The person 2 doors down is rarely (never?) at home, and decided to get cheap home security by installing a large shepherd/rottweiler mix in his back yard. As time has worn on, the dog is getting understandably bored. He’s started digging out of his yard.
First he dug under the gates, so he could go out on the front lawn and bark and lunge at people with the temerity to use the sidewalk.
Then he went under the fence, into the yard of the house next to mine. That was about a month ago.
Today, he has made it his life’s work to dig into our yard. He came through twice and we used cinder blocks. He’s come through again and is using our yard at will.
He’s un-neutered. I have no idea if he’s vaccinated. No collar or tags. The 2-door down neighbors aren’t answering their door (no surprise).
Unfortunately, the idiot dog caught one of my dogs dogs outside and bit it. My dog is has some injuries but nothing serious. He’s a Chihuahua and completely out of his weight class. From the marks, it’s obvious that Neighbor Dog had Pixel’s head in his mouth. We’re going to try and put ND in a large kennel that we have and keep it in there overnight. Tomorrow I’ll ask animal control to pick it up.
Fuck these people. It is completely wrong for them to treat a dog this way. It is even worse to allow a potentially dangerous animal to roam at will and become a public nuisance.
In conclusion, fuck these people. They shouldn’t have animals. Assholes.
The poor Rottie is miserable, but he’s also angry. Neutering and spaying is good for animals. There’s too many unwanted animals as it is. Those people are scumbags for treating a pet that way. Dogs are social. He needs a pack and he needs training.
I’m so sorry. This is terrible for the dog and terrible for the neighbors. I hope your dog is okay and animal control takes this dog away from its irresponsible owners. It sounds like a dangerous dog for sure. At the very least, it should be neutered–and you don’t even know if it’s been vaccinated, right? Unfortunately, if you were in my jurisdiction, if there were no records on vaccination that dog could be killed.
Given how it’s being treated, unfortunately I think there’s every chance that he hasn’t been vaccinated.
I am absolutely furious. My husband’s out there trying to patch the latest hole. We’ve gotten out the kennel. If I see the dog again, he’s going into it if I can manage it. I don’t want to call animal control, but this has been escalating for months. I’ll just have to hope for the best if animal control takes him.
You have to do what you have to do. It is very unlikely your neighbors are going to wise up and start treating their dog right. Meanwhile that dog has many lonely miserable years ahead of it. Not to mention the annoyance it is going to cause you. Sorry you have to be the adults.
Sunny Daze, are you a generally dog-friendly person?
Shepherds and Rottweilers can be friendly lovable dogs if treated right, just like any other dog. Maybe you can adopt him, treat him right, and make him your friendly lovable dog. Depending on his upbringing, he might (just might) even be able to get along well with your chihuahua.
Remember that pack of savage fighting pit bulls that were confiscated from Michael Vicks? A bunch of them were rehabilitated and turned into lovable family dogs.
Why is the neighbor’s out of control dog the OP’s responsibility to adopt and train? Answer: it’s not.
The people in the house next to the apartment building I live in bought a “guard” dog. A pit, but it was a puppy, maybe 4-5 months old, chucked in the back yard. When a sleet storm hit the shorthair puppy was wet and shivering in the backyard, whimpering. One the neighbors in my building said to the family next door as they were going to their van “Hey, aren’t you going to bring your dog inside?” and I’m not sure what transpired but I gather the answer was “no” mixed with profanity, ethnic slurs, and mind your own business.
So almost everyone in the building called animal control. Who came and took the puppy away.
I don’t know what happened to the dog in the end, but I suspect it was better than what it was experiencing. Their “guard dog” was a whimpering puppy that spent a lot of time begging for attention from passers-by. WTF were those people thinking? I don’t even want to know.
So, a friend of mine, a fellow foreigner, here in Beijing is an animal lover and so does volunteer work with one of the animal shelters. She tells me that apparently with the fears related to COVID-19, a number of people are just flat out abandoning their pets. Heartless morons.
Senegoid - I’ve actually thought about just adopting him, and if this had happened a few months ago we probably would have tried it. We had an older dog die, and the transition might have gone well. In the meantime, however, we’ve adopted a puppy and can’t take a chance on this guy right now.
He seems like he would be a nice dog with some work and attention. He clearly really, really wants to be with others. Skywatcher - You raise an interesting possibility. There’s at least one group up here like that. I’ll do some research on them and see if they would take him.
Be really careful with that dog. I know you want to trap it, but you could get badly hurt in the process. Would it work to block its way out of your yard, rather than get it into a kennel? Or maybe you could lure it into your garage and lock it in there.
I think it would be a good idea to document things. Take videos of the dog when it’s acting badly. Take pictures of the hole it burrowed under the fence. Save your vet bills. This could help convince the authorities that they need to do something, and could protect you in case you get into a dispute with the dog’s owners.
A number of years ago, when I was an apartment dweller, it was a most satisfying day (a saturday no less, so the witnesses to it were multiple) when the can’t think of an appropriate descriptor neighbor was arrested and her dog destroyed on site by the police. The dog was charging and all but attacking everyone that came into a certain distance. No leash or restraint, the final straw was when it followed a child growling. Parents called the cops. It came out that it was the second time the police had been called about this lady and her dog.
There needs to be stronger enforcement against those that mistreat animals. I have no place for Donald Dumbass, but appreciate his signing into law making animal abuse a felony. Report and call ANYONE that sees or hears behavior like this. Animals can’t speak for themselves.
Bad idea, unless OP is actively in the market to rehabilitate a large dog. This dog *already *attacked their chihuahua. I’m not saying the dog is awful and needs to be put down, but it absolutely needs to be taken away from the current owners and (hopefully) released to someone who has the know-how and patience to rehabilitate a large-breed, potentially dangerous dog.