Situation with neighbor's dog today

[Jamie & Odin]

Ok, my neighbors have a boxer that has shown itself to be territorialy aggressive. She repeatedly runs the fenceline, barking lunging, gowling at us, my neices and nephews, and most of all my dogs. She and their other dog are left outside, unsupervised.

The fence is four feet tall, and is not chain link but some kind of thin wire with about four inch spaces.

Today I was outside with Odin. The boxer was through the fence up to her shoulders, growling and barking. I lost my hold on Odin's collar as we were going back in the house and he ran over to her. They ran the fence line as I was trying to catch Odin. When they stopped, the boxer lunged through the fence, and got a hold of Odin. I was able to grab his back legs (thank you thank you thank you to those who posted that advice here) and pull him away. She had hold of his throat, and he has a puncture wound on his lip, but otherwise non the worse for wear.

No one was home at the boxer's house, I was the only one home at mine. Had that dog gotten through the fence, I don't know what would have happened.

What I'm wondering is if I should make a complaint to AC based on their dog's constant harassment of me and my family. It would seem like a no brainer, but I don't want to start some kind of "dog war". They could say anything they want about my dogs, and it would be my word against theirs. And they would know it was me who called, we are each other's only neighbors.

I realize that I have responsibility in the episode that occured today, and can't exactly make a complaint about that. All I want is for their dogs to be supervised so this won't happen again. my dogs are not left out unsupervised, and are leashed in the yard because it is not yet fenced. I lost hold of Odin's collar, which shouldn't have happened...

As soon as I can, I fully intend to put up a six foot privacy fence bordering our property.

The more I write the more I feel like this is a stupid question:o I am concerned about safety living next to this dog, and I am also concerned that they might make an unfounded complaint against my dog, which as you all know, won't be taken lightly given his breed. Especially if AC comes to my house to see my dog. He does not do well with strangers at the house, and would give them every reason to believe the validity of the neighbors compaint. Even though my dog has NEVER done anything to the neighbors or their dog with this exception.

Anyway, any input is appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but usually the more info the better, and my nerves are shot after breaking up my first dog fight, more powerful than I ever thought!

[SABELLESMOM]

Gracious, Jamie! What a horrible thing to have happen. Poor Odin, too!
I'm not sure I really have and helpful advice, but I did want you to know I'm here imagining how shook up you must feel.
The six foot fence sounds like a good idea, privacy or not. A nice six foot page fence would allow your Odin to see his surroundings. Being able to view his surroundings might be somewhat less frustrating for him, than hearing things constantly that he can't see. Or, did you mean only to fence the part between your yards?

[Jamie & Odin]

SABELLSMOM, thanks for the sympathy, it was quite nerve wracking!

I am planning to just put the privacy fence bordering the neighbors, the rest would be chain link.

Usually Odin pays that dog no attention other than a glance. In hindsight, I think he viewed her this time as posing a real threat, as she was pushing her way through the fence.

These people are idiots in regards to their dogs. They believe a trained dog is one that has been denied it's right to free thought and action. They have consulted a pet psychic to come and figure out why they bark so much, and ask them to please stop

[Orville Story]

OK here is the short and fancy. The fact that you lost control of your dog puts the both of you at fault. The two dogs could not have got into a fight if you had your dog on lead and under control. I understand that the boxer is even unsupervised, but the second you lost control both party are then equaly at fault.

If the boxer were to come onto your property unprovoked that would be a different matter, or if your dog was even provoking the boxer and you had him under control on lead then that would be a different matter.

But in this case your dog and the boxer were both free to fight with a very inadequit fence to prevent them from doing so. I would not call AC because they will find you at fault as well.

What you can do in the short term, is go to Home Depot and buy 36" silt fence. This is designed to prevent errosion on new contruction sites. This fence has wooden stakes that are driven into the ground, and black frabic that will prevent the two dogs from fighting. On it's own it would be too flimsy to be a good fence, but when you already have field fence up this works extremely well. Just unroll it, drive the stakes tight against the field fence, and then use some 14 gauge wire to tie the frabic every 4 feet.

[Jamie & Odin]

Orville, thanks for the suggestion about the fence. I know I was responsible for my dog in this incident. That's why I said I had no cause to call AC because of this specific occurance. What I might call them for is the incessant barking and aggressive behavior those dogs show all the time. We can't walk out our back door without them trying to tear the fence down. I am very diligent about keeping my dog under control, I could kick myself that he got away from me today. Never has he shown a bit of dog agression, nor does he normally approach their fence.

Luckily, no real harm was done.

[Anne]

Well, certainly a 4 ft fence for a Boxer or any medium to large breed is inadequate. A solid fence of at least 6ft is required. I don't think a see through fence is a good idea either. If the dog can see what is going on outside and can't join in the fun is that not frustrating for the dog? Seems to me that would result in barking. I would strongly suggest both you and your neighbours invest in good fencing. A very unfortunate incident for you today, how awful. It's a shame your dog did a Houdini or you could report the Boxer without (hopefully) repercussions. The box owners do not sound to me like very responsible dog owners.

[babyray]

You should videotape the boxer in action harrassing you, just in case you have another "incident" before your fence is constructed. Technically, if the dog's head is protruding into your yard, it is on your property and documentation of that couldn't hurt.:)

[Diamond Dog]

There are a lot of things my neighbors do that I let go that I wouldnt let go if it were anyone else. This is simply because if you live next to neighbors you are at odds with, life is hell. Even if you are in the right.

[babyray]

Diamond Dog-I know exactly what you mean. Three years ago I lost my temper and let my really WEIRD neighbor have it about his dogs constantly barking and his neglect of them. I have regretted it ever since-we don't speak and our fences are chain link so we see each other every once in a while and it is awkward! I'm sure it could be much worse depending on the neighbor so it is one of those situations you have to really weigh the consequences.

[mark_sherry]

I'm glad other people are having dog problems in their neighborhoods. Well, really, I'm not, but I'm glad that I'm not the only one. On one side of me, I've got a neighbor who thinks that dogs should live life like they did hundreds of years ago -- free to do whatever they please, whenever they please, and wherever they please, and then they don't clean it up! I've got other neighbors who're terrified of dogs, and don't want anyone in the neighborhood to own even a poodle (thank goodness they can't do anything about it).

The third neighbor is one that closely resembles Jamie's neighbor in a round-a-bout way. One day, I was in my front yard with my Rottie on a leash (Christmas Eve morn), and this neighbor's dog somehow got out of the house and attacked my pup (when I say pup, I mean 9 weeks old). Her dog was a 3-year-old black lab that's always penned up in the house with nothing to do. What did I do? I picked my pup up and turned to hip-block the lab. But then it started to bite me, right in my front yard. The lady came to her front door but did nothing. The dog bit through my pants and drew a little blood on my hand. I pushed the dog away with my foot and somehow pinned it to the ground. That's when she came over and got the dog, telling me that I'm in big trouble because I tried to kill her dog. She called the police on me!!!!

When the police got to her house and took her story, they came over and took mine. Then, a couple of neighbors came out of their houses and confirmed my story. She got a ticket and was taken to court, fined, and had to keep the dog on a muzzle and confined for a certain period of time (it hadn't had its rabies shot yet!!).

Later that summer, her dog got onto my property again and attacked my Shiba Inu but this time she had him on a long leash, and she pulled the lab to her property before I got to the dog. I called animal control. The long and short of it is that they issued her a ticket, and when it went to court, the judge said that, since her dog was on a leash at the time, he could not issue her another fine, even though she let the dog get onto my property.

The moral to this long tale -- make sure you know your local and state animal control laws thoroughly because there may be lots of loopholes for people to wiggle through. This lady found one. In the end, she got hers, though, because she stopped paying her mortgage and her house was repossessed. Her dog, as I understand it, went to a much happier place where he could run and get rid of his excess energy.