Neighbor's Dog

[Blahblah]

My neighbor's dog, 2 houses down, keeps running and pooping in my unfenced yard. I have a 2 year old. It's a small dog but not friendly. It's come at me a few times aggressively. But has not bit me. I've called the dog warden but it's still happening. I don't want to let my kid play outside now. I would never intentionally harm an animal but if it tries to get at my kid, I will. The owner is not responsible. No fence, no leash and is not even outside when they let the dog out.

Anyone know what I can do, legally? Call the dog warden again?

[mongoose]

Have you tried talking to your neighbor?

Look at dog repellent sprays, like "Halt!". You shouldn't use pepper spray to deter dogs, as it can get messy and end up in your/your kids eyes instead. If you talk to the neighbor and the problem continues, I'd continue to call the dog warden regularly and carry the repellent spray on me. If the dog escalates in aggressive behavior, I'd call the police (non emergent number). But I wouldn't take it that far until you've at least spoken with the neighbor in person first - they may just not realize their dog is traveling to your yard, or that it is acting aggressively towards strangers.

We live in a more rural community and some people around here also let their dogs out unsupervised for bathroom breaks. Simply talking with our neighbors, or taking their dog back to them when I find it in my yard, has worked in the past for us.

[Blahblah]

I was scared to walk over because the dog kept running at me. So I called the dog warden back. He went over. They bought a chain for outside. I feel bad though because they fined them today. I thought the first visit would be just a warning. Neighbor came to talk to me. Was very nice and apologetic.

[yuityfroghurt]

I've had the same thing happening for the last couple of months. I have two dogs, a dachshund and a poodle mix (so both are on the small side <20 lbs.) and our neighbor two doors down has a german shepherd that they allow to roam around off the leash. I used to see it chained outside in their backyard occasionally, but I'm not sure what has changed. Their dog comes to our yard and poops (I'm assuming because we have dogs and it smells their scent in our yard). I'm so sick of cleaning up the giant piles of poop their dog leaves, but I'm hesitant to confront them because I don't really know them. The dog has never been in our yard when we were outside, but my husband saw it in our yard early one morning after he had taken our dogs out, which is how we figured out where the giant poop piles were coming from.

It was really nice of your neighbor to apologize. I wouldn't feel bad about them being fined, what if you or your child were bit? Maybe this is the wake-up call your neighbor needed and he'll keep a closer eye on his dog.

[Deleted]

I too am glad your neighbor was apologetic. It never ceases to amaze me how people think it's okay to let their dogs roam.

My next-door neighbor would take her dog, on leash, into my yard to poop. Sometimes she cleaned it up, sometimes she didn't. Finally my husband asked her and her H to not take their dog into our yard to poop anymore. They were all indignant, saying "But where will our dog go then?" It was unreal. But they did stop taking their dog into our yard. Now they just give us dirty looks and act like we're shitty people for not wanting our yard to be their dog's personal toilet.