When I go on a run, there is only one way out of my neighborhood and I have to run by a certain house that has a very unfriendly dog and a faulty electric fence. They have two dogs, but the little one is like 15lbs of fury, so I just ignore him. The larger dog is a brown lab mix, about 80lbs, and very aggressive. The first time the bigger dog got out and chased me down, I went to the neighbor and nicely told him that his dog got out and was aggressive and the owner promised to fix his fence.
Nope, they haven't gotten around to fixing that. (I shouldn't be shocked, these people still have pumpkins on their porch.)
Other neighbors have had problems with the same dog, in fact my next door neighbor had to kick the dog off of him because it came after him when he was running by the house. Our HOA was notified of the issue, but whatever they did about it didn't work either because the dogs are still not secure behind a fence.
The bigger dog has chased me when I've been running with just Peanut and it has chased me when I'm running with the stroller. It has nipped Peanut in the butt twice now and I've had to squirt a whole bottle of water in its face to get it to back off. On Sunday, I was out for my first outdoor run in 2 weeks and that damn dog popped out of its fence and chased me down snarling and snapping. It nipped Peanut on her rear leg and Peanut was terrified and tried to hide behind me and I had to kick the dog away from her. The rest of my run was pretty much ruined by the bad mood I was in from that incident.
That's when I decided that I've had enough.
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| I love the option of "other" for animal type. |
Since it happened on Sunday, I had to wait for Monday to call Animal Control and this morning an officer (hilariously named Leroy) came out to get a statement from me. The owners are going to get a written warning from Animal Control and Leroy seemed very interested in catching the dogs if they got off their property and said he would be patrolling the neighborhood.
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| So...are we safe to go for a run now? I LIKE RUNNING. |
At first I felt like a huge bitch to be calling Animal Control on one of my neighbors, especially since the guy seemed nice when I talked to him about his dog. Then I started thinking about how Peanut is scared to run by that house, even if the dogs aren't outside, and how Faith is going to start being really afraid of dogs if she keeps seeing this one chase us down. Plus, just because someone lives close to me doesn't give them a blank check on being an asshole dog owner. You're supposed to keep your dog on your property or on a leash and that's really not asking too much, especially if you own an aggressive dog.
My husband says that now those neighbors are going to file complaints against us any chance they get, so our lawn better always be freshly mowed. Luckily for me, the lawn isn't my problem. I'll clean up baby poop explosions, but I'm not dealing with all the bugs and snakes in the yard. Looks like my husband just got some motivation for not procrastinating on mowing the lawn this summer. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to handle any backlash from the neighbors.
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| Just let me take care of them, baby mafia style. |
Have you ever had to call the police or Animal Control on one of your neighbors? How did it turn out?
Being a responsible dog owner is too difficult a concept for some people. I think you definitely did the right thing. Also, Leroy. That's just awesome.
ReplyDeleteWait, you are nice?
ReplyDeleteI used to call the cops and the leasing office about our neighbors in at our apartment all the time. I felt really bad about it at first, but then I realized I didn't like them anyways. I also called animal control on a friend who was neglecting his animals to the point of being dangerous to their well-being. We aren't still friends, but I don't regret it because I think he needed the wake up call and talking to him didn't work at all.
I pretend to be nice sometimes.
DeleteThe dog is an accident waiting to happen. You, Peanut, your BABY, or another person or pet will be harmed. This HAD to be done. The man, neighbor or not, is an @$$.
ReplyDeleteHis dogs should be taken away from him.
I was terrorized regularly by a nasty "guard dog" German Shepherd when I was a child. My older sister was a Census Worker one year when a fellow census worker was KILLED by dogs while trying to do his job. I have ZERO tolerance for vicious animals, and even less than that for the irresponsible owners.
OMG, killed? That is insane. Some many people don't realize how dangerous unsupervised untrained dogs can be.
DeleteI just posted my dog rant post last week as well! Must be the time of year. 3 of the 5 people in our neighborhood have faulty electric fences...or rather, cannot keep batteries charged. We don't really play nice with our neighbors in these types of situations either.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely called animal control. There are dogs one neighborhood over from us that will chase and terrify Bungee or even just me when we're running. I've talked to the owners twice. After that, I called.
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing! You gave them a warning and then tried to have the HOA address the issue (which, btw, I hate that we pay these people to do nothing... or maybe that's just my HOA). It's definitely not worth your dog or you (or especially your sweet little one) getting scared or hurt over their neglect.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely not just your HOA. All I ever get is "you gotta call the city" no matter what the issue is. Seriously, what are my dues for?
DeleteCarry pepper spray and spray the dog! That should stop the attack. And not your fault because the dog chased you! but, yes, I sure as hell would have called the animal control and maybe even the police.
ReplyDeleteUm, I've been to your house, and there are TWO ways out of your neighborhood. Don't lie to your faithful readers.
ReplyDeleteYou could just go the other way, with the big hill, if you want to avoid the dog.
The only way to run out the other entrance involves running on a windy road with a high speed limit and a ditch for a shoulder. I don't like flirting with death.
DeleteGood for you! Leash laws are in place for a reason - for the safety of people and other animals, as well as for the dog itself. These a-holes may not care that their dog is chasing and terrifying others, but they'd probably care if their dog got hit by a car (at least I hope they'd are about that - otherwise they're heartless a-holes). Hopefully they'll take care of things now and you won't have to worry about their dog.
ReplyDeleteI've never had to call Animal Control but I gave the owner of our neighbors Boston Terrier and Chihuahua an ear full. I had both of them come at me AND they both attacked another neighbor while running. Blood was drawn and I think that was enough to get their attention. Now they just bark at me like crazy from that living room window. I f'ing hate those dogs.
ReplyDeleteOK, this gets my goat!
ReplyDeleteThere is a guy whose kids go to my kids' school who is so aggressive driving that he's going to hurt somebody someday. I first encountered him last November taking them to school, when I realized someone was tail-gating me to a truly scary point. I hate tail-gaters anyway (my brother calls them "ass captains"), and when I realized he was following me all the way to school I got frightened but also angry.
But he saved his true boorishness for the parking lot. As we were waiting the drop-off line, he peeled out around me, squealed to a stop and I saw him through the back windshield yelling at his poor kids to get out of the car (God knows what those kids will be like when they turn into teenagers). I got his license number at that point, but I was also so pissed off that I drove into the lot and parked in front of him and got out of my car and proceeded to get into a yelling match with him. I NEVER do this. I don't even like sending food back at restaurants. It was so weird. It was like I was watching myself from outside my body. Will and Ruth, still in the back in their booster seats, looked stunned. I told him he was going to kill someone's kid (his own or someone else's) and that I was calling the police on him. He called me lots of names, dropped several f-bombs and told me I was driving too slow, "your car will go fast than that", and said to go ahead and call the cops. Then he left.
I walked W&R to school and reported him to admin, who knew about him (why they don't call the cops on him is beyond me), and to this day I still get stopped by other parents in the lot who have seen him behave like this and had seen me trying to tell him off. I did call the police, too, but he's still driving, so I may have to do it again. Total asshole. Some people should not be allowed to spawn or drive and he's one of them.
You did the right thing, whether they are annoyed or not. They can't have aggressive dogs in a family neighborhood and not have them properly detained.
ReplyDeleteSleeping baby!!
Haha, I love the "baby mafia style!" I can just picture poopy diapers and throw-up their weapons of choice! I completely agree you should have called Animal Control. All too often, people feel intimidated or like a "bitch" but it's not doing the dog any favors. If the dog does bite someone, it will get put down. So you are actually HELPING the dogs!
ReplyDeleteI recently called animal control on a little pomeranian type dog. He was out barking from 7am until noon, chased me on my run. I wasn't afraid of it, just irritated and I felt sad for the dog.
ReplyDeleteTurns out, he is our new next door neighbor's dog. They're not friendly and neither am I, so we've never talked and they don't know that I called.
I was amazed to see animal control actually come out and take the dog away. They left a note on the neighbor's door. My tax dollars do work.
Good for you, BTW.
There isn't any HOA where we live in PA. It's the sticks. Really the sticks. More animals than people and the people tend to treat some of their animals better than they treat people. I've talked with a bunch of neighbors. Mostly ones that are on longer routes that take me farther from home. I've called once or twice over the years but I usually try to deal with the neighbors twice before resorting to that. And sometimes I don't even know who's dog it is. And I recall needing to rely on one of those farther away neighbors for a ride away (stroller in back of truck) from a stray dog that was acting oddly so I'm careful not to burn bridges. But my kiddos and my safety out weigh my desire to be neighorly.
ReplyDeleteA nip is a BITE that you out ran. It's still a bite. Once a dog tried to bite me or the stroller, their owners have to do something...besides tell me to run somewhere else.
I do feel bad sometimes that my dog (who looks way meaner than she is) will give warning barks to people who get too close to our property. We have an invisible fence that works unless there's a rabbit, and she'd never go after someone unless they were truly threatening. I don't want passersby to be scared, but I don't mind that people get the impression to not mess with our property. :)
ReplyDeleteIt sucks to have to be put in that position, but it's better to take this step than something "really" bad happening first and then the dog ends up taking the heat for bad ownership. Hopefully a warning will be enough for them to WAKE UP to what is a very real threat and have it stopped.
ReplyDeleteI'm soooo glad our dog can't escape from our backyard!! She'd probably get out and try to lick people to death if she could. She got out of the front once by accident when I left the door open but another dog got out of their yard and started chasing her, she literally jumped into our arms as she ran back and for some reason she doesn't want to get away anymore :-)
ReplyDeleteI was just starting my run in my old neighborhood one day (so, so many dogs not on leashes there) and I was walking as a warm-up out of the neighborhood and into a park. About 3 houses down, a girl was standing with her dog (a Scottish Terrier) in her lawn with the dog ON A LEASH. I was on the sidewalk walking by, and I remember looking down at him and saying that he was cute to the girl. The dog legit jumped up on me and bit my leg. Blood everywhere. It took 6 weeks to heal.
ReplyDeleteMy first words to this girl, who was all of 14, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Then her mom comes out and says, "you know you aren't supposed to have the dog outside."
Awesome.
I made them show me the dogs shot records and ever since, I will not go near 90% of dogs.
Do not feel bad! You gave them plenty of chances. We tried to be nice with my husband got bit by a neighbor's dog while running, and we told animal control not to call the police. The people ended up packing up and moving! So he had to get rabies shots... we had to pay like $600 for them. So basically, now I'm not afraid to be a bitch about things like that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you should feel bad about this. If you've asked them nicely and given them a couple of chances then they deserve it to betaken to the next level. Maybe they should put up a real fence. Or just not own dogs if they're not responsible.
ReplyDeletei would have done the same thing. when it affects peanut or faith you have to do something about it. they may leave a pile of poop on your doorstep, but it's still worth it!
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing for sure! You tried being nice, he didn't make the changes, so it's time to take action. Some people are just ignorant. I agree with Char(above), they need to put up a real fence. I'm not sure I believe a little shock is going to stop an 80 pound raging dog.
ReplyDeleteI have to alter my runs because of big snarling dogs BEHIND fences! You did the right thing. Hopefully there will be no retaliation. I reported a friend's husband's dead deer hunting pictures to facebook, because really, a bloody deer head in your newsfeed is not fun to see. He retaliated by reporting my blog posts as spam to facebook. Now I can't link my blog to facebook. Good times.
ReplyDeleteDo you seriously not know how to unfriend a hunter on facebook so that you don't have to be subjected to his trophy pics? Really?
DeleteYou absolutely should not feel bad. You could be saving a kid from getting a bite in the face. I phoned the RCMP on the neighbour boy who was a new driver and drove like a maniac out of our neighbourhood whenever his parents weren't home. We live a block from an elementary school. I explained it to the RCMP nicely - that he wasn't a bad kid, just being a teenage boy and needed to be scared straight. The parents are known for "my kid never does anything wrong", so I didn't even waste my breath this time in talking to them first. Felt good! RCMP went and talked to him and he hasn't been doing it since. They even phoned me back to update me. Good old Canadian Police!
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did the right thing! I've had a dog chase after me twice, thankfully not within my neighborhood so it's an area I've avoided since it happened.
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing! I love dogs but there is nothing scarier than being chased by one. I nearly got knocked off my bike by a rabid beagle. True story. I would have done the same thing and besides, anything they try to pin on you, you can always throw back at them that their dog tried to eat you, your babies and your dog. Take
ReplyDeleteYou attempted to resolve the situation civilly and they didn't take that opportunity to change things. Calling Animal Control is warranted, especially if other neighbors have brought it up before too.
ReplyDeletemel gibson got chased by a giant rottweiler once when my mom and i were walking him, and this dog was making the biggest scene, but it turns out he just wanted to hump mel. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we called the police last weekend on our next-door neighbors for setting off firecrackers in our building over the weekend. Which resulted in a LOT of firemen showing up. So worth it.
I'm just going to go ahead and pretend like you don't have a dog named Mel Gibson, and just imagine the scenario you described happening with the actor instead. It makes the humping part especially funny
DeleteGood for you! I've called the police when I lived in an apartment and the guy above us was beating his girlfriend. Twice. After the second time, her dad came and helped move her out.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to call animal control but we have had animal control and the police called on us because my husband threatened to kill our cat. Not even a week after having Phoenix, my husband's sister and son came over and the son did something to our cat and he attacked our daughter which resulted in going to the ER because she had cuts all down her face. The cat no longer lives with us.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a huge dog running around in our neighborhood and he was going into people's garage. I made our daughter go inside and waited until the dog was gone before letting her back out. If the dog came in our yard I would have called animal control. I try to be understanding but my children's safety is the bigger priority.