WWYD - Neighbors loose dog

[wawa]

One of my neighbors (not immediately adjacent. Kinda around the corner up on the "main" street) have a dog that gets loose all the time. About once every week or two.

As far as I can tell he's not aggressive or anything, but he's also not friendly. More importantly, he's not afraid of cars in the slightest. He regularly wanders up and down our street, and has on several occasions darted out in front of my car. He always runs off if I try to catch him so I've taken to just yelling at him out of the car window until he heads for home. He appears to actually know what "go home" means, or else he just wants to hide in his house when the crazy lady starts shouting at him. Not sure which, but either works for me.

I've never spoken to these neighbors. I don't see them outside when I'm walking my dog or driving past, so if I want to talk to them I'm going to have to knock on their door.

I don't know how he's getting out - their back yard is fenced, so I'm assumign they let him out there, but he can escape and they either don't notice or don't care. (I can see their backyard from our upstairs windows. I've seen the dog in it, which is how I know it's theirs) Or they just let him out the front door because they're assholes. But I'm worried I'm gonna run this dog over someday.

Would you knock on their door and tell them to stop letting their dog get loose? Call animal control next time you see him out? Just drive carefully and hope for the best? Or D, all of the above in some order?

[Deleted]

Go talk to them. They may not know what's going on. After that, I would call animal control.

[pixy0stix]

I'd knock and/or leave a note. Then if it continues I'd call animal control.

[ringstrue]

If it were me, and it was a breed of dog I know isn't going to get gassed within 48 hours of being at the shelter, I'd call the AC on the dog.

[rosiedozie]

I would be really passive aggressive about it - catch the dog on a leash and take it back to their house. "OMG I found your dog running around loose - here he is back, safe and sound. I'm sure you were so worried. I just knew he wasn't supposed to be out there running around. I'm glad he didn't get hit by a car."

And then they'll probably tell you either (1) he gets out of the yard or (2) they let him out on purpose. If they say (2) then tell them it's against the city/county law (whichever applies). If it continues, I would absolutely call animal control every.single.time.

[hawkeye]

I'd talk to them first and then call a/c if it keeps up.

I would also drive extra extra cautiously, only because I would be scarred for life if I ran over a dog.

[emilyj]

Because I never want to cause angst with neighbors, I'd do the incredibly wussy thing and leave a note in their mailbox. That way they won't know who it is coming from, and can't be pissed at you.

[wawa]

Aug 17, 2012 12:52:11 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

If it were me, and it was a breed of dog I know isn't going to get gassed within 48 hours of being at the shelter, I'd call the AC on the dog.

It's either some kinda of steel-gray lab or the fattest Weimaraner I've ever seen. But either way, not a pit bull.

[Deleted]

I would talk to them first - I like the idea of being passive aggressive about it lol, bc I'm wimpy like that but also because maybe the dog IS getting out by accident.


I will say that my aunt is, um, well, she's the asshole neighbor everyone would hate, bc she has four dogs, no fence, and her dogs just run wild. Like her neighbor had to call her one night to get the cheseapeake bay retriever out of her pool because she was having a dinner party. They've stopped being nice about it and just call animal control on her now all the time. It doesn't make a difference though, so there's not necessarily a guarantee it wil help.

[wawa]

Aug 17, 2012 12:52:46 GMT -5 rosiedozie said:

I would be really passive aggressive about it - catch the dog on a leash and take it back to their house. "OMG I found your dog running around loose - here he is back, safe and sound. I'm sure you were so worried. I just knew he wasn't supposed to be out there running around. I'm glad he didn't get hit by a car."

And then they'll probably tell you either (1) he gets out of the yard or (2) they let him out on purpose. If they say (2) then tell them it's against the city/county law (whichever applies). If it continues, I would absolutely call animal control every.single.time.

yeah, that was actually my plan when I first saw him loose (and actually had no idea who he belonged to. He has a collar though so I assumed his tags have contact info) but i've never been able to get that close to him. And frankly I'm kinda chickenshit about approaching strange dogs without their people if they aren't wagging and wiggling all over the place.

So I'm gonna have to do it without dog in hand, which I feel like it increases the awkwardness factor. I hate talking to strangers.

[ringstrue]

If I were in a good neighborhood where everyone knew everyone and everyone was, as DH says "legit and not sketchy" - I'd be tempted to approach the owners. But even so, after like the 3rd unauthorized romp then I think you gotta kick it up a notch. Sometimes a trip to the shelter is what an owner needs to get their butt to the hardware store to get their latch fixed - or realize they don't really want a dog anyway.

But we also have a couple really good rescues here that pick out dogs from the kill shelters every day so in my mind I'm thinking I'm just fast-tracking a dog from a shitty owner to a good one.

[aw]

We had this problem in our neighborhood. It was our neighbor's tiny rat terrier and it kept wandering around our fence line. We had a big bull terrier at the time that didn't like other dogs and I was worried our dog was going to hurt it. Plus, I don't like dogs running around loose when my children are outside.

So, after this happened 2-3 times, I grabbed a leash and caught the dog, marched over to the neighbors and told them that while I understand that dogs can get loose, it was happening too frequently and they either needed to fix their fence or chain the dog up outside. I told them about my dog and my kids and said that if I saw the dog again I was going to call animal control. Never happened again.

[downtoearth]

I would just drive carefully. If the dog isn't aggressive towards you or other dogs, I would let the worry be on the owners. If you do ever return the dog, a mention of how often it happens might be appropriate, but otherwise, I'm mind my own business.

[wawa]

gah. Ok. I'll suck it up and knock on their door. I am not looking forward to this.

with the assumption that I am NOT going to have the dog with me (because he won't come near me and I'm NOT going to chase down a strange dog and grab him. I like my arms unmangled, thanks) what do I say?

"Hey, that gray dog is yours, right? I've been seeing him loose a lot and I've come pretty close to hitting him with my car. Did you know he's been getting out and heading down the street?"

Good enough? Do I actually say that I'm going to start calling ac if I see him again? Do I only pull that out if they don't seem to give a shit? They aren't my immediate neighbors, and I don't run into them socially so I don't really care if I piss them off, but I don't want to antagonize them for no reason.

[rosiedozie]

Aug 17, 2012 13:23:15 GMT -5 wawa said:

"Hey, that gray dog is yours, right? I've been seeing him loose a lot and I've come pretty close to hitting him with my car. Did you know he's been getting out and heading down the street?"

I think this is good. You could even pull the good samaritan card and say that you tried to grab him but he wouldn't come to you.

[passthewine]

Aug 17, 2012 12:58:43 GMT -5 @mrsbecky07 said:

I would talk to them first - I like the idea of being passive aggressive about it lol, bc I'm wimpy like that but also because maybe the dog IS getting out by accident.

But if it's happening repeatedly then I'm sure they're aware of it. My dog was getting out from my backyard (6' fence) and into the front yard (3' fence), and we noticed it right away and filled the gap where she was squeezing through. If it was once or twice, I'd say they might not be as aware of it.

That said, I'm a total wuss and would not knock on the door unless I had the dog in hand, I'd probably leave a note in the mailbox when they're not home and state that if it continues AC will be called.

[aw]

Aug 17, 2012 13:23:15 GMT -5 wawa said:

gah. Ok. I'll suck it up and knock on their door. I am not looking forward to this.

with the assumption that I am NOT going to have the dog with me (because he won't come near me and I'm NOT going to chase down a strange dog and grab him. I like my arms unmangled, thanks) what do I say?

"Hey, that gray dog is yours, right? I've been seeing him loose a lot and I've come pretty close to hitting him with my car. Did you know he's been getting out and heading down the street?"

Good enough? Do I actually say that I'm going to start calling ac if I see him again? Do I only pull that out if they don't seem to give a shit? They aren't my immediate neighbors, and I don't run into them socially so I don't really care if I piss them off, but I don't want to antagonize them for no reason.

I would just be honest. Say you're worried about their dog beign hit by a car because you've almost hit it or seen other people almost hit it and you're also worried about it coming in contact with other peoples' dogs on their property, because some dogs are territorial and may try to harm it. I think that if you voice it out of concern for the dog, they will respond well.

And if they do get upset. Oh well. You're doing what is best for the dog and for the safety of your neighbors.

[msmerymac]

Aug 17, 2012 12:55:21 GMT -5 emilyj said:

Because I never want to cause angst with neighbors, I'd do the incredibly wussy thing and leave a note in their mailbox. That way they won't know who it is coming from, and can't be pissed at you.

I'd probably do this. But honestly, I don't have high hopes.

Growing up, we had neighbors who would let their dog out, loose (no fence). They had FIVE dogs get hit by cars (our street was a state highway). So it's really hard when you're actually concerned about the dog's safety and the dog's owner could clearly not give a shit. (Surprise, surprise - we once went away for the weekend and had the neighbor come feed our dog, and the dog got out, went wandering in the woods, and came back with a nose full of porcupine needles.)

My current neighbor's cats are out all the time. Except he claims they aren't indoor/outdoor cats, they just "escape." In my 25+ years of having cats, I can count the number of times my cats have "escaped" on one hand. And 3 of those times were the same cat, who hated everyone.

You can't stop people from being crappy pet owners. Which sucks.

But maybe I'm just being a pessimist and they really do have a fence problem or something. (But then, if they were supervising the dog in the yard, wouldn't they know when he got out?)

[mexicali]

We had this issue. We were the owners. The dogs were sneaking back in the yard before we noticed they were gone. Then we fixed the problem. However; they had a small sense of freedom and figured how to hop, straight up and over, our 7 ft fence. We felt so bad 1. We were that neighbor 2. We would hate for anything to happen to them.

We have fixed the problem again, but we constantly watch them trying to figure out a way to get. They go to dog parks and get infrequent walks. Not as frequent as we would like, but we had just had Z.

Eta- our backyard neighbor told us. They would go in her yard and out.

[wawa]

I've been that neighbor too. Technically my brother was that neighbor since it was his house and his dog, but I lived there too so I'll take my (smallish) share of the blame.

[kadams767]

I don't understand the not knowing bit. I understand not seeing the dog get out, but this isn't the Pokey Little Puppy here. That dog isn't crawling back under the fence when it goes home. Someone has to let him inside.

[wawa]

Aug 17, 2012 14:50:54 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

I don't understand the not knowing bit. I understand not seeing the dog get out, but this isn't the Pokey Little Puppy here. That dog isn't crawling back under the fence when it goes home. Someone has to let him inside.

not neccessarily. Depends how he's getting out. For all I know he typically finishes his wandering, goes back through the hole in the fence/busted gate/whatever and they open the door to find him waiting patiently at the back door.

when I shush him home he doesn't head for the front door, he heads for the yard.

[kadams767]

Aug 17, 2012 14:52:45 GMT -5 wawa said:

Aug 17, 2012 14:50:54 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

I don't understand the not knowing bit. I understand not seeing the dog get out, but this isn't the Pokey Little Puppy here. That dog isn't crawling back under the fence when it goes home. Someone has to let him inside.

not neccessarily. Depends how he's getting out. For all I know he typically finishes his wandering, goes back through the hole in the fence/busted gate/whatever and they open the door to find him waiting patiently at the back door.

when I shush him home he doesn't head for the front door, he heads for the yard.

That is one smart dog then. If my dog found a way out through the fence, he would never go back in it voluntarily.

[twotrue]

Just go over and show concern. I would want someone to tell me if my dog were getting out of the yard. And if they already know and don't care, then next time you call animal control.

[laurenpetro]

one of my sister's dogs would get out all the time. it was crazy. he learned out how to open windows (all types) and doors. he also learned how to take the stake out of the ground when they leashed him in their yard. there was just no stopping that dog.