Fed up with people letting their dogs run free..

[Lyn]

See that's what I thought also.. if their dog is running free I should not be held accountable. If I have to spray them they are obviously loose and I'm going to defend myself.

Yesterday after supper I took Bubba out for a walk. The lady that owns the GS's said they were in their dog run. So I decided to go that way. Well they were not. Hubby was outside and let them out. The run is on the opposite side of the house, so I couldn't see until we were right in front. By then I've got 2 snarling dogs in Bubba's face and this time we were a hair away from a fight. I sprayed them both with water (just water, no vinegar.. I wanted to speak with animal control before I used the vinegar, just in case) in the face and it didn't do anything. The larger of the 2 continued to biting Bubba on the side of the neck and caught his ear, he yelped. I resorted to hitting the dog with the spray bottle. Then the guy comes around the side of the house yelling, ran up and grabbed both dogs and just walked away. Didn't say sorry or anything.   

Luckily Bubba is fine.. just some scrapes on his ear. The dog was biting and jumping back cause I was hitting him with the spray bottle. So his teeth slid down, he didn't get a good grip.

I spoke with the police and they keep telling me to phone animal control. 

I thought the conversation with his wife went well... obviously not well enough. And stupid me no I didn't keep track of dates. But animal control should have the days of my complaints. I'm going to see if I can get copies of their files.

I also talked with the farmer that owns the field on the other side of my house, he has strawberries planted back there and there is a cleared out area for the tractor that goes all the way down. I was talking to him about the neighbors and he said I can take Bubba back there anytime I want. The farmer that owns the field directly behind my house said I can take Bubba back there after his crop is ready and he's plowed the field. There's not as many distractions back there, but at least I have somewhere to walk Bubba until I can get animal control or someone to get these people to contain their dogs.

[GR8DAME]

OMG! The situation is totally out of control, I feel so bad for you and Bubba. I'd contact animal control for sure, photogragh Bubba's ear, no matter how minor the damage, it is still a wound cased by the other dogs and needs to be documented. I'd also for get the vinegar/water and start carrying a baseball bat for personal protection. What's to say that they won't start on you. Obviously the owner is a jerk, so I'd give him something to be a jerk about.
Stella

[GYPSY JAZMINE]

OMG! The situation is totally out of control, I feel so bad for you and Bubba. I'd contact animal control for sure, photogragh Bubba's ear, no matter how minor the damage, it is still a wound cased by the other dogs and needs to be documented. I'd also for get the vinegar/water and start carrying a baseball bat for personal protection. What's to say that they won't start on you. Obviously the owner is a jerk, so I'd give him something to be a jerk about.
Stella

I agree with Stella...It's completely out of control!...Check with animal control about the vinegar & water & carry the basebal bat...Use it on the neighbor!!!!!!...What an a**!!!!!!!!!!!

[doglover]

If the GS bit your dog could you get it picked up to be checked for rabies? You don't know if these people have been vacinateing their dogs.

[ZooCrew]

I'd also for get the vinegar/water and start carrying a baseball bat for personal protection

You know I was going to suggest a baseball bat right away in the beginning, but I was afraid everyone would think that a bit extreme.  Personally, that is what I would use.  A few bonks on the head (not full out swinging of course) should be enough of a deterrent for the dogs.

[Tulsas' Dad]

When loose dogs try to attack my dog, I go on the offense, raise my arms over my head, and start towards them hollering, "HEY, HEY, HEY!"
It usually works.
When it doesn't, I go after the most aggresive dog, growl and show my teeth.
Usually the dog will retreat.
Document your encounters. Report every incident. Build your case.
You have the Right to walk your dog on any public street.
Don't feel bad about reporting these people to the authorities!
These are the same people whose dogs attack children!
And when that happens we all get a bad rap.
John and Tulsa

[Lyn]

Thank you all for the help with this.

Animal control should keep my complaints on file right? The lady I spoke to more or less told me I should have documented them myself. Which I know I should have but I never thought it would get this far. So now I'm trying to get them to go back through everything it and I'm getting tons of resistance.

I'm getting more fed up with animal control than the owners of these loose dogs. They keep telling me that they are dealing with these owners. But I'm not seeing any progress.

As for the vinegar and water I can use it, BUT it has to be more dilute than half/half. So I don't know how effective it will be. I can not use anything that would cause permanent injury.

But I have another issue now... My one neighbor always keeps his dog tied up if they are out of their pen. This morning he was walking them around his yard and Bubba was out in the fence to go potty. The neighbor usually walks up with them and lets them sniff each other through the fence. Well all the times before Bubba would get all excited wanting to play.. Now he's stands there with his hair all on end and growling. I stopped the behaviour immediately with a firm NO and made him sit and then he went back to his normal hi how are ya self.. Now I can't say I'm an expert on dogs by any means. But it seems when ANY dogs approach him now he's on guard. With those dogs charging him on a daily basis I can seem how this behaviour is developing. Any input on this?.. or how I should go about correcting this? I think I'm definitely going to have to stick to walking through the fields for the time being until animal control finally does something and I can get this behaviour under control now. SIGH

It's just getting better and better.. 

[Lyn]

OH I am fuming.. Apparently if one of those loose dogs were a Pitbull. They would be out there in a flash. I was more or less told that my calls are low priority due to the Pit ban taking effect..

[brigid67]

This situation is all really terrible....ca n you call the animal control and tell them that you are sure one is a pit bull so they come out.  When you get there then say "oh silly me that one over there is not a pit bull?  "  At least that would get them out there...then hopefully they would fix the problem

[ZooCrew]

This situation is all really terrible....ca n you call the animal control and tell them that you are sure one is a pit bull so they come out.  When you get there then say "oh silly me that one over there is not a pit bull?  "  At least that would get them out there...then hopefully they would fix the problem

I was just thinking that right before I read your post.

I can't believe that b/c these dogs aren't pit bulls, they aren't priority.  What, do they have to take a chunk out of you or your dog before anyone acts?  That is a proposterous way to run a facility.  I agree maybe you should contact the local paper to see if they would be interested to know dogs that aren't pits aren't a priority in the city's eyes.  I know this is extreme, but you could contact your local representative and plead your case about the lack of help from animal control.  After all, the representative s are the ones who enacted the pit bull bans, and they should be interested to know how they aren't working.

[GrumpyBunny]

What, do they have to take a chunk out of you or your dog before anyone acts? 

Sadly, in many areas, yes.  We had a situation with a neighbor who had two aggressive dogs that she refused to leash.  Even on the rare occasions that they were on leash, she was not able to control them.  She told us repeatedly that she WOULD NOT leash them, and that if we or our dogs were ever injured by them, it would be our fault - basically for not protecting our dogs or ourselves by just staying in our house. 

It eventually got to the point where she once accused us of making her late for work because, as she put it - "you knew I was trying to leave, and you knew I couldn't bring my dogs out while ours were outside, so you stayed outside for a really long time so that I would be late".  Uh, yeah, right......... we were just letting our dogs pee!   

To make a long story short - we did call Animal Control to come out, and the officer came out, talked to Scott and then talked to our neighbor.  He decided that this was a "pissing contest" between two neighbors that didn't like each other, and basically did nothing except remind her of local leash laws.

Her dogs did eventually attack both of our dogs, but that is a whole other long story..... 

[ZooCrew]

That's horrible!! 

Maybe you should have called the local mental institution and asked if they were missing a patient, too.   

[GrumpyBunny]

That's horrible!! 

Maybe you should have called the local mental institution and asked if they were missing a patient, too.   

You have no idea how close to the truth that is!     It is a ridiculously long story, but here is a little taste of it....

The night that her dogs attacked our dogs, it was about midnight and Scott had taken our dogs out to go potty.  She had one of her dogs out there in the dark,  off leash of course, and it attacked and bit both of our dogs, as well as Scott, while she literally just stood there and watched.  During the attack she actually said "This is what you get."  The ONLY reason the police came out was because Scott was bit as well.  Otherwise, they would have had nothing to do with the situation.

But they didn't even get to talk to our neighbor.  Ya know why?  Cause she left.  After the attack, (which ended when Scott started swinging his flashlight at her dogs head) she stuffed the attacking dog into her motorhome and then ran back up to her apartment and got her other dog.  She put both dogs into her motorhome and left.  Wearing her pajamas. 

AND NEVER CAME BACK. 

She abandoned all her furniture, all her clothes, food in the fridge, everything.  In the two or three remaining months that we lived in that apartment, she never returned.  I believe she did call the landlord at one time, and told him that she was scared to come back because Scott had been "violent toward her dog".  EXCUSE ME?  Ummm, it was attacking him.....

We did later find out that the dog had a bite record, and I am sure she was afraid that it would taken from her and euthanized.  Which does make me sad - I can empathize with the kind of emotions that would make you want to protect your dog enough to just run away with it.  But, seriously, if you had a dog with that history, wouldn't you care enough about it to protect it by keeping it leashed?  *sigh*

[Lyn]

This situation is all really terrible....ca n you call the animal control and tell them that you are sure one is a pit bull so they come out.  When you get there then say "oh silly me that one over there is not a pit bull?  "  At least that would get them out there...then hopefully they would fix the problem

I thought about that but they already know that they are 2 GS, a chow chow and a Samoyed. None of those could be mistaken for a pitbull.

As grumpybunny mentioned that the dog actually has to bite someone before they take action.. I'm beginning to think it's the same here. No one at animal control actually said that to me.. but they haven't really done anything except speak to the owners and tell them to leash/tie up their dogs. Now with the Pitbull owners.. they get no second chances. If their dog is loose then get the gears immediately. How fair is that.

Contacting my local representative is a great idea.. I know they helped a friend of mine although that wasn't an animal control issue. I'll call first thing in the morning tomorrow.

[Tulsas' Dad]

This happened to me 26 years ago. I'm not proud of what I had to do.
But I couldn't put my family or my pets at risk.
We lived in the country, our property backed up to vineyards, animals would be abandoned along the road we lived on. Our cat, Oliver, let us be his family, our dog, Jasper, allowed Oliver into the house after Oliver kicked his butt! Nuff Said!
I walked to my truck, and there was a pup being choaked by a tight collar, it allowed me to release the collar and then ran from me. That evening when I came home, my wife said that the dog would growl at her and be aggresive toward our dog, cat, and child! I called Animal Control and was told that there would be an officer there ASAP. Well...ASAP turned into 3 days later.
I tried to make the dog feel comfortable, offered food and soothing words, it snarled at me and backed away. I called Animal Control Again. They 'claimed' they had sent an agent, and he couldn't find the offender.
Two more reports to Animal Control in the next week and the dog was still terrorizing my family with no response from Animal Control.
I told them that I would take care of the 'problem' with my rifle.
They told me that I could be prosecuted for animal cruelty.
I told them I would counter with negligence since my family was threatened.
The next morning I walked out of my house with my rifle, the dog growled at me and skulked away and watched me, I chambered a round, drew down , and put a bullet right between its' eyes, it never knew what hit it.
I put the carcass in a garbage bag and took it to animal control, placed it on their counter, identified myself by name and address and told them to get rid of it.
They told me that they weren't able to dispose of animals, that I needed to go somewhere else.
I said "Fine!, grabbed the bag and threw it into the dumpster behind the building
I'm not proud of that, I had to protect my family.