of horses and a pony before! It just is a shame when you are the one trying to do right and people around are not which can ruin so many days. Good luck with the fence, it looks nice!

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Im sorry to hear what you are going through but I am in almost the exact same situation myself right now. As a matter of fact, I have a court date with Idiot Neighbor (must be related) on June 6th. If you call animal control and report a dog attack (marks or not) they will give them a ticket. Just make sure your dog is up to date on shots and you can prove it - they will ticket them again if their dog is not up to date and another for being off of his leash in your yard. You also have 2 years to report a dog attack btw.

 

I also just priced fencing and we were going to have it done anyway - their Bull Mastif poops in our yard too and the Rotty that attacked my son (with very mild injury) and charged my wife has died - good riddins! Cripe, fencing is expensive! That nylon privacy fence with the latice goes for about $90 - $120 per 8 foot section. Then you have to buy the 4x4x8 posts, the covers for the posts, a gate, concrete or pea gravel and hardware. All together for 200 feet its probably going to cost $2,500 plus, and thats if you do it yourself. Chainlink is almost as expensive if you buy the vinyl coated stuff - which my HO association requires for chain link. Home Depot quoted $1986.24 for only 200 ft of six foot height as I sit here looking at the paperwork. I could go 5 ft and save a bit but I am on a BC forum and dont have to explain the reasons for 6ft to you. :rolleyes:

 

But my advice is to just call Animal Control. If your neighbors are like mine they will end up cussing you out because you yelled at their dog to break up a fight. I think Im going with the privacy fence so I dont even have to look at them or their house.

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Hmmm and folks wonder why I have hot wire around my place.... cheap and emporary ...tons of loose dogs

and not a one in my horse yard nor do my dogs ever get into it.. I think they have a sadistic streak to them though

they'll lay close to the fence ,watching other dogs approach...

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I just have to ask- is Cowplop the dog's real name?? :rolleyes:

 

:D:D:D

 

No, the dog's name is Stanley. I just referred to him as Cowplop because that's what his big 'ol piles look like.

 

Ironically, there are two human Stanleys in the neighborhood; one on the other side of Cowplop across the alley from me and the other across the street from my front door.

 

Kinda confusing. :D

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Good fences make good neighbors...

 

I am considering buying one of those outdoor dog bark deterrent systems (makes an ultrasonic beep). My neighbors have a JRT that is a know killer of other animals (including a beaver) and it barks and barks and barks and barks... My dogs hate it because it grabs the fence and tries to attack them through it. In your case though I would be worried, that dog does not sound nice. I think a solid fence is best for you.

 

I just got screamed at Monday for asking a guy at the state park (where the leash law is very strictly enforced) to put his dog on a leash. It ran straight at me and I said, "Would you please put your dog on a leash?" and he blew up yelling that his dog was not going to attack mine. People around me were staring at the guy. I would have been afraid if I was all alone.

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