Lakefront zoning prohibits anything closer than 35’ from the shoreline; so that takes care of the yard I use most. Two sides of my lot are where snow is pushed during the winter. We get a lot of snow. The 4th side is also treed and swampy. Nobody has a fenced yard.
I don’t really have problems with other loose dogs now, but it’s taken several years. Two have electronic collars and in-ground fencing. They were the worst. Another is now tethered after a bit of a showdown. And the owner of two Shepherds no longer lets them out of the car to “run home”. There’s always a potential problem with visitors’ dogs, and I have with varying degrees of success asked them to please keep their dogs out of my yard.
I have considered in-ground fencing, but that doesn’t keep other dogs out.
For a while, I carried a length pvc water pipe. Nearly all the dogs would veer off at the mere sight of the upraised pipe. Only once did I have to actually swat a dog, and that dog never bothered me again.
I’m not as agile as I once was. I think I’d fall down if I tried to kick a dog in the slats. I can carry a cane, and that’ll do for a belligerent pooch. A truly uncivilized dog requires an upgrade, and I have a machete for that. I can use the flat of the blade, or the back. If the beast still refuses to leave, he’ll get the sharp edge.
I’m leery of pepper spray. What if the dog is lucky enough or savvy enough to stand upwind of the spray?
Am I the only person totally confused by the OP as to who owns this dog, where they live in relation to you, what the shelter has to do with identifying the breed and if this dog hasn’t even arrived in the neighborhood yet, how do you know it is on its way? Is it the doctor who is getting this new dog, or is he just another arrogant dog owner on the street? Is the “puppy to stalking hackles” dog the same dog or a different dog? How long ago was your dog injured by your daughter’s dog, and if you were standing there at the end of the leash how did you not observe what happened just before the attack?
If the dogs are really only an issue with the one family and occasional visitor is there a reason that you can’t avoid being near their property?
Going back to fencing on your property…are there easements that specifically disallow this? Or are you allowing this to be nice?
As for your original question about being concerned or taking a chill pill, I’d advise the pill for now. There is no reason getting worked up and stressing your dog out without reason.
I’d advise against a camera phone for you during your walks. How will you use the camera/video and be ready with the Dog-B-Gone spray and ready to swing a stick and make sure your deaf dog on the leash are all under control?
You’re going to be fine when the time comes. That’s what practice is for; it gets you ready to act as if its second nature. If you need to break the tension and laugh off your nerves the first few times,
print a picture of one of those clown heads where you shoot the open mouth to pop the balloon.
Yes, I know that this is serious, but that doesn’t mean that practice can’t be fun.
Sorry for being unclear in my writing. The new dog owners, the Smiths, live one house down from me, but as I said, there are no fences between yards. The Doctor isn’t around any more. It was his dog that changed from happy puppy to stalking hackles. My current dog was bitten by the Rottweiler belonging to the Smith’s daughter. That was about a month ago. My leashed dog was sitting behind me and suddenly was in the Rotty’s mouth. They’d been introduced, did the sniffing routine, and the Rotty had wandered off. Nobody saw what happened.
The local shelter does it’s best to identify an animal’s breed and age and background.
I know the dog is arriving because the Smiths are friends and told me.
I live at the beginning of a dead end road. If I avoid walking past all the houses that have had, do have, might have dogs, I will have a very short walk. What I do is walk all the way down the road past all the houses when I know everyone’s at work and the dogs are inside. Other times I walk in the opposite direction where there is some traffic but no houses.
Legally I can fence my yard. Practically? It would be a nightmare.
You’re right … I can’t be a juggler and defend my dog at the same time.
I’m better tonight. Sometimes I come home and everything seems so precious to me that I become afraid that it will all be taken away from me. My dog has already lost one home and human. I feel a special responsibility to keep him safe.
ever again. Even similarly-sized dogs who have lived together for years and are the best of buddies can get into fights where someone winds up at the emergency clinic. Letting complete stranger dogs sniff each other once and then assuming nobody needs to pay attention to what’s going on is just begging for trouble. Doing so when there’s such a size disparity that one dog can literally dangle from the other one’s mouth is absolute pure insanity, and you’re lucky your dog is alive. Even luckier that he wasn’t hospitalized with broken ribs and a collapsed lung, or with brain swelling–it’s painfully common for the big dog to pick the little one up by the chest, bite down, and start shaking. Common enough that the standard “big dog/little dog” protocol at the emergency vet I used to work for was to go on and fire up the oxygen kennel and start calculating mannitol doses as soon as the call came in.
I’m glad your initial meeting went well. But please, please, please keep a weather eye on your dog during future meetings.
I will keep a close eye on my dog, you may be sure. I’m just relieved the neighbors’ dog is smaller than expected, not that I think it’s teeth are any less sharp.
I accept partial responsibility for my dog being a chewie for the neighbors’ Rottweiler. I brought him onto the other dog’s, albeit temporary, turf. Would have been sensible for the owner to tie up the Rotty just in case, but that didn’t happen.
All I want really from this new dog is that it recognize us as non-threatening and it learns No and Go Home and Drop It. Mr. Neighbor is ex-military. He ought to be able to manage that.
Otherwise, if threatened, I swing my dog up on my shoulder, spray the shit out of the other dog, and remind the owners that if they value their homeowner’s insurance, their house-watcher me), and their dog, they won’t let it loose again. Friendship be damned.
When my Scotty was attacked, the first thing I did was step on the leash so the other dog could not get her off the ground and shake her. As it was, by the time I freed her her carotid was this close to being severed.
Maybe I should get one of those spiked collars? On a little fuzzy white dog, the othr dogs’ll kill themselves laffing.
My current dog was bitten by a dog that was visiting my neighbors.
My previous dog was bitten by a dog owned by people who live farther down the road. The dog usually was chained and passive when my dog and I walked down the road. This time, it was loose. The owners paid my dog’s vet bill and had their dog euthanized.
These are the same neighbors that you brought your deaf dog to?
If your dog, and you, are at this much risk…good fences make good neighbors.
There was nothing in your previous posts that said your neighbors were bad pet owners. A dog who was aggressive was put down and another was a visiting dog. I read nothing to seem that your neighbors would be bad dog owners. You seemed to like them and as a dog owner I assumed that this would reflect on their dog ownership.
All you can do is work to lessen possible attacks, which would require a barrier. Do what you can to protect your dogs within your area. However if you choose to walk your dog outside of that area I am not sure what protections you will be afforded.
ie; If you were afraid of your dog outside your fence why did you walk you dog there?
The dog was friendly on the two occasions I met it. However, on the second occasion it was clear to me that, friendly or not, he is a dog my neighbors do not know how to control or train. Yesterday Mrs. Neighbor called and confessed that she was afraid of the dog, that he corners her, jumps on her, etc. She hasn’t a clue about dealing with a freaky smart high intensity dog. He was loose on the road this a.m. when I took my dog out. Mrs. Neighbor’s solution to the dog pulling on leash is to drop the leash. I immediately turned back to my house.
I took my little deaf dog down to my neighbors because it was his regular walk time. I stopped to visit and didn’t feel concerned since I knew everyone, had met the Rotty and didn’t anticipate any trouble. My bad.
I like my neighbors very much. They took good physical care of their other dogs. But they are otherwise a bit indifferent. This time they have chosen the wrong dog for the wrong reason (it’s part Chow). In the right hands, this new dog would be properly socialized, trained, and likely excel at agility. Sofa spud, which is their lifestyle, not so much.
I want to preserve the friendship and keep my little pooch safe. But if they don’t surrender the dog, and don’t work with a professional trainer, I’ll be disinclined to visit their house unless the dog is crated and I have some assurance of outdoor control, whether it’s a tether, electric in-ground fencing, or an outside kennel.
I was willing to accept the Rotty’s attack as a dog thing, because I was more than a little to blame. But if my neighbors keep this dog, I will warn them that if their dog harms me or my dog while it is running loose, I won’t be nice about it.
