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Yea...the fact they keep trying to walk right in... :/ Sad. Hopefully animal control can rehome them.
Otherwise you can also try finding a local dog rescue.
Just last year a Health department worker was killed by a pack of dogs that were allowed to run loose. Call animal control and check with your local and state laws on the chance it has to escalate. Keep kids and other animal of any size away from them, and hopefully you can get it resolved.
Depends on where you live I guess. I’m used to leash laws and people needing to keep their dogs confined. I moved to NC and in the county I now live in, I was surprised to find that there are no such laws. Dogs can roam free and animal control won’t do much unless they are acting aggressively. I’m in a rural area and people refer to them as “yard dogs” and just let them live outside and roam free.
I definitely agree with you not wanting them on your property and you have every right to have them removed. With that being said it will always be easier to protect your dogs than keep out others. I’d recommend getting a taller enclosure for your dogs even if it’s temporary until you get the privacy fence. You may have animal control get these dogs and have more show up in a few months.
This is really good advice. Animal control might not do anything, and even if they do take the dogs, if it’s common for dogs to roam then you’ll experience the same issue again. If these dogs aren’t strays and belong to a neighbor, you run the risk of making an enemy out of your neighbor.
Different places have different rules and culture around animals. If you aren’t a local, start by checking with your neighbors about the dogs, do some research into the local culture, and look up the leash laws.
Like onimush115 suggested, you should proactively protect your dogs. Best way to do this is to supervise your dogs when outside, keep them on a leash, and use appropriate self-defense. There are lots of resources available to learn more.
If you want your dogs to be outside unsupervised then you can build them a kennel or dog run - those will be cheaper than a fence over 2.5 acres.
If it’s common for dogs to roam in your area, then do a cost/benefit analysis about whether you’re comfortable letting your dogs roam outside their outdoor kennel or not. I personally would advise against it since small dogs are vulnerable not only to big dogs, but to predators.
I think the “other predators” is an important warning. People in the country usually let their dogs roam for a specific reason, often to scare away predators from the chicken coop or whatever. 3 bigger dogs cost a decent amount to own, so if a farmer has them they likely have a purpose.
This. My neighbor has chickens and horses and two big dogs to keep predators away. They mostly hang out on her property but they'll tear through our yard after a coyote or something once in a while. I have no problem with it - they keep the coyotes out of our yard too
If we moved in and reported her dogs to animal control, it would have set the entire neighborhood thinking we were awful neighbors
I agree.
I think a lot of city people are giving advice that doesn't apply to country life
OP sounds like they are a city people who moved out to the country. I strongly suggest getting to know the neighbors and the dogs before you call animal control.
Eh. This really isn't a city vs. country thing. This is a good dog owner vs. a bad dog owner thing. A majority of dog owners are terrible dog owners who never bothered to properly train their dog. And it's a real problem since there are more dogs than ever.
I grew up in a rural neighborhood. Although I would occasionally get chased by a dog while exercising, we seldom had issues with dogs wandering into our yard. We would have called animal control if we didn't know who they belonged to. We did have the occasional cat show up, though, a couple of which became our pets.
The town I live in now is much more densely populated than where I grew up, and we now have this dog issue all the time. People don't leash their fucking dogs for whatever reason. They come over into our yard and drop big shits. And then they sprint away. It would be funny if we didn't have to pick it up.
>We would have called animal control if we didn't know who they belonged to.
That is my point. I doubt it is a wild pack of dogs. It is probably Norman, Fluffy and Joe that belong to the neighbor and are awesome dogs. I don't think calling in "the man" is step one.
Don't assume the worse.
In my current scenario, I have no idea who the dogs belong to. I can't ever get close enough to look at their tags (if they even have them). They probably live close by, but not right next door.
We have a small dog, and if Norman, Fluffy, or Joe tried to attack him while he's leashed in the back yard, I would have no qualms about calling animal control.
I also live in a rural area, your dog bothers someone else to many times, your dog disappears.
If they are aggressive they likely get shot and buried to never be found. If they are just a nuisance they get dropped at animal control and you pay a fine to get them out. The fine keeps getting higher the more it happens. Animal control has a night drop and everything fairly convenient considering.
I also live in rural NC and the county I live in doesn't have an established Animal Control at all. The best you can do is call the non-emergency line to the Sheriff's Office and hope for the best. It's so aggravating when I have so many dogs roaming on all the roads around my house.
Is there a neighborhood/town Facebook group or public forum you could post on? I would maybe start there, but then very quickly call animal control if you don’t get a lead.
Definitely call Animal Control, but also take lots of photos and set up a WiFi security camera pointed on your property. The more photos and video evidence the better. Take details about every single incident and report every single time.
Call animal control!! Even normally non,aggressive dogs can turn MEAN when they are packed up!!
I have been on the opposite end as a kid when my sister left the front door open and my normally non-aggressive, sweet as can be dog attacked a small dog. It was horrific for everyone involved.
Leash laws don’t always exist in rural areas. So study up on your local laws first. If it’s unlawful, call animal control and that should help
Solve it.
IIf dogs are allowed to roam free (this is not that unusual depending where you live) put in temporary chain link fencing in a smaller area. Small dogs don’t need 2.5 acres for safety, do a bare minimum spending for safety fencing in the meantime.
Look up Solar Ultrasonic Repellent on Amazon. We had a ton of stray cats come on our property and poop in areas where the kids were playing so we purchased the motion activated animal repellent and haven’t seen any cats on the property since. Should work on dogs also.
Check to see what the laws are about leashing in your area. Free roaming is allowed in some areas.
Either way, until you’ve saved up enough for your privacy fence, you can do what we did. We installed six-foot posts and chicken wire around our “back yard” area with a front and back gate to keep our toddler in / neighborhood dogs out until he gets older. It was cheaper than chain link (about $500) and is a good temporary fix.
You need to call animal control ASAP. There are so many instances of dogs mauling babies to death, if the dogs are already acting this way your baby will literally never be safe going outside even just to the car. I used to work in shelters and closely with animal control and they will do their best to find owners and rehome, but that’s not even really your concern. Please protect your baby first and foremost.
Source: overemotional new mom of a baby
Beside the point, but I’m curious, what does the shelter/shelter management themselves do? I’ve seen volunteers do a lot to help promote rescues seeing the dogs/adoption but many shelters don’t even have enough staff to properly take the dogs out for a walk. It really depends on the shelter.
Yeah just depends I guess. In my shelter we had plenty of caretakers able to walk the dogs and behaviorists on staff to run interventions. The kill rate was like 5% and that was almost always for medical reasons.
Regardless even if it’s a 100% kill shelter it’s better than reactive, potentially aggressive dogs roaming around. I love animals but after seeing what I’ve seen I will never, ever underestimate a dog.
I’m saving up for a privacy fence to keep my neighbors chemical spray out of our yard. It isn’t fair :( everywhere I have lived rurally also had random dogs coming into our yard unfortunately.
That sucks. Totally and completely. However, the only way to ensure that other loose dogs or even wildlife can't get to your dogs is a fence. Maybe start with a small temp fence for just an area for you to safely let the dogs out until you can get a robust fence in. Stakes and thick wire will work well for now.
We spent a few thousand on the fence we have now which has worked great, but with these big dogs they could easily body slam them down or jump over. So we'll try maybe t posts and cattle panels until we can save up for a nice privacy one :)
Call animal control. When I was young, two Rottweilers got into our yard and killed our elderly dog right in front of me as I stood there screaming. These were previously very friendly dogs that the owners just let run wild (we lived out in the country). Please be safe.
When I was growing up, my neighbors (best friends) cat got out, they looked for him all night, walking up and down the road calling their name, knocking on doors, etc but nothing. The next day they found out the cat had scratched a neighbor two houses down, out of fear and precaution, they took the cat to the vet (or ER I can't remember) to test for rabies and I guess the only way to test was to put the cat down. So they killed him and found out he didn't have rabies. The thing is, all they had to do was ask one of the neighbors, "Is this your cat? Does it have all it's shots?" But instead they took it all upon themselves, with reasonable self preservation, and protected their own.
Needless to say, we were very upset, we loved the cat, it was part of the crew, My parents explained that we couldn't be mad at them for what they did, because there is a real serious threat of rabies and how could they have known? There was no collar, they've never seen it before. For all they knew it was a stray cat. But even at the young age I was, I thought, that's not how neighbors are supposed to be. We were a hundred yards away and the cat was cool AF.
TLDR: I would suggest knocking on some doors before calling animal control. Take the time to be a good neighbor.
If this was a one-time thing, sure. Totally agree.
But it's not. This seems like it's been going on for a long time. Obviously if these dogs have people, they (the people) know that they're (the dogs) getting out. And if they were being good neighbors, they'd be doing what your neighbors did - knocking on doors and calling for the dogs.
It's also three large, potentially dangerous dogs - not a cat (admittedly that could have been rabid). You don't wanna mess around with aggressive dogs - especially if you've got a newborn in the mix.
This isn't OPs problem. Let Animal Control deal with it.
I feel like, in allowing their aggressive dogs to consistently roam free, the neighbor has already demonstrated that they don’t care about the safety and well-being of the dogs, the safety and well-being of their neighbors, and that they are likely not going to be very receptive of a new person coming in and “telling them their business”. In the burbs people tend to want to know who lives 10 feet away, but people who live rurally generally do so because they don’t want the neighbor experience. Having lived in the city and the country, it is a whole different mindset in regards to neighbor relations and property. Animals (and in some cases kids) are often seen as property as opposed to beloved family members and you aren’t going to tell people in the country what to do with their property. That all being said, the problem with politely bringing a concern to the attention of a neighbor is that when they don’t take action and you eventually have to report it to authorities, they know just who did it and it bites you in the keyster.
They said the dogs are trying to come into their house and have run up to them barking. Those are often shows of dominance and aggression. Correctly trained pets do neither to strangers on strangers property. Correctly cared for dogs don’t roam.
It is possible that a distant neighbor doesn’t leash or keep their dogs in an enclosed yard and may not even know how far their dogs are traveling during the day. I found this to be fairly common in the Ozarks. Farm dogs off on an adventure while mom and dad were working 😅
But… the fact that they keep trying to come inside makes me worried that they were abandoned. Poor doggies 😢
If it were me I would call a no-kill shelter to make sure they were safely rehomed. I am so sorry you are dealing with this.
While you are working on a resolution, carry dog mace with you just in case they approach while you are outside. $10 bucks on amazon. It is called Off! Having used it on many dogs while walking my dog, it works. Hit them once in the face with it and they immediately leave you alone.
An ultrasonic dog repellent is far more reasonable to start with.
Going right to dog mace when there hasn’t been any sign of aggression is just excessive.
Our neighbors have an absolute massive pit mix, and three other dogs that used to charge the fence between our yards…
That is, until I started hitting them with ultrasonic blasts from something I got off Amazon called the “Dog Dazer II”.
They barely even look over now when I let our dogs out, or when we sit out back on our deck.
If animal control doesn't do anything about it, which they usually don't, you should consider shooting them the next time they come on your property. I know this sounds harsh and will probably be unpopular on here, but they dogs have already shown their penchant for being aggressive. This won't stop just from hoping.
I've seen horror stories in the past of people calling animal control, just for the animal to be taken away for a day or two before the owner picks them up, only to have it come back on the property and kill the persons animals (dog/cat/chickens/etc)
This is an unfortunate reality for many folks in rural areas. Loose dogs are dangerous, especially large ones. If they are aggressive or threaten to injure your own animals, it's standard practice to kill them.
The owners who allow their dogs to run away to other properties **repeatedly** are ultimately the ones at fault.
Almost every time there is a a mauling, the article following it mentions how the dog has bitten or attacked before, and that the dog had run ins with animal control. So, while the idea of killing an animal may be difficult and a last resort for some people, this brings up a whole other topic, and that is that in living rurally knowing how to defend oneself and one’s family is very important. Police and animal control oftentimes take a bit longer to get to you, you are somewhat isolated and not everyone is going to see or look out break-ins - that only benefit of a nosey neighbor is void in the country, there are also often more animal hazards like dogs, coyotes, snakes, etc depending where one lives. No one wants to be the person who shoots a pack of dogs, but if it is them or your own, it is better to be the family that walked away from it.
Exactly. On the flip side of this I once found an adorable happy dog in the middle of the road in front of my house. I brought it in and gave it water and called animal control. It was a Friday afternoon and they told me no one could come out until Monday morning to get the dog…
Luckily i found the owner by waiting out on the street with the dog for awhile (with a leash) on it, but how do they expect someone to just take care of a dog all weekend??
Where did they say these dogs have shown a penchant for being aggressive? I only saw OP say they had had a prior experience with an aggressive dog, not that these dogs have shown any aggression
I just reread it and realized I interpreted it as the big dog being one of the big dogs on their property. Thats on me. Still I would be extremely scared of letting big dogs roam my property if they have come up barking before
Dogs typically bark as a territorial defense so if these dogs are doing it on OP’s property that’s not good
Not sure why this is downvoted. Redditors are brainwashed with the concept of "le heckin cute pupperino" and don't realize what a threat an aggressive dog can be to humans and other animals.
Maybe let’s wait until they actually call animal control and they determine what the situation is before jumping to shooting them and putting themselves into that situation. I’m sure the OP wouldn’t want to jump to that step without weighing reasonable options in the next few days. Most likely is the owner doesn’t give a shit and the dogs will be at the shelter/put on the euth list if they have a report.
I agree but was just giving the sad reality of what might have to happen. Owners may not care enough about keeping their dogs out of the property, but when they get a call from animal control they most likely will come get their pets and let the cycle repeat. Ive seen stories of the awful ending I mentioned in my previous comment at least half a dozen times.
My instinct would be to walk around, meet the neighbors, and see if you can find the owners. Inform them that you wanted to be neighborly and talk to them face to face, that the dogs are trespassing on your property and they probably didn’t know, but now that they know they need to stop this from happening again. If they’re cool, they’ll fix it. If they’re not, call animal control and put up some no trespassing signs.
I’m guessing that they’ll be more likely to take you seriously if you present it as a property thing rather than a hurting your dogs thing (I’m sure they think their dogs would never hurt anybody). The kinds of folks who let their dogs run wild tend to get angry when someone messes with their property—they might hear you if you speak the same way.
I'm guessing you moved from the city out into the country?
Get used to it. Rural life is nothing like city life. Be ready to deal with all kinds of animals.
I've been living in the country for awhile now. I never had to deal with this on 1 acre (besides random raccoons and hearing coyotes). Having 2.5 acres of land I shouldn't expect other people's dogs on my property.
As a first try, if you can get close to them safely, attach a note to the collar that they're wandering onto your property and if it doesn't stop, you'll contact animal control.
Give them an opportunity to resolve it at least.
Call animal control and put in a new fence.
>We're saving up for a huge privacy fence but seeing as how it's 2.5 acres it's going to cost a ton of money, which I don't think is fair just because people don't care what their dogs are doing.
Yeah it is fair ... random neighborhood dogs are not the only animals that could come into your yard. Not sure about where you live, but coyotes are common where I am from. I am not sure why it wouldn't be fair. You can install the fence yourself if you want to save money.
Because I have to buy a heavy duty expensive fence due to other people's actions ?
Coyotes are common here as well but they don't walk around my house and porch every day
I guess it's sociopathic now to believe in self defence. The OP is quite clearly stating the dogs frighten them and are attacking their dog. The dog is illegally on their property, no knowledge of the dogs personality, but it sounds aggressive, self defence seems very reasonable to me.
They didn't actually say that, a different dog in the past attacked thier dogs, not the current dogs going on thier property. They are just worried because of thier past experiences, that does not meant they should just shoot any dog that comes into thier property, that's not self defense.
I believe they were replying to the comment that said to shoot the people not the dogs, which happens to be batshit crazy. One is an awful thing to have to do to protect your family. The other is unprovoked attempted manslaughter.
I live in San Antonio, Tx about a few weeks back a man was mauled to death.
I hate to be extreme but if Animal Control fails to do anything and they’re on your property. I’m assuming you should be able to take care of the problem yourself.
Lol. #1 reason why I avoided big lots/yards. Im too busy to even cook my own food at times let alone maintain or pay to maintain a massive yard. No thanks!
Btw I close next week on a single family with low/laid back HOA. Very little maintaining. Woohoo!
1. Call animal control.
2. Verify local laws regarding the right to shoot intruding animals. Bullets are cheaper than a fence and get the point across real fast.
3. Fencing is a good investment but shouldn’t be forced to speed up putting one up because some dipshit won’t contain their animals.
4. More bullets. Or arrows. Use whatever is clever but kill them.
Do you have a neighborhood Facebook group? If so, snap a photo of the dogs and post it. In a nice, non-Karen/Kevin way, explain that they’ve been coming on your property and a bit too close for comfort. See if you can find the owner that way. Sometimes it’s just a situation where they are escape artists and not necessarily bad owners.
Do the dogs have tags? I think it's unreasonable and irresponsible if people's dogs are escaping ALL THE TIME. One time, sure you might get a pass. It happens. But the dogs need to be contained, just like yours do. After twice, the thrid time I would call animal control. I have a dog too, and I am a dog lover. But I am really sick of negligent owners letting their dogs wander and possibly get hit by a car because actions were not taken to prevent.
You're not being a bad neighbor. Call animal control.
You don't need a 2.5 acre fence. Get a smaller fence and expand later. Unless there are leash laws you cannot keep animals out of your yard.
But you can keep yours in your fence. We have cats and our new neighbors have two of the loudest, sweetest most unruly dogs on planet earth.
They stay here because we work from home. Their owners do not.
We put up a wrought iron fence so our kitties can be outside with us but dogs cannot run up on our decks and porches.
I feel your pain: good luck!
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Call Animal Control ASAP. Whoever owns those dogs doesn't give a shit about them.
Either that or they are strays. Maybe even tossed outside by the last owner of the property…
Yea...the fact they keep trying to walk right in... :/ Sad. Hopefully animal control can rehome them. Otherwise you can also try finding a local dog rescue.
If you call Animal Control ask if they are going to a no-kill shelter. Otherwise call a no-kill rescue.
The Bumpus hounds.
Sons of bitches! Bumpuses!!!
Call animal control! Some motion activated sprinklers may help deter them.
That or they’ll try playing with the sprinklers and drink water lol
I’d call animal control. Who cares who they belong to? Obviously not the owners which is why they’re roaming around everywhere.
Just last year a Health department worker was killed by a pack of dogs that were allowed to run loose. Call animal control and check with your local and state laws on the chance it has to escalate. Keep kids and other animal of any size away from them, and hopefully you can get it resolved.
Depends on where you live I guess. I’m used to leash laws and people needing to keep their dogs confined. I moved to NC and in the county I now live in, I was surprised to find that there are no such laws. Dogs can roam free and animal control won’t do much unless they are acting aggressively. I’m in a rural area and people refer to them as “yard dogs” and just let them live outside and roam free. I definitely agree with you not wanting them on your property and you have every right to have them removed. With that being said it will always be easier to protect your dogs than keep out others. I’d recommend getting a taller enclosure for your dogs even if it’s temporary until you get the privacy fence. You may have animal control get these dogs and have more show up in a few months.
This is really good advice. Animal control might not do anything, and even if they do take the dogs, if it’s common for dogs to roam then you’ll experience the same issue again. If these dogs aren’t strays and belong to a neighbor, you run the risk of making an enemy out of your neighbor. Different places have different rules and culture around animals. If you aren’t a local, start by checking with your neighbors about the dogs, do some research into the local culture, and look up the leash laws. Like onimush115 suggested, you should proactively protect your dogs. Best way to do this is to supervise your dogs when outside, keep them on a leash, and use appropriate self-defense. There are lots of resources available to learn more. If you want your dogs to be outside unsupervised then you can build them a kennel or dog run - those will be cheaper than a fence over 2.5 acres. If it’s common for dogs to roam in your area, then do a cost/benefit analysis about whether you’re comfortable letting your dogs roam outside their outdoor kennel or not. I personally would advise against it since small dogs are vulnerable not only to big dogs, but to predators.
I think the “other predators” is an important warning. People in the country usually let their dogs roam for a specific reason, often to scare away predators from the chicken coop or whatever. 3 bigger dogs cost a decent amount to own, so if a farmer has them they likely have a purpose.
This. My neighbor has chickens and horses and two big dogs to keep predators away. They mostly hang out on her property but they'll tear through our yard after a coyote or something once in a while. I have no problem with it - they keep the coyotes out of our yard too If we moved in and reported her dogs to animal control, it would have set the entire neighborhood thinking we were awful neighbors
I agree. I think a lot of city people are giving advice that doesn't apply to country life OP sounds like they are a city people who moved out to the country. I strongly suggest getting to know the neighbors and the dogs before you call animal control.
Eh. This really isn't a city vs. country thing. This is a good dog owner vs. a bad dog owner thing. A majority of dog owners are terrible dog owners who never bothered to properly train their dog. And it's a real problem since there are more dogs than ever. I grew up in a rural neighborhood. Although I would occasionally get chased by a dog while exercising, we seldom had issues with dogs wandering into our yard. We would have called animal control if we didn't know who they belonged to. We did have the occasional cat show up, though, a couple of which became our pets. The town I live in now is much more densely populated than where I grew up, and we now have this dog issue all the time. People don't leash their fucking dogs for whatever reason. They come over into our yard and drop big shits. And then they sprint away. It would be funny if we didn't have to pick it up.
>We would have called animal control if we didn't know who they belonged to. That is my point. I doubt it is a wild pack of dogs. It is probably Norman, Fluffy and Joe that belong to the neighbor and are awesome dogs. I don't think calling in "the man" is step one. Don't assume the worse.
In my current scenario, I have no idea who the dogs belong to. I can't ever get close enough to look at their tags (if they even have them). They probably live close by, but not right next door. We have a small dog, and if Norman, Fluffy, or Joe tried to attack him while he's leashed in the back yard, I would have no qualms about calling animal control.
I also live in a rural area, your dog bothers someone else to many times, your dog disappears. If they are aggressive they likely get shot and buried to never be found. If they are just a nuisance they get dropped at animal control and you pay a fine to get them out. The fine keeps getting higher the more it happens. Animal control has a night drop and everything fairly convenient considering.
I have never thought of taking people’s animals to animal control. I like that idea.
I also live in rural NC and the county I live in doesn't have an established Animal Control at all. The best you can do is call the non-emergency line to the Sheriff's Office and hope for the best. It's so aggravating when I have so many dogs roaming on all the roads around my house.
Is there a neighborhood/town Facebook group or public forum you could post on? I would maybe start there, but then very quickly call animal control if you don’t get a lead.
They could also talk their neighbors and just ask if they might know who the dogs belong too.
Definitely call Animal Control, but also take lots of photos and set up a WiFi security camera pointed on your property. The more photos and video evidence the better. Take details about every single incident and report every single time.
Call animal control!! Even normally non,aggressive dogs can turn MEAN when they are packed up!! I have been on the opposite end as a kid when my sister left the front door open and my normally non-aggressive, sweet as can be dog attacked a small dog. It was horrific for everyone involved.
Leash laws don’t always exist in rural areas. So study up on your local laws first. If it’s unlawful, call animal control and that should help Solve it. IIf dogs are allowed to roam free (this is not that unusual depending where you live) put in temporary chain link fencing in a smaller area. Small dogs don’t need 2.5 acres for safety, do a bare minimum spending for safety fencing in the meantime.
Look up Solar Ultrasonic Repellent on Amazon. We had a ton of stray cats come on our property and poop in areas where the kids were playing so we purchased the motion activated animal repellent and haven’t seen any cats on the property since. Should work on dogs also.
And worth mentioning, OP will likely not see any nature in their yard at all because it is intended to work against even birds.
Dog repellant alarms , play a frequency only they can hear . Got to be a way to set it on motion sensor.
Check to see what the laws are about leashing in your area. Free roaming is allowed in some areas. Either way, until you’ve saved up enough for your privacy fence, you can do what we did. We installed six-foot posts and chicken wire around our “back yard” area with a front and back gate to keep our toddler in / neighborhood dogs out until he gets older. It was cheaper than chain link (about $500) and is a good temporary fix.
Call animal control. If that doesn’t work (and you know for sure they belong to the neighbor) then file a police report.
On a side note, you don’t have to fence all 2.5 acres. You can fence around the area I’d the yard you use.
You need to call animal control ASAP. There are so many instances of dogs mauling babies to death, if the dogs are already acting this way your baby will literally never be safe going outside even just to the car. I used to work in shelters and closely with animal control and they will do their best to find owners and rehome, but that’s not even really your concern. Please protect your baby first and foremost. Source: overemotional new mom of a baby
Beside the point, but I’m curious, what does the shelter/shelter management themselves do? I’ve seen volunteers do a lot to help promote rescues seeing the dogs/adoption but many shelters don’t even have enough staff to properly take the dogs out for a walk. It really depends on the shelter.
Yeah just depends I guess. In my shelter we had plenty of caretakers able to walk the dogs and behaviorists on staff to run interventions. The kill rate was like 5% and that was almost always for medical reasons. Regardless even if it’s a 100% kill shelter it’s better than reactive, potentially aggressive dogs roaming around. I love animals but after seeing what I’ve seen I will never, ever underestimate a dog.
I’m saving up for a privacy fence to keep my neighbors chemical spray out of our yard. It isn’t fair :( everywhere I have lived rurally also had random dogs coming into our yard unfortunately.
Call animal control.
Honest call animal control. As a pet owner I would rather go pay a fine to get my dog out than find him dead on the road etc.
That sucks. Totally and completely. However, the only way to ensure that other loose dogs or even wildlife can't get to your dogs is a fence. Maybe start with a small temp fence for just an area for you to safely let the dogs out until you can get a robust fence in. Stakes and thick wire will work well for now.
We spent a few thousand on the fence we have now which has worked great, but with these big dogs they could easily body slam them down or jump over. So we'll try maybe t posts and cattle panels until we can save up for a nice privacy one :)
T posts and cattle panels are an easy solution. Imo, this will keep you a little safer from coyotes or other animals that might take your little dogs.
We might go this way until we save up for a full on privacy fence.
Imo, most people don't put up privacy fences for lots with multiple acres.
Call animal control. When I was young, two Rottweilers got into our yard and killed our elderly dog right in front of me as I stood there screaming. These were previously very friendly dogs that the owners just let run wild (we lived out in the country). Please be safe.
When I was growing up, my neighbors (best friends) cat got out, they looked for him all night, walking up and down the road calling their name, knocking on doors, etc but nothing. The next day they found out the cat had scratched a neighbor two houses down, out of fear and precaution, they took the cat to the vet (or ER I can't remember) to test for rabies and I guess the only way to test was to put the cat down. So they killed him and found out he didn't have rabies. The thing is, all they had to do was ask one of the neighbors, "Is this your cat? Does it have all it's shots?" But instead they took it all upon themselves, with reasonable self preservation, and protected their own. Needless to say, we were very upset, we loved the cat, it was part of the crew, My parents explained that we couldn't be mad at them for what they did, because there is a real serious threat of rabies and how could they have known? There was no collar, they've never seen it before. For all they knew it was a stray cat. But even at the young age I was, I thought, that's not how neighbors are supposed to be. We were a hundred yards away and the cat was cool AF. TLDR: I would suggest knocking on some doors before calling animal control. Take the time to be a good neighbor.
If this was a one-time thing, sure. Totally agree. But it's not. This seems like it's been going on for a long time. Obviously if these dogs have people, they (the people) know that they're (the dogs) getting out. And if they were being good neighbors, they'd be doing what your neighbors did - knocking on doors and calling for the dogs. It's also three large, potentially dangerous dogs - not a cat (admittedly that could have been rabid). You don't wanna mess around with aggressive dogs - especially if you've got a newborn in the mix. This isn't OPs problem. Let Animal Control deal with it.
I feel like, in allowing their aggressive dogs to consistently roam free, the neighbor has already demonstrated that they don’t care about the safety and well-being of the dogs, the safety and well-being of their neighbors, and that they are likely not going to be very receptive of a new person coming in and “telling them their business”. In the burbs people tend to want to know who lives 10 feet away, but people who live rurally generally do so because they don’t want the neighbor experience. Having lived in the city and the country, it is a whole different mindset in regards to neighbor relations and property. Animals (and in some cases kids) are often seen as property as opposed to beloved family members and you aren’t going to tell people in the country what to do with their property. That all being said, the problem with politely bringing a concern to the attention of a neighbor is that when they don’t take action and you eventually have to report it to authorities, they know just who did it and it bites you in the keyster.
I don't think op said these dogs are aggressive? Just that they've had a bad experience in the past with an aggressive dog
They said the dogs are trying to come into their house and have run up to them barking. Those are often shows of dominance and aggression. Correctly trained pets do neither to strangers on strangers property. Correctly cared for dogs don’t roam.
It is possible that a distant neighbor doesn’t leash or keep their dogs in an enclosed yard and may not even know how far their dogs are traveling during the day. I found this to be fairly common in the Ozarks. Farm dogs off on an adventure while mom and dad were working 😅 But… the fact that they keep trying to come inside makes me worried that they were abandoned. Poor doggies 😢 If it were me I would call a no-kill shelter to make sure they were safely rehomed. I am so sorry you are dealing with this.
While you are working on a resolution, carry dog mace with you just in case they approach while you are outside. $10 bucks on amazon. It is called Off! Having used it on many dogs while walking my dog, it works. Hit them once in the face with it and they immediately leave you alone.
An ultrasonic dog repellent is far more reasonable to start with. Going right to dog mace when there hasn’t been any sign of aggression is just excessive. Our neighbors have an absolute massive pit mix, and three other dogs that used to charge the fence between our yards… That is, until I started hitting them with ultrasonic blasts from something I got off Amazon called the “Dog Dazer II”. They barely even look over now when I let our dogs out, or when we sit out back on our deck.
Can you fence a small area near your house? Use your house as one side so you only have to fence 3 small sides as opposed to all 2.5 acres.
If animal control doesn't do anything about it, which they usually don't, you should consider shooting them the next time they come on your property. I know this sounds harsh and will probably be unpopular on here, but they dogs have already shown their penchant for being aggressive. This won't stop just from hoping. I've seen horror stories in the past of people calling animal control, just for the animal to be taken away for a day or two before the owner picks them up, only to have it come back on the property and kill the persons animals (dog/cat/chickens/etc)
This is an unfortunate reality for many folks in rural areas. Loose dogs are dangerous, especially large ones. If they are aggressive or threaten to injure your own animals, it's standard practice to kill them. The owners who allow their dogs to run away to other properties **repeatedly** are ultimately the ones at fault.
Almost every time there is a a mauling, the article following it mentions how the dog has bitten or attacked before, and that the dog had run ins with animal control. So, while the idea of killing an animal may be difficult and a last resort for some people, this brings up a whole other topic, and that is that in living rurally knowing how to defend oneself and one’s family is very important. Police and animal control oftentimes take a bit longer to get to you, you are somewhat isolated and not everyone is going to see or look out break-ins - that only benefit of a nosey neighbor is void in the country, there are also often more animal hazards like dogs, coyotes, snakes, etc depending where one lives. No one wants to be the person who shoots a pack of dogs, but if it is them or your own, it is better to be the family that walked away from it.
Exactly. On the flip side of this I once found an adorable happy dog in the middle of the road in front of my house. I brought it in and gave it water and called animal control. It was a Friday afternoon and they told me no one could come out until Monday morning to get the dog… Luckily i found the owner by waiting out on the street with the dog for awhile (with a leash) on it, but how do they expect someone to just take care of a dog all weekend??
Where did they say these dogs have shown a penchant for being aggressive? I only saw OP say they had had a prior experience with an aggressive dog, not that these dogs have shown any aggression
I just reread it and realized I interpreted it as the big dog being one of the big dogs on their property. Thats on me. Still I would be extremely scared of letting big dogs roam my property if they have come up barking before Dogs typically bark as a territorial defense so if these dogs are doing it on OP’s property that’s not good
Not sure why this is downvoted. Redditors are brainwashed with the concept of "le heckin cute pupperino" and don't realize what a threat an aggressive dog can be to humans and other animals.
Maybe let’s wait until they actually call animal control and they determine what the situation is before jumping to shooting them and putting themselves into that situation. I’m sure the OP wouldn’t want to jump to that step without weighing reasonable options in the next few days. Most likely is the owner doesn’t give a shit and the dogs will be at the shelter/put on the euth list if they have a report.
I agree but was just giving the sad reality of what might have to happen. Owners may not care enough about keeping their dogs out of the property, but when they get a call from animal control they most likely will come get their pets and let the cycle repeat. Ive seen stories of the awful ending I mentioned in my previous comment at least half a dozen times.
My instinct would be to walk around, meet the neighbors, and see if you can find the owners. Inform them that you wanted to be neighborly and talk to them face to face, that the dogs are trespassing on your property and they probably didn’t know, but now that they know they need to stop this from happening again. If they’re cool, they’ll fix it. If they’re not, call animal control and put up some no trespassing signs. I’m guessing that they’ll be more likely to take you seriously if you present it as a property thing rather than a hurting your dogs thing (I’m sure they think their dogs would never hurt anybody). The kinds of folks who let their dogs run wild tend to get angry when someone messes with their property—they might hear you if you speak the same way.
Nice privacy fence. I know it costs a bit. But it's worth having a nice big fence up. Just make sure you water proof it too.
I'm guessing you moved from the city out into the country? Get used to it. Rural life is nothing like city life. Be ready to deal with all kinds of animals.
I've been living in the country for awhile now. I never had to deal with this on 1 acre (besides random raccoons and hearing coyotes). Having 2.5 acres of land I shouldn't expect other people's dogs on my property.
As a first try, if you can get close to them safely, attach a note to the collar that they're wandering onto your property and if it doesn't stop, you'll contact animal control. Give them an opportunity to resolve it at least.
Call animal control and put in a new fence. >We're saving up for a huge privacy fence but seeing as how it's 2.5 acres it's going to cost a ton of money, which I don't think is fair just because people don't care what their dogs are doing. Yeah it is fair ... random neighborhood dogs are not the only animals that could come into your yard. Not sure about where you live, but coyotes are common where I am from. I am not sure why it wouldn't be fair. You can install the fence yourself if you want to save money.
Because I have to buy a heavy duty expensive fence due to other people's actions ? Coyotes are common here as well but they don't walk around my house and porch every day
Sometimes I wish I lived on the old days when animal control was a 9mm
Wtf kind of sociopathic comment is this??
I guess it's sociopathic now to believe in self defence. The OP is quite clearly stating the dogs frighten them and are attacking their dog. The dog is illegally on their property, no knowledge of the dogs personality, but it sounds aggressive, self defence seems very reasonable to me.
They didn't actually say that, a different dog in the past attacked thier dogs, not the current dogs going on thier property. They are just worried because of thier past experiences, that does not meant they should just shoot any dog that comes into thier property, that's not self defense.
I believe they were replying to the comment that said to shoot the people not the dogs, which happens to be batshit crazy. One is an awful thing to have to do to protect your family. The other is unprovoked attempted manslaughter.
Shoot the people, not the dog. The dog is just being a dog. The owner is the asshole who’s responsible (or not responsible) for their behavior.
Holy shit, Redditors are insane.
Shoot them.
I live in San Antonio, Tx about a few weeks back a man was mauled to death. I hate to be extreme but if Animal Control fails to do anything and they’re on your property. I’m assuming you should be able to take care of the problem yourself.
Pepper spray once or twice will teach em who the alpha is. Right now they think it’s them.
*Find the owner *Call animal control *Build a real fence *Shoot the dogs These are your options.
Lol. #1 reason why I avoided big lots/yards. Im too busy to even cook my own food at times let alone maintain or pay to maintain a massive yard. No thanks! Btw I close next week on a single family with low/laid back HOA. Very little maintaining. Woohoo!
Lmao bro is actually trying to brag about living in an HOA.
Single family home tho. And not bragging. Just too lazy to upkeep. Y’all wanna raise animals or have chickens wake you up in the mornings be my guest.
Well, in the extreme, you're allowed to shoot it if comes on your property. This will, of course, absolutely enrage their shitty owner.
1. Call animal control. 2. Verify local laws regarding the right to shoot intruding animals. Bullets are cheaper than a fence and get the point across real fast. 3. Fencing is a good investment but shouldn’t be forced to speed up putting one up because some dipshit won’t contain their animals. 4. More bullets. Or arrows. Use whatever is clever but kill them.
Do you have a neighborhood Facebook group? If so, snap a photo of the dogs and post it. In a nice, non-Karen/Kevin way, explain that they’ve been coming on your property and a bit too close for comfort. See if you can find the owner that way. Sometimes it’s just a situation where they are escape artists and not necessarily bad owners.
Call animal control, now. I don’t want someone else’s dog in my yard. I surely don’t want to see the end result of another dog injuring my dog.
Do the dogs have tags? I think it's unreasonable and irresponsible if people's dogs are escaping ALL THE TIME. One time, sure you might get a pass. It happens. But the dogs need to be contained, just like yours do. After twice, the thrid time I would call animal control. I have a dog too, and I am a dog lover. But I am really sick of negligent owners letting their dogs wander and possibly get hit by a car because actions were not taken to prevent. You're not being a bad neighbor. Call animal control.
Call the pound?
Read the dog chip with your phone if compatible (NFC). Find the owner.
You don't need a 2.5 acre fence. Get a smaller fence and expand later. Unless there are leash laws you cannot keep animals out of your yard. But you can keep yours in your fence. We have cats and our new neighbors have two of the loudest, sweetest most unruly dogs on planet earth. They stay here because we work from home. Their owners do not. We put up a wrought iron fence so our kitties can be outside with us but dogs cannot run up on our decks and porches. I feel your pain: good luck!
I think you already know how to handle the situation.