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Two things: fences and/or traps. With fences, his dogs can't come on your property, but if it were me and this guy didn't control the dogs, I'd trap them and then bring them down to the Humane Society. Or call animal control and tell them you have a vicious dog attacking yours trapped on the property.
It's a little late now, but you still might want to think of investing in some kind of camera that will show his dogs in your yard or even get a paintball gun and give them a shot with it when you see them crossing the property line. Personally, if any free roaming dogs had attacked mine, they wouldn't live to do it again. But that's of course, because they would have had to break down the fence. I won't have a dog without a secure fence around my yard anymore.
What is wrong with you? It isn't the dogs fault the neighbor is a bad owner.
To the OP, I agree with asking the realtor to talk to him and tell him you are selling.
I would not have let it go past the first bite. I would have let them know that they are risking their aggressive dogs being put down and they should surrender them to a shelter if they don't love them.
You should not let your dog in your yard unattended, and if a dog attacked my dogs I would kick him to the death if that was what was needed.
I would also make sure the fence was inspected and ask them to tie their dogs inside their yard if they can't control them.
Just as a quick update - I spoke with animal control. They are on duty from 6am-6pm - any other time, it would be up to the discretion of the sheriff as to whether they made contact with the neighbor. Since most of these incidents are at night, that would be less likely to occur. The lady I spoke to was very nice and empathetic and suggested that I take photos each time it happens going forward and call to report it. If they are off-duty at the time, they will make a visit the next day. I mentioned I was hoping to move very soon and she said she could understand not wanting to report it.
She wouldn't give any information on whether the neighbor had received previous citations - my guess is that he has not, since he only moved in 6 months before I did (unless he had the dogs beforehand and got citations at a previous address).
Off to Home Depot after work to buy padlocks for the gates and to evaluate that bamboo privacy fencing stuff as a possible means to keep the dog off the fence.
It's OK to call animal control but it is NOT OK to shoot them with anything (paint gun included) or to trap them. Could lead to legal problems for you.
Well, darn anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueherons
What is wrong with you? It isn't the dogs fault the neighbor is a bad owner.
I know that. But loose dogs attacking another dog can become loose dogs that will attack a person, too. Obviously, the neighbor isn't going to do anything about it and doesn't care enough about the dogs to remedy the situation. In that case, I would not continue to allow his dogs to keep biting mine and I would for sure get really tired of paying vet bills. If I called animal control, they'd pick the dogs up and bring them to the pound themselves, and they would probably get them by having a trap set out as well.
A paintball is not lethal and is a lot better than bird shot. A paintball will hurt if you shoot the dogs in the side or the hind end, and maybe they will associate getting hit with a paintball with being in the OP's yard. That would be called avoidance training. Would you prefer the OP put up a hot wire?
In AZ a dog is considered a deadly weapon by law, and it is legal to shoot them, NOT that I'm insinuating that I ever would as I am an EXTREME animal lover but the second time a dog attacks, if charges are laid, and it goes to court it's a felony. Let me be clear, I love my dog WAY more than an attacking neighbor's dogs.
The grass leads me to believe you're not in AZ though but it's worth checking out the laws in your State.
What breed and size of dogs are we talking here?
I was a realtor for 16+ years ~ if you have trouble with the neighbor and anyone else knows about it you might get in trouble for not disclosing so be sure to check that law out too. I had a harmless but crazy schizophrenic neighbor years back, and he blew one sale for me...his house was a mess but he also had a dead stray cat in a box on his porch - he'd been feeding it and it died at his place and he left it there for a while until he got around to burying it....the buyers saw that and backed out. It did sell shortly there after.
Good luck and good riddance to you awful neighbor - there's nothing worse!
Now that I've seen the photo it's clear that the fence is not doing the job of controlling the dogs next door. I don't know why you are letting your dogs roam your yard unattended with the inherent danger. I know you should be able to, but obviously the current arrangement isn't working. Can't you keep your dog in the house (or supervised in the yard) until your house is sold?
Also, I concur with the people who have said your Realtor should know about this situation and I think it would be a good idea for him of her to contact the neighbors. It's a shame you have to sell because of these people, but it's worth you peace of mind to get out of there. If he's unemployed, he's unlikely to be moving soon, unless he's likely to lose the house.
You definitely should let your Realtor know about what's going on. I would also talk to her about any disclosures in the sales contract, and how that should be handled when it is sold.
I don't know how it is for every state, but in CA there is a nice little box to check off asking if you are aware of any neighborhood noise or nuisances. The people who sold us our house checked NO, but it turns out the house next door is a drug house, with cars coming and going, barking dogs, house run down. (When we bought, the house was not obviously run down, and I actually think the sellers kept the other house's yard clean while they were trying to sell their home.) I could have sued the sellers, and their agent, for not disclosing that (especially since every agent whom I've spoken to afterwards were well aware of what was going on next door.) We decided not to sue, since some said we would have had a hard time proving our case, so and for the past 2.5 years I have been dealing with these undesirables next door. (One of them was in court today, she had posted bond for $100,000 bail for possession/selling drugs while out on probation.)
Anyway, my rambling on is that you should be careful that anyone who buys your house may try to come after you if it is discovered that you had these issues with the neighbors (regarding the dog bites and escaping dogs) and did not disclose it.
I feel your pain - the dogs next door often attack people (police officers have had to instruct them to restrain the dogs when they came in). And wish you the best of luck, i hope you are successful in getting your house sold.
Fencing privacy mesh. Can be installed with Zip Ties. If you shop around you could do a whole yard for around 150 bucks
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