People, please contain your dogs!

The BBQ Pit
1

I live in a rural quasi suburban neighborhood with a ton of people who buy/adopt a dog and then throw it in the backyard.

Just this morning I saw three dogs that I don’t have a clue who they belong to. First was a pair of labs, a yellow and a black, running in the woods behind my house. They took off when they saw me. Second was a Rottweiler that routinely chases his owner’s (?) car up the road.

We also have the Dipshit Dad and his Feral Son living down the street. Dipshit Dad is vaguely creepy and Feral Son is somewhere between 10-13, but is on the small side (really hyperactive, so almost zero body fat) and is allowed to ride an ATV anywhere he wants to. Including other people’s property.:mad:

They have an intact German Shepherd mix who has recently started escaping their small backyard and has been seen mounting a labbish looking dog. :smack: Several years ago they bought a female Shepherd mix puppy (who screamed all day do them leaving her in cage by herself!) and I was told by the late woman of the house that they planned on breeding when she was older. The dog grew up and disappeared one day, just like the lovely aggressive white bully breed dog they had tied up in front of their house for what felt like a century. That dog would break/slip it’s chain and charge anyone walking by.

Animal Control is worthless out here, they are part of the sheriffs department and are really understaffed.

2

This was an ongoing pet peeve (heh) of mine in Calgary, too. I started walking with pepper spray in my hand wherever I went, because I would encounter an off-leash dog at least once a week. Most dog owners are perfectly fine; then you have the usual 10% of Ruiners who are ruining it for everyone.

3

That really and truly sucks. Do dogs need to be licensed? Sometimes what moves things along quicker in terms of complaints are ones that talk to the “pocket book”. If the dogs aren’t licensed, then you may get activity at least as far as getting someone out to make sure they are licensed.

Other than that, bear spray.

I’m not sure if a call to Child Protective Services would be warranted for feral boy. I don’t know if his behavior is dangerous, if he’s truly unwatched/uncared for.

In Canada, do “No Trespassing” signs carry any legal weight? If so, you could start with those. At least lay some groundwork.

4

We don’t really have bear spray in Texas. :wink:

I have no idea if the dogs are licensed or not. Most likely not. But licensing isn’t a big thing out here and they don’t really enforce it.

I think CPS is aware of the family. According to a Gossipy Neighbor who moved away a few years ago, the boys mother (who may or may not be deceased) had several children removed from her home. There was for a short while a teenage girl who lived with them, not 100% sure what her relationship to them was, who had a toddler aged daughter that I’d seen wandering unattended on the road in front of their house. I don’t live close enough to see the daily goings on at the house, but the teenager and her little girl vanished about a year after I first saw them. No idea what happened.

There are a tone of No Trespassing signs in my area, but few people obey them.

5

D’oh! (On the bear spray). I saw Cat Whisperer’s location. :smack:

Just checked, however, and Amazon will send you bear spray, with various spray lengths of 30-35 feet (maybe more, I didn’t dig too far).

My thinking on the No Trespassing signs is that it might give you some legal protection should the feral child get injured on your property. It likely also gives you the right to spray or (hopefully not needed) shoot at the dogs to keep them off your property.

6

The best part is when they make the least amount of effort of reigning in their curs, if that. Often you have a one snarling at you with its hackles up and its master merely assures you that it won’t harm you.

Recently some grizzled old fart outright refused to ever confine his precious shit as if it were a cruel act; instead he had the audacity to suggest that I schedule my jogs around the fucking dog’s. Should really call animal control.

7

I have two branches I appropriated from a fallen tree that I use as “walking sticks”, since loose dogs are common as pigeons in this town. I’ve put much mileage on them fending off loose dogs - almost always fucking chihuahuas. I’m an animal lover in general but those damn things are hell spawn.

Interestingly, most of the big dogs I’ve come across have been docile, and many have actually been friendly.

8

Yes, people who cannot or will not control their dogs suck. Once while walking into my apartment, I saw a kid who was around 12, trying to contain a dog that weighed as much as he did behind the door of their walled courtyard. It looked like he was trying to walk it (it had a leash on), but it wasn’t working out, and it appeared that the dog hated me on sight.

The kid yelled, “You better run, mister”.

I replied, “I don’t run from dogs, kid. It just encourages them.”, and proceeded around the corner.

Sure enough, the dog came running up on me a second later. I punched it upside the head as it jumped at me the first time, and it stayed out of my range after that until the kid caught up to him. Turns out, he could control the dog, but didn’t until he saw his dog was in danger.

I then told the child, “I carry a knife everywhere I go. If you hadn’t come along when you did, your dog would be dead now. Keep your dog under control, or it’s life will probably be very short.”

I’ve actually got a lot of tolerance for good natured dogs who have just gotten out and are just exploring. I’ve returned my neighbor’s dog dozens of times. Out in the country, or even in some of the more rural towns, it’s common to let the dogs wander. Aggressive dogs don’t live long, because they usually don’t really get one chance. They’re often shot the first time they injure a large animal or a person. OTOH, I find my wife’s hometown back in Kentucky a little bizarre. It’s mostly suburban, so it’s not very safe to let them wander. But fences are a rarity, so they do. I’ve honestly never seen an aggressive dog there, for what it’s worth.
Similarly, I’ve got some patience with strays that are happy to give everyone a wide berth. It’s weird to see wild/stray dogs wandering by, but I’d rather let them be. I’d imagine the coyotes make their lives hard enough. Aggressive dogs such as the OP’s neighbor’s dog that would slip it’s chain and rush anyone who walked by? No, there’s no reason to tolerate that animal to live in a way that can threaten me.

9

Dog people don’t usually mind, people who don’t like dogs don’t want to ever see or hear them.

But I do agree an asshole neighbor, more often than not, incorporates their animal in their douchebaggery.

10

I like dogs just fine, but letting dogs run uncontrolled is dangerous for the dog and maybe for people - since I wouldn’t trust people who let their dogs loose when they say their dogs are gentle.
But it sounds that the OP’s neighborhood has more people problems than dog problems.

11

We have five(!) dogs who live the life of Riley (huge, fenced and very secure backyard, but mostly indoor pups). The neighbor across the street has a little yappy dog they let run free; every day I expect to see her flattened on the road.

The little dog likes to come up to our fence and harass our dogs. Our pups go into a barking frenzy and we have to go out and charm them inside with biscuits. PITA :mad:

I will never understand people who let their pets run free (including cats) or tie their dogs up, which can be a major cause of aggression, much less pretty awful for the dog.

12

When I still lived on acreage, I was amazed at the number of people who would move out there and then proceed to let everything they had run wild - kids, dogs, cats, any livestock they decided to buy. The worst place was controlled by the sheriffs dept as in the OP so of course there was no help there. However, it is legal to shoot any dogs that are harassing people or livestock, so after I lost a whole flock of chickens and half a flock of ducks while away from the house for only an hour one morning, we resorted to firearms. And we kept any livestock that wandered onto the property unless the owner happened to come for it. Unfortunately, we could never come up with a way to deal with the feral kids.

13

Sell 'em to a pedophile?

14

Probably too old.