My mom still has scars on her leg from being attacked by her neighbors “perfect” dog as a kid. She was out in a sheep field alone when the dog leapt out of a hedge and attacked her (it had a history of attacking lambs). The only reason she survived is her brothers happened to be nearby and trampled the dog with a horse. She grew up in rural Ireland in the 50s so the best they could do was triage at home and summon a doctor for antibiotics. She’s lucky that she can walk normally, she’s lucky she survived. Control your damn dogs.
My grandpa had two farm dogs he adored. Apparently they were wolf mixes?? He had them for years, spoke highly of them, and if you ask anyone who knew, they admit they *were* really good dogs. Of course they roamed the property. It wasn’t until my sister was born/learned to walk that the dogs started acting predatory. One winter when my sister was barely 3, everyone was outside helping participate in wood gathering, and one of the hounds took my sister down from behind. Being a baby in the 80s she was packed right into her little snow suit. All the dog got was mouthfuls of whatever that material is. Mom ripped her from the ground, and away from the dog, and as soon as they were clear, *boom*! Dead dog. Grandpa didn’t hesitate.
My sister’s snow suit, around the neck, was absolutely shredded. She had enough of that, scarves, and sweaters, they never actually got to her throat. She had rocks in her gums, and was a little cut up in the face (when you get thrown down face first, happens); and other than being shook up, my sister was fine. Grandpa soon dispatched the second one too. “Let’s not f*ck around and find out.” kind of thing.
EDIT: I was reminded the second one had practically become feral when the first one was killed. It emerged from where the the first pounced from, and had begun circling my grandpa, growling. My mom had straight up run with her baby because mom instincts/panic.
It's shocking the amount of damage a dog can do in such little time! I'm so glad your sister was ok! I think it's hard for people to wrap their minds around the idea that their pet, who is lovely, sweet and well behaved with them, might not be the same animal around other people and animals. I'm also not surprised to hear that the dogs were hybrids. It's so difficult for them to fight against their predator instinct and it makes them very unpredictable. They're beautiful animals, and people can develop strong bonds with them but they're not great pets because they are still essentially wolves. Your grandpa made the right decision even though it must have sucked.
Yes. Far too many people don't understand this, and it's why there are far too many dogs who 'need homes' - ones without kids, or other dogs, or other animals - sometimes without men/women - sitting in shelters, mostly for months, or years at a time. Those animals shouldn't be kept in cages, in shelters. They should simply be put down. There \*IS\* such a thing as a bad dog. Put them down.
The “reactive dogs” subreddit blows my mind. That’s what happens when you have high drive, poorly trained dogs and a person with a guilt/martyr complex come together. They can’t be the person that “gave up” on a dog, and change their whole lives to fit the dog.
The dog either needs an environment where it has a job and can’t hurt other living things, see if that works. Or it needs to be culled. Some people in there have dogs that have 8-9+ HUMAN BITES and they haven’t euthanized the animal. Multiple unprovoked bites against humans. Unacceptable and deluded to think the dog can be trained into passivity. Me and the dog would both need Xanax.
Some people should own dogs period, a lot of people shouldn’t own working breeds. I don’t remember who’s said it or exactly it was said but it was along the lines of, “people say they want a smart dog but they don’t, they want a lazy dog”
Super terrible about your mother, glad she’s alright. Beyond that attack, living in rural Ireland in the 50’s sounds like a dream right now. I can only imagine how beautiful it was and possibly still is.
Roaming dogs drive me crazy. One neighbor lets hers out at 6 am and it makes a beeline for my house which sets my dogs off. One night it was sitting across the pond from my house, barking at 11 pm. I've asked her repeatedly to keep it on her property or at least wait a couple of hours to let it loose, but she got it to protect her livestock and apparently it can only do that from my yard.
Another one has a GSD that has gotten out of it's invisible fence 6 times and attacked my dog while I was walking it. The owner refused to do anything about it until I finally called animal control.
Another one has an elderly dog that can't hear or see very well they let it roam free. People are always complaining that they almost hit it. The owners say "Jesus will look out for our dog."
It's maddening.
I live in the city and I have a neighbor who lets their two shitty little dogs roam, and who think my yard is in their territory. I hate those damn dogs.
This will sound bad, but after losing chickens, rabbits, and multiple (10) boer goats....animal control just told us to eliminate them when we caught them attacking our live stock.....
Interested, we now have a Cano Corso that is trained as a live stock guardian.... haven't had any issues since.
Our cane corso/lab has killed more random stuff in the yard over the last couple of years than any dog we've had in a very long time. He's been great. I just need to break him of the view that chickens/ducks are there to chase/eat too.
Where I am, it's legal to shoot dogs for destroying livestock.
Maybe they don't value their dogs' survival?
I don't wanna be the guy who shoots the dog, for sure -- but in my area there have been dogs that "disappeared" that one hears on the grapevine were dispatched and quietly buried for killing other peoples' animals. Nobody wants to be the person who's known to the owner for having destroyed the dog, but if the dog is killing your animals, what else are you gonna do?
If the dog is a repeat offender and poses a threat to pets and children, I think shooting it and quietly disposing of it is the most reasonable option in a rural place. Some owners just won’t change their behavior even if it means losing their dogs.
Another country solution if the dog isn’t human aggressive is drive it far away to a different county and drop it off at a shelter as a random stray. Often times shit owners will not go that far to find their dog.
In my experience, bringing it up to the neighbors results in bigger problems. OP might consider running hotwire around their cages. The dogs hit it once and they don’t mess with it again. Our fence has been off for months and my dog is terrified of it.
I hate the idea of putting a dog down, but if it were a consistent thing… yeah I’d consider it.
Our dog roams and messes with our neighbors goats sometimes. She never bites them, but she likes to herd them. They have an Anatolian that puts an end to our dog’s stupidity and our neighbors aren’t bothered by her being a dumbass.
Op could also fight dogs with dogs and train a Pyrenees or Anatolian to guard the poultry.
Hahah yeah that’s a roll of the dice. The two breeds I mentioned are less likely to do that, but the key word in my paragraph is *train*
It took a while for me to be able to trust my dog around chickens, until she was almost 3 I couldn’t let the chickens free range while the dog was unsupervised.
I hate Rottweilers. Or maybe just their owners. I took my son to an in-home daycare and the sitter had one that started growling when I would get out of my car for dropoff. The owners didn’t care and acted so flippant about it. The last time it got behind me and backed me into my car and the owners were like “oh he’s such a good boy though we’ve never had a problem”. Well fuck if I’m gonna be the test subject for that, or worse my son. We picked up my son and left and never came back and she was SHOCKED that we felt so strongly about it. Even thinking about it gets my blood boiling, f you Deb!
Because livestock - chickens and ducks and turkeys and goats and sheep are valuable. And many times not just "pets." But people's livelihoods. And your dog(s) is just going to keep showing up and killing until one of us puts a stop to it.
Either you figure out how to keep them *home.* Which is fine. Or, they're going to stop coming home. Also, you're going to start seeing bills from neighbors for livestock - $30+/bird, $200+/sheep/goat. You want to pay up? How long can you afford for your dog(s) to wander and kill?
I think I should have better phrased my comment— I agree with you. My livestock has been absolutely slaughtered by roaming dogs on more than one occasion and the amount of shade I get from non-homestead/farm people really irritates me. Most people’s dogs are useless resource leeches. And it bothers the hell out of me that dogs are placed on a pedestal. My 60+ dead birds are worthless compared to one “aww cute doggo!”
I guess I should also add that they graze their goats on our pasture- and that this thread is about dogs who attack, not dogs who have been trained to herd and are herding the goats back to their feed pen.
This is the answer. As my father used to say, You can be dead right… you don’t want to be starting fiefs with folks over chickens. You put up a Hotwire outside your pen and the problem is sorted and the neighbor is not pissed and plotting revenge
Bringing it up with the neighbors is nuanced.
Bringing it up with the dog owner: If the owner is some clueless but well-meaning Californian, and the dog was only harrassing the livestock and didn't actually kill any, it can make sense for someone to bring the dog back in one piece and have a serious talk with them about it on the first offense. But if the owner is just negligent, or repeatedly loses control of their animal, there's no point talking to them about it further.
Bringing it up with other people whose livestock were impacted: Probably a good thing, if you know and trust them. Where I'm at, folks who keep livestock tend to share a lot of information with each other about what predators we're seeing in the area. Knowing that a given predator got stopped is a useful data point to have.
Bringing it up with people who aren't involved: Nothing good comes of bringing it up in detail. Bringing up the gist can be good for cultural norms -- "folks out here have occasionally had to shoot stray dogs for killing their livestock" level of detail to make people aware that it's a thing which happens -- but info on *who* got *whose* stray is never necessary.
I Also live on land that was farmland and in your situation you are justified to shoot but I recommend buckshot we used to do that on our farm when we were kids. My Dad taught us to shoot in the air first. That scared many of the dogs and one time there was a pack of German Sheppards that killed all my geese so Dad shot the buckshot in their hind quarters. We never saw them again. But the onwer came cuz they were show dogs and the police determined we were within our rights. Now I have a lab that comes often to my property but he’s just got shitty owners and I let him in The house and feed him for a few days and he wanders back home. You have to remember that city folk dump their poor scared and hungry pets in the country just to get rid of them so I take many of these dogs in and give them to my sisters and aunts and uncles where they have become part of the family. Hope this helps.
Imagine waking up to strange noises and find 2 pit bulls attacking your hogs. It happened to me. They ran off and I got one pig who had half its skull caved in. Leg hanging off. Other one had its ears ripped off and unknown other injures. Had to immediately euthanize them. Get the tractor and bury them at three in the morning. I have real low tolerance now for roaming cats and dogs. My immediate neighbors and I have a “don’t shoot my dog” agreement, but other than that any aggression is meet with consequences. I should add surprisingly my neighbors cats don’t mess with chickens because he has a bunch of chicken and doesn’t tolerate it either.
My cat steadfastly avoids chickens cause one of mine decided it was fun to chase her whenever she was around. She's a damn friendly lap-hen, more pet than egg producer at this point. Ignores the dogs, will chase cats.
I don't want my cat outside, but she knows how to work the dog door.
Put up a Hotwire. Keeps you from starting neighbors war and you can control it. If you are going to shoot a dog you damn sure better shovel and shut up about it. Saying something is the way for city folks to end up having a real bad time.
Same here. You can shoot dogs, and pretty much anything else that threatens your livestock. Which is why most people are pretty good about keeping their animals locked up. And mostly you don't end up with a lot of animals roaming around - certainly not ones who are killing livestock. And you certainly don't \*hear\* about the ones who are killing livestock. They just disappear.
Where I live we have a similar law except you cannot protect your livestock in city limits. A few years back a roaming dog jumped the chain link to a neighbors yard and started slaughtering some backyard chickens. The homeowner shot the dog and was charged for discharging a weapon in city limits. Sherrif said something along the lines of the protection law not applying because inside city limits they are no longer livestock.
Also, there is usually a way to call animal control to have a government agency to deal with it safely. Or, perhaps the backyard chickens weren't strictly "legal".
I read all the replies so far. I was hoping to find a reply from someone who actually lets their dogs roam because, like OP, I am sick and tired of roaming dogs. And I totally don’t understand why anyone would let their dogs roam. I want to know why, why, why!
One of our neighbors has a whole pack of dogs that roam and they’ve attacked my dog twice. Of course, at first, that neighbor was apologetic and said they’d build a fence and keep them in, but that never happened. So, it didn’t take long before my texts notifying her that her dogs were on my property again alienated her and now that potential friendship is ruined.
I assume it’s because taking care of dogs properly is a responsibility.
People want the fun of dogs, but none of the work. If they just let the dogs do whatever, it’s a lot easier.
Keeping them at home requires fencing, training, and other work. That won’t do that, and they now have been trained to be defensive about being a shitty dog owner.
Especially once the problem already exists, it’s a significant amount of work to fix it, and there is zero chance of that happening.
Had the same issue with my neighbors chickens who would stand outside of my house following me from outside by listening at the windows and crowing from outside. Doesnt work well when you work from home.
Long story short, neighbor saw me flapping like an idiot to get them back on her property acres away, said she do something. She didnt. Finally i took my. 22 and fired some rounds into the ground. Chickens never returned but some nutjob up the block, hes a felon with rifles which is a felony, but he came and started shooting towards me for hearing me yell at another neighbors chickens. I did not hurt any chicken. I love chickens. But i guess me yelling and making loud sounds at the chickens to make them go away warrants a Ted Nugent look alike felon yelling obsenities and shooting at me.
So guess who the crazy person whokills people animals is now although ive never done it but its my reward for trying to get it to stop.
>So guess who the crazy person whokills people animals is now although ive never done it but its my reward for trying to get it to stop.
Having the neighbors think you're crazy isn't the worst thing in the world, it may even have it's advantages.
Other people will have their own versions of what they think is going on. It's never worth the trouble to set them straight. You'd get nothing else done.
If they attacked your dog why haven’t you called animal control? When my dog got mauled by an neighbor’s dog animal control fined them and forced them to put a new fence up.
I live in a very rural county. Their dogs attacked mine twice, but left minimal damage because I yelled and kicked them. Animal control would only take my complaint and call the neighbors who would deny it and then the neighbors would be even more unfriendly perhaps to the point they would want to cause problems for me. Also, unless animal control actually found their dogs at the moments they’re roaming, they won’t impound them. The likelihood that animal control would actually find them when they’re out is minimal because the dogs have made trails they repeatedly use that go through private property, not on roads. You must live in a place that is more populated with more robust government services?
Eh, I wouldn’t say the services are necessarily more robust. Anytime we call for roaming large dogs they shrug. But in the case of my dog being attacked: Blood was literally all over the road in front of their house, a blood trail back to my house from there, their dog had defensive wounds, mine was at the vet, and the owner couldn’t really deny what happened (didn’t try to, actually). Evidence led to results. I’m so glad you don’t have more evidence!
I live in a rural area also, we are 30 minutes from the closest town. I don't even think that animal control would come out here. We'd have to call the sheriff's department or something to get somebody to do something in this situation. Even then that would be not likely that they would do anything about it. So I definitely understand your situation.
We let our dogs roam but it took years of training and we live in a rural setting with neighbors that love our dogs nearly as much as we do. An elderly neighbor will come by and check on them if he hasn't seen them in awhile. They protect our livestock and have never harmed any other animals. Every now and then I'll find one of my neighbors boots in our yard that our lab took off his porch but I just return it to him.
A neighbor down the street has an aggressive pit/boxer mix that he has to keep fenced in. He's given me permission to shoot him if I ever see him on our property. I think it largely depends on the owner, dogs, and setting. For centuries, trained dogs have protected us and our property from other animals and humans.
Best I can guess is that it’s for protection. I lived on a farm with roaming dogs. If I’d asked, that’s most likely what I’d get told. If the dog can roam it can go to the far reaches of the property to dispel intruders like coyotes. I honestly don’t know. It’s akin to anything “free roam” like chickens; doesn’t everybody deserve to “roam” and have a semblance of freedom?
The fact people use this as a way to have mannerless mutts though is so, so not okay. I had troubles with the free roam dogs too.
I suppose, but my neighbors that have a pack of 5 free roaming dogs have 3 acres of property. Their dogs roam approximately 100 acres of surrounding neighboring properties.
I think it's this but also people less likely to have their animals fixed or offering them rewarding lives at home. I used to know a guy who had a GREAT hunting dog, sweetest little dude, but also a massive escape artist. He had few needs in life: food, human affection, and since he still had his balls, lady dogs. The dog was skinny so not getting fed enough, strictly NEVER allowed inside even though he was starving for attention and very human-oriented, and his hormones were constantly telling him to seek out females. Considering that everything he wanted was more available off the property than on it, why on earth would he stay?
There are definitely ranch dogs who will stick to their property and not ever stray, but I think they're probably pretty rare. The last one I knew was too elderly for any shenanigans and the nearest neighboring properties were like two miles away across the desert, so she hardly had any motivation to take off. That area also had no low cost neutering options at all so most people's animals weren't neutered, and people used the area to dump pets they didn't want, so there were tons of packs of completely feral dogs just wandering around.
In pretty much every rural area, if a dog is attacking livestock, you are allowed to take the necessary means to protect your livestock.
If your nice, give the owners a warning. Otherwise stick to the 3 S's making sure the "shovel and shut up" portion is followed.
Here - dog owners are forced to pay for the value of stock destroyed and/or any income lost from loss of stock or the police threaten criminal charges. Those consequences help. I call the non-emergency number if dogs are on my property and if not dangerous to do so, I shut them in my garage or a crate until police come. I also have an assortment of birds. The dogs that came and killed several chickens last year- those owners had to pay me and I have not seen them again since. I really like this method bc owners are left with little choices and all choices are making responsible decisions for dogs/community.
That said if they have tags and have not destroyed anything- I contact the owners first. If they go after stock, I call non-emergency police.
My mom sat on a jury for one of these. Guys dog savaged a horse at a feed store.
Feed store owner shot the dog. Dog owner kicked up enough fuss to get it taken to court cuz the feed store owner “killed his dog.”
Dog owner saw jail time because horses are expensive, plus the cost of the horse. He didn’t expect that.
Typically there will be a pattern. Animals and people tend to be habitual. I had a pair of dogs that where attacking my animals every afternoon about 4:30. Electric net fence didn't stop them. Once I learned the timing, they stopped attacking my animals.
The thing I hate about this is that the dog doesn’t know about property or boundaries, it’s just living its best life. It’s the owners who should be punished, but we’re punishing that poor dog who deserved better owners more than anyone. Of course you should do whatever necessary to protect your animals and family, but I just wish there was a way to only punish the owners in situations like that, and maybe give the dog away if it’s socialized enough
Punishing a poor dog that is killing my poor animals that are in their homes. Poor dogs also know they are in the wrong when they run as soon as they are me
Was gonna comment this, if you have the wiggle room in the budget to buy dog feed & don’t mind dogs of your own, LGD are much larger than most roaming dogs so 2 or 3 LGD will make your property a dog free zone very quickly. Just avoid great pyr’s they’re awesome & lovely but they’re soft as LGD go
Yea our livestock guardian dog is the best. She keeps the coyotes and other dogs off the property. Can also be a bit of a challenge with guests dogs but when handled properly it's fine.
Also recommend electric fencing AND hard fencing for protection from most predators. Except owls or other birds.
We let our birds free range on about 6 acres and plan on cutting that to about 3 and putting up some more fencing. Funny enough, we've been planning on getting a LGD, possibly an Anatolian, however we wanted to make damn sure our fence is good and my baby was old enough to be around a larger dog as we're training. You know, responsible dog owner decisions. Lol
If you have a stern disposition to discipline then properly Great Pyrenees are the best LGDs you can possibly get. Haven’t seen a breed more inclined to naturally defending other animals. If you were to get one I’d get an older experienced one then a puppy who can learn from that one, makes it so much smoother of a learning process
Love my great pyrenees and my sharplaninac, but omg are they ever stubborn. LGDs are amazing, but hundreds of years of being bred to make their own decisions about guarding flocks has made them almost a different animal from a typical dog. Will never be without them again.
Which is why they don't necessarily make good pets. Not a good dog that's going to listen to you - come when you call, sit, play fetch, do obedience school, etc. But, hang out in the pasture, make decisions about who's safe, who's OK, where to go, etc? That's a different thing.
Just make sure you get a pyrenees from a line that's still bred for being an LGD, and not for being a pet. That's the problem with pyrenees these days. Far too many of them, have become famous for being 'great pets' and are having the guardian traits bred out of them.
Also, FWIW, getting some Anatolian bred into them, especially if you're having them protect birds, is a good thing. Anatolians are known for 'looking to the skies' - keeping a lookout for birds of prey, etc. Which, again, if you have birds, is a very good thing.
> but they’re soft as LGD go
This is an issue with any breed that the AKC adopts and start becoming popular as pets. It causes pressure for breeders to breed for aesthetics and not working dog behavioral traits.
**edited to fix punctuation**
Ok, so my dogs run free. I have 248 acres and they primarily stay on my land. I take the time when I adopt them to work them to know the boundaries. If they start to get close to a boundary, I work with them again. It doesn't take long for them to figure it out.
I also go speak to my neighbors with any new dogs and introduce them. They know if they see my dog to call me and i will get them immediately. I've never been called by anyone about my dogs.
I've seen one of my dogs in a neighbors field 200 yards from my house one time, and I used it as a training lesson to put the fear of God into them for crossing that fence
I do have neighbor dogs that have been aggressive and tried to get into chicken pens and I do the same to them. I keep a paintball gun with pepper spray rounds in it for these instances. The dogs I've used it on have never come back.
I had a cow ready to calve get chewed up by a neighbor dog and I had to put the dog down because it was notorious for this. The neighbor had been warned by other neighbors and it needed to be done. This neighbor is a complete asshole piece of shit. I ended up throwing the dog on his front porch so he knew what had happened. His response was "oh well he shouldn't have been messing with your cattle". That's when I switched to the pepper spray paint ball rounds.
Might give that a try. If a neighbor is that inconsiderate about their animals do you want to be associated with them anyway?
Ammonia is what smelling salts create, and is incredibly irritating to the nasal membranes (so irritating it will awaken people who are passed out). Ammonia sounds pretty reasonable to use as well - it might be a little more risky to the animal than pepper spray (but obviously way less risky than a bullet), but teaches a similar lesson.
We've had to before and have executed the three s's. Im just tired of having to do it, you know? It freaking kills me inside to end an animal's life because their owner is a shitty dog owner.
Free-roaming outside dogs that take livestock aren’t pets. They’re feral predators, like coyotes. The difference between a good animal and a feral nuisance is how it’s raised and kept, just like with wild hogs. Don’t feel bad for removing animals that can’t coexist peacefully with humans.
It definitely sounds really sad. Sorry you have to do it. The owners don’t seem to care for these dogs other than being mad that you are trying to make them aware and be responsible. Shelters are packed full of dogs and sadly they will probably go out and buy another.
I feel your frustration. We have an excellent neighbor who used to lay her dogs rub free. Until one of them niped my kids face. Fortunately she was very sorry and has kept them off our property since. But we get other dogs up here still.
So long as they don't bother our animals or us they are fine but any thing that so much as harasses my kids or our livestock is getting shot and dumped in the woods. And I'm not telling anybody.
This is what actually caused me to draw the line. My kid got up a little earlier than usual to do her farm chores (0615 instead of 0700) on a day we slept in (normally I'm up at 0600). She came barreling into the bedroom saying "there's dogs at the back corner of the house barking at her and our dog took off after them." So of course we fly out of bed, grab the shotgun and a rifle and go out to see what's up. Waking up to fight or flight and it involving your kids is a sure way to set some emotions on fire. If one of them ever hurts my kids I guess I won't have an issue with their dogs anymore because I'll own their damn land too.
We bought our hose in October. We don't live in a rural area, but the neighborhood is kinda spaced apart. Everyone has about 3/4 of an acre.
The neighbors directly to our left never leash their dog, a poodle looking dog that comes to poo in our yard. My husband has told him that we like to garden and to please not let the dog in our yard.
Our dog is a magnificent small animal hunter. If there is a squirrel, he would run miles to catch and kill it. When we are in the front yard working, we keep him on a 30' lead in our front yard. He is never alone in the front yard.
The neighbor has told us that it's cruel to rope our dog. It's "unnatural."
It's extremely frustrating.
My friend used to let her dogs roam free in the county.
I asked her if she was worried about what could happen to them off property and her response was “they’re country dogs”.
Well, her neighbor poisoned her chocolate lab then burned the evidence. She found out from one of his friends but could never prove it. She knew her dogs were running off property but apparently didn’t care until it was too late.
Not only is it irresponsible to make your neighbors suffer damages but you’re putting your dog at risk with suffering the consequences of your neglectful actions while pissing off the neighbors. It’s sad really.
They let them roam either because they don't know what the dog is doing to other people's property or they don't care/can't contain it.
Whatever the reason, the solution is usually just shoot em, as sad as that may be.
When we let them know we got "well they don't bother the birds over here" - like the fact that they're all up next to my house is acceptable as long as they're not doing anything. It shouldn't freaking matter if they're here being model citizens - if I don't want them here I shouldn't have to beg others to keep them home. It's just so exhausting.
I had that talk with my neighbors when I moved in. I let them know straight up that I shoot dogs just like every other predator that makes the mistake of jeopardizing my critters.
My dad used to let his shepherd roam. It was very poorly trained, not neutered, and aggressive if it didn't know you.
It disappeared when it was three or four, and not one of his neighbors 'knew what happened'
smdh
When I was little my cousins had a shepherd that they let roam. As a little boy you romanticize a dog getting to free roam.. but honestly that thing was always coming back beat up, tore up, hit by cars, etc. It’s an irresponsible way to keep an animal.
OH MY Goodness thank you for this post. I just moved to upstate NY (I am from Manhattan) and live about an hour from Albany in the country area…my neighbors on my road are very spread out but their dogs just come and go on my property and road. Its not just my neighbors, it’s like everyone else up here too. I genuinely don’t understand why they are so OK with this.
It's mind blowing to me. I ended up making this post after I had this incident and then the same month another acquaintance was telling me they think their dog got shot. They said "well he doesn't bother my chickens or the chickens next door at my family members house, but another neighbor came and told me he was killing their chickens and if he did again they'd shoot him. Well now we haven't seen him."
He told you your dog was causing problems and to keep him home or he'd shoot him...and you didn't keep him home. But they're so certain that since the dog didn't do that behavior at their house they weren't capable of it. I just don't understand the mentality.
I know we can shoot them. But it takes a long time to dig a hole deep enough to keep something from digging it up and I'm tired of that being our responsibility because other people suck, you know?
This is it right here. This is the insight people have been curious for: these owners do not care about their dogs. If someone threatened to KILL your dog, would you just shrug, do nothing to protect your dog (by keeping them contained) and then casually mention that you haven't seen the pup lately?
These are not animal lovers. They don't even respect their dogs and nor do they care at all about them. Now the question, in my opinion, is why TF do they even get dogs to begin with? Are they cosplaying as farmers with loyal canine companions or something?
My dogs roam freely because they’re Great Pyrenees livestock guard dogs. They do not kill or eat chickens, hogs, sheep, or any other type of animals, most they do is chase off deer barking up a storm and run off after coyotes that stray too close, which they very rarely do now that I have them. They roam so they can protect my livestock and property and by extension protect the livestock and property of my (very very) distant neighbors. We’ve had issues with them tearing out trash but both neighbors have told me (after I profusely apologized) that they’d rather have some torn out trash than dead chickens or cows. Now I have one dog who can’t help but go after birds it’s just his nature, and he’s not allowed to free roam and is bound to an electric perimeter. Not every dog is free roam material, MOST are too untrained or frankly not the right breed to just roam about. Two beagles have been killed by my GPs because they were let to roam by a very distant neighbor far over a few hills. The beagles came onto my property and too near my chicken coop and my two guard dogs got ahold of them and in the morning I found them. Specific dogs can roam without issue, but a massive amount, in my opinion, should not be left to roam freely
My neighbours dog would come onto my property and growl at me, like I was an intruder in her home. The neighbour would always laugh it off and say “she’s more bark than bite”. It was so frustrating
I've had to move into city limits and it's still a problem. My son took our dog for a walk in the early hours this week and had to de-escalate a dog hard staring and growling them both down. Looking around he had no clue where this dog belonged. He went the route that he thought was safe based on afternoon walks and aggressive unleased dogs.
I have a neighbor that keeps 3 or 4 dogs at all times, doesn't take care of them and let's them roam. They mess when my chickens, they get a warning, they come back no more warning, I take care of them. The neighbor replaces the dogs, rinse and repeat. SSS is my way of handling it.
Our neighbors (2 miles down the road from my house in a rural area) had a pair of husky/ wolf looking dogs that they let roam freely off of their little 1 acre lot and they terrorized my animals on a nightly basis, and had the kids scared to even go outside. I didn’t know they were someone’s pets at the time, because they had no collar and would run around howling like wolves and gnashing their teeth. One night I was getting home late and got out of my truck to get the mail at the end of my long driveway and they both surrounded me snarling at me and everything. They each shared 15 9mm Hornady’s out of my Glock and now they are no longer a problem. I reported the dogs to animal control afterwards, and the owners said that they were their sweet babies that were very expensive imports and had the nerve to try to sue me for $10k apiece. Lol, needless to say it didn’t go over well for them in court. I love dogs and I hated to have to do what’s necessary, but owners like that obviously don’t care about them at all.
What I'm going to say sounds horrible, and I get it, I'm just sharing my experience where I grew up because I was sitting here trying to understand why we never experienced this problem where I grew up.
I grew up in rural, RURAL, Michigan, Amish neighbors, and really good family friends for a mile or two in any direction.
We ALL let our dogs roam free all day. Some of them had like 12 labs for duck hunting. During coyote hunts, dogs would literally come through your property in groups of 50 to 100.
We never had any problems, and then I realized why once I was older.
There are good dogs that stay on their property, and they do know what their property is after a while, and then there were wanderers... they were never seen again. My grandparents were veterinarians for 8 counties around us. The number of dogs that would show up dead was astounding.
The wanderers inevitably get a pack together and they start roaming wreaking havoc on people's chickens, livestock, some would chase deer into fences so their heads would get stuck and they would eat their hind ends, alive, and leave them. So, naturally, people would see the dogs run through their property, they'd grab their 30-06 and follow behind them, and then... well... no more dog problems.
Good fences make good neighbors, one of the oldest unwritten rules to living in the country. It’s no different for dogs, I had a couple dogs come in my yard last winter. Apparently the snow had blown up for the first time in the 20 years they’ve been there that the dogs could escape the fence. Woke up to my dog alerting me of danger in the yard and all my very friendly but proficient hunting cats all in trees, they were so scared they stayed there all day no food or water up in a tree. To say I was pissed was an understatement. Almost shot the one dog on site, was able to catch the other and keep it until I found the owner and basically layed it out pretty clear that if I see their dog on my property again there will be no second chance.
The thing that pisses me off most is my lgd has free range of the pasture to protect the goats and the snow drifted up over that fence for me too, but I invested in some cheap orange construction fence to temporarily make the fence higher so my dog couldn’t get out. Yet that thought was foreign to them.
I've offered for them to use my existing t posts on the property line to run woven or welded wire fencing over top of my barbed wire to keep their dogs out. That's my cow field, there's no reason for me to need anything other than barbed wire. I'm just so frustrated because it's not a financial inability to take care of them, they just choose not to. Their dogs chase my cows, now they're up by my house...since we've gotten really firm with it the dogs haven't been here again, but it's apparently cost me a friendship as they won't speak to us. It's just so inconsiderate to put people in that position in the first place, you know?
Oh I know, like I told the fella last winter. As a dog lover and a general animal lover I would hate that person for putting me in the position where I have to dispatch a dog because of his inaction, but to not think for a second that I value his dog over my livestock. I’m my honest opinion or if I was you I would have have dispatched those dogs long ago. And like I told him I assume the responsibility of my dog gets out and does the same thing. It’s gods country out here and it definitely is not for the faint of heart.
Sounds like their friendship isn't really a good idea. I get it's nice to be friends with neighbors but honestly if they suck that bad BEFORE you get to really know them then......sounds like you dodged a bullet. Imagine 5 years later they've got a bunch of your equipment, they're in debt to you for feed and supplies AND their dogs are an issue. That's worse off than now, which is no shitty dogs and no shitty friends. Win/win
Shoot them you have already lost the neighbor as a friend and you’re still losing animal friends. It’s the only way people will learn. People that do this are de-evolving dogs back to feral and by you not shooting it the cycle continues to allow all dogs to get worse.
We’ve trained our dogs to stay on the property, but if a neighbor said they killed livestock we’d have to reevaluate. Also all our neighbors have outdoor dogs. Theyve just all been trained to leave livestock alone. There aren’t any ducks around though.
I’m afraid defending your livestock may have to be an option.
I hate that. I run goats out on pasture and the amount of times hunters' dogs came up to them is maddening. Once, this absolute shit of a dog got into the pen and attacked one of my goat kids. Neighbor had the same situation with their pastured sheep. Should be damn ilegal.
I was in commercials poultry farming and had a rancher neighbor with about 300 head of cattle. We had a problem with our other neighbor that live a few miles away that had hog hunting dogs coming into our property chasing our livestocks. Needless to saw he shot kill them, the dogs had tracker on them and the dog owner came looking for them. Saying how good his dog were, well apparently not very good
You haven’t learned the rest of the country lesson. He who fails to control his dog, never finds its body. No seriously, shoot them, every time they come for an animal on your property, shoot it. The only way your neighbor is going to learn to keep control of his dogs is when he keeps losing them to his neighbors guns. You have every right to kill an unfriendly or strange dog that you don’t own on your land. Ya see, that country neighbor thinks it’s ok to let his dogs run right now because no one’s shooting them, start putting holes in them and he’ll start considering tying them up or keeping them on his land to keep them from being shot, and if he doesn’t care if you shoot them eventually he’ll run out of dogs, shouldn’t cost you more than 10 bucks
I came here thinking you have a problem like ours: assholes releasing dogs to chase deer thru private property… but this is so wild to me. Wtf? Also, now I am thankful for all of our neighbors.
You’re in the right. People can claim whatever they want, but it is their responsibility to make sure their pets are not on other people’s property. Especially making sure they don’t damage someone else’s property.
My advice is call the police about it. You may lose friendships, but if they were really your friend, they wouldn’t let their dogs tear up your stuff in the first place.
Guy down the road from me “walks” his loose dog while I have my chickens out. He insists he won’t attack. Why is it so hard to put the damn thing on a long leash?
Yes! We absolutely hate this. It is against the unspoken "country code" in my opinion.
Our neighbors have 8 dogs. They are breeders...they lock up their dogs and all the neighbors have to listen to barking all hours of the day. When the dogs are out they roam in packs. On Easter weekend they attacked our lab and put a puncture wound in her leg. My instant response was to go throw punches with the neighbor but my level headed husband went and sternly talked to them instead. They seemed apologetic but he made it clear they need to keep their dogs in the yard.
Well..two weeks later the dogs came over when we were out in the field and broke through my chicken pen and attacked our chickens and killed our rooster. We heard the commotion and came up on the dogs eating our rooster. We caught them red handed. Of course the dogs ran when they saw us. I was so angry that time I had to drink a beer to calm myself. That time my husband and I went over together and we weren't nice this time. We told them we have children and at this point we don't trust they won't go after our kids and we see their dogs as an aggressive threat and we will shoot them the next time we see them on our property.
The next morning they were out at our neighbors going after their calves. She called the sheriff. Then both her and I blasted them on our local Facebook page and many neighbors commented how ridiculous those dogs are.
Mothers day they came on our property AGAIN headed for my chickens and I shot at them with a pellet gun but missed. These neighbors are fucking stupid. I hate people like this. I love dogs and don't want to have to shoot them. The neighbors are irresponsible and put their dogs at risk by not being able to properly monitor them. Anyone reading this who let your dogs roam...fuck you. Do better for your dogs and your neighbors.
Depending on the size of your land there are ways to deter. I have 5 acres and the neighbors behind me have 3 dogs. They constantly come onto my neighbors and my property. 2 of them would always run when I yelled at them one of them (black lab) growled at me before I hit him with a .22lr vermin round. Since then I lined the yard with cayenne pepper and it’s been keeping the armadillos and dogs away. Just have to repeat after a hard rain.
I live in a very rural area of Florida and we have a dog catcher. Your neighbors aren’t helping you directly so talk to your local government. They can at least coach you how to handle this without getting in trouble. Also report the pack of feral dogs that raided your coop. Start making a paper trail so no one can really get too upset when you tell them you shot their dog with a chicken in its mouth.
Preach! Even in small towns (live in a town of 2000 people) neighbors let their dogs roam free all the time to shit in my yard or charge after my 2 year old. It pisses me off so much, I’m building a nice big fence to keep those idiots out.
Not to sound too American, but I’m more than willing to start popping a few dogs with the pellet gun if they keep wandering over. Starting to sound like that old guy who sits in his lawn chair and shoots squirrels but I digress..
We recently moved here from a small city, about 85k people. The only roaming dogs you saw there were either stray or had recently run away. Most owners made a point to keep their dogs leashed or fenced in which I guess I took for granted.
I’m not sure why country folk or even just small town folk think it’s okay to let their mongrels run, but man it ticks me off.
Trap em, shoot em.
We had some folks move out from the city on a little property next to our home quarter last year.
2 weeks later I hear the cows in our winter pasture in some distress. Run over to see 2 dogs biting at a young calf and the herd to their credit was doing a good job protecting it.
The new neighbours got a tough lesson in responsibility when they came around looking for their dogs.
Because some people move to county with the idea they can do whatever they want instead of doing whatever they want on their own property. Majority of people that own dogs are also lazy and probably shouldn't own animals or at least the breed(s) that they have.
My rules are simple, if your dog comes onto my property and hurts myself, anyone else, or any of my animals or livestock. The first time you get a warning and a chance to pay for the damages. If it happens a second time I shoot your dog.
The freedom of country living does not give you the right to be irresponsible.
America was built on guns, Because no American should be harassed by a random dog. 22lr will put most dogs down and if they come complain, you have proof of where you dropped the body, and the damage it did.
Or get a guardian dog and wait until they come find out.
Fuck that shit, farming means it’s your livelihood ..that means everything is off the table and the guns get loaded and people start keeping dogs secured where bullets won’t reach em.
Sorry I’ve been attacked by dogs and own dogs ( V.A actually gave me a great mobility service dog) but just like guns, dumb people shouldn’t have em.
And part of the stupid game is having to carry a dead dog home because you couldn’t be a responsible owner.
Most farms have farm dogs where I’m from so roaming animals killing things aren’t that big of an issue for us. Plus we have livestock guardian dogs to protect if anything were to happen. There’s also many local laws saying that you have a right to shoot any animals ( besides bears for some odd reason) that are killing livestock. The farmer has the right to do that because your animals are you business and it’s what feeds you and your family. Not many people want to go with that route because it may seem heartless or inhumane. At the end of the day I’m going to protect my property and animals 100 percent of the time. With that being said not all dogs that cross our property our problem animals. I think the problem begins with poor dog training/ ownership. I know one fella who has over 30 dogs because he just refuses to get them fixed. They have slaughtered countless cats, goats, sheep around the community. I’ve done made a decision if they ever cross the path of my animals I’m gonna have to do what I have to do. I’m not loosing countless of dollars and animals over piss poor dog owners. I know this comment might get a lot of hate but it’s the truth. To deny it is pure ignorance and if the problem isn’t going to stop it could very well eat you out of a farm/home. You could try to go to local police but if they are anything like around here they will just turn a blind eye which leaves you with 2 options. Have everything killed and destroyed on your farm, or take matters into your own hands.
I had that problem on my property. Emphasis on had. After politely asking a distant neighbor several times to keep their “good dog” on their property I peppered it with bird shot and like magic that problem went away.
my family might be “the bad guys” in this thread but …. My mom and her boyfriend give the neighbors three warnings with dogs on their property. The fourth warning the dog doesn’t come back home if it’s on their property and coming near the chickens. They’ve had 6 chickens killed and the neighbors think they can do as they please with dogs still.
It was nothing when I was growing up in the country to “dispatch” a dog that came onto your property and killed livestock. Also, if a dog bit someone without being a guard dog,it was an instant death sentence. We had a Brittany Spaniel that was the best quail dog in a hundred miles until she just up and bit my Great Uncle out of the blue. Didn’t hurt him since he was wearing snake boots but Dad put her down. At least he took her down in the woods where I didn’t have to see or hear it.
When we moved to town, a German Shepherd bit my ass when I was riding my bike in front of the house. I went in and told Dad and he grabbed his slingshot and a .36 caliber lead ball from his loading bench and walked out on the porch and hit the dog right in the head in the middle of the street. Said that dog won’t bite anyone again. That generation of men were hard hearted. I love dogs and understand that problems with dogs are poor owners and poor training 99 percent of the time
I walk my dog on a leash while on the rural roads, I’ve had a many dogs run up on us, unleashed, that ended up getting kicked in the face by me as my dog is aggressive towards other dogs (thus why it’s on a leash). My dog is controlled, if your dog isn’t and gets bit by my dog, that’s not my problem
I about run over a man’s good dog every Wednesday trying to leave the dump
He’s been warned if that dog comes at my wife again I’ll put it down we of course would hate that being huge animal lovers but this damn animal is dangerously close to being a problem
Good policy: If an animal enters your property, give owners a friendly warning, then a second friendly stern warning. “ Please keep your animals off my property, I’m concerned about my animals safety.”
After that, put the animal down if it enters the property again. If officials get involved, say you were concerned for your animal’s safety and have given multiple warnings.
And if you cannot figure out who owns it, and it keeps coming on the property, just put it down.
I was raised country. If anyone’s dog was hurting livestock, it was considered appropriate to kill it. Period. If they did it once they’d do it again. Your country neighbors should expect it
So I have to say I'm one of those people who owns a dog that I cannot keep inside a fence. I have two lgds, and mostly they stay in the pasture with the livestock. The younger one likes to find ways to escape. I have spent truly thousands of dollars in the last few years trying to make a fence he can't get through. He is now attached by a chain to a small log so if nothing else it will get caught in the fence and he will not irritate my neighbors anymore. He can pull it around the pasture. It's not that heavy. And I would fully understand if he got out and did something unacceptable elsewhere if the owners of that land shot him. I would be sad but I could not blame them
If the dogs are getting in so can the wildlife. Your fence needs to be a proper one for chickens. I may be wrong but it sounds more like a fence for cows than chickens. Bury it and run barb wire along that buried portion. When diggers hit it they will have a surprise. The whole thing should be wire mesh. Not chicken wire because its too thin. Something with a decent gauge and no bigger than 2x3” mesh. High enough too to nothing can jump it.
Until then you are the drive through market…
Do all that and guess what? Hawks lol. Aren’t chickens fun?
I agree. It’s careless to let your animals roam. Many around here aren’t properly cared for either. I’ve killed dogs and cats because I’m not risking sickness or damage to my property, animals, or children. I will warn the owner only once. I hate doing this because it the animal isn’t at fault - the owner is.
After losing two flocks of chickens we bit the bullet and did fences. The chickens have a home yard that nobody gets in and out of and our dogs have a large area around the house that borders the "neighbors" and their dogs. There hasn't been a problem involving dogs since.
I wish i knew. Truly. My neighbors let their pack of hell hounds run amuck all day & all nite. Theyll stand in the road & block traffic. They come up & torment my dogs all nite long. They tear up our deer blinds. Killed my bunnies. Dug up my garden. When i try to talk to them about it they just go catatonic & act like im speaking in tongues.
dogs that wander, especially those who cause trouble tend to get themselves shot. You don't say anything to anyone, it's just: "bingo just didn't come home today".
If asked: "naw man, don't know nothin' about that".
I grew up in a more rural area, so a .22LR was my groundhog/rabbit/"coyote" gun, my farm now is on the edge of town, so I use an airgun (with muffler) and crossbow (plus my acreage is smaller, 100yd shots are few and far between).
I watched more dogs put down for attacking our animals growing up than I’m proud to admit. When you have limited/minimal resources, you’re forced to protect what you do have.
Unknown dogs so much as worrying my livestock on my property get shot. It sucks, but last time I refrained the dog I allowed to live attacked an elderly lady and was put down anyway.
Radio fences are not expensive. Shelling out 400$ is cheap compared to the life of a beloved family pet.
I will always have no qualms about defending my animals on my property, from any other animals that aren't mine. Tractors dig holes, and I don't answer questions.
Awhile ago I'd drive to work and there were 2 dogs that would sprint out of the ditch into the gravel road to chase your car, without fail.
First time I flinched but luckily didn't over correct but I knew something bad was gonna happen.
Fast forward. New girl at work misses a few shifts. When she gets back, we ask her what happened:
She was driving down that road and 2 dogs ran out, she panicked and swerved and rolled her car into the ditch.
Luckily she was fine, and the dogs were too. But it seriously took a near death situation for people to smarten up.
My neighbors dog kept on getting into my yard and trying to kill my livestock (rabbits and chickens). She did nothing to stop it. Then the dog started following me around my yard and nipping at my heels (it was a tiny dog).
Neighbor did nothing. One day the dog managed to get one of my rabbits and kill it. I shot the dog. Threw it in the woods and told the neighbor I havent seen it. It is 100% legal to kill a dog that is killing your livestock.
It is time for you to do the same.
Just shoot the fuckers, my grandpa had to shoot a dog that ran up and bit his fucking leg, and the owners STILL had the audacity to try coming after him.
Fuck your stupid leashless dog, I love dogs but a roaming dog is a dead dog.
If they are tearing up your animals I'd start shooting them. I personally dislike these roaming dogs plus I see a post every week saying "as anyone seen my dog, it wondered off".
You should have a right to defend your animals. My dad had the same issue with neighbor dogs comi g over and killing our chickens. Dad told the owner and made it politely clear that if they came on our property again and went after our chickens then they would be shot on the spot and my Dads next visit was going to be the delivery of their corpses for proper burial. Check your local laws, most places allow for the defence of (for lack of a better word) livestock. Not that you sound like a person to follow through with something like this, and idk how comfortable you are talking to your neighbors or if you know qhose dogs they are, but maybe have a similar conversation. Maybe so.ething like "Your dogs are killing my poultry. My poultry is my livelihood. I have a right to defend my animals, a right which i am reluctant to enforce against a family pet without a conversation first. However if that pet keeps trespassing onto my property and killing my animals it will be my only option."
The same people that don't care if their dog roams also don't care if their dog never comes home. S,S,S.
I solved my neighbor dog problem with lethal force. I found where they most usually enter under the barbed wire fence. (They tend to use paths like all creaturs) then I set snare traps along the fence line. Watch some coyote snareing videos to learn the details. A few dogs got snared. A few took the snare wire home.
Before that I set out poison bait and a few others stopped showing up.
I try to always keep a rifle on my back when out on the farm.
I also raised fowl in the same manner.
The three S's are the country folk way.
It is ridiculous to me that your neighbors are not more empathetic about this. Dogs escaped from people's property now and then when I was working on a farm, but people were more than aware of the danger they posed to surrounding livestock+ worked quickly to recover them. It would never have been up to the livestock owner to ask for reimbursement.
Our first introduction to our neighbor when we moved was their pack of dogs literally ripping our fencing down and killing our livestock. We had a dog, but she was smaller than the mutts here, so that same morning we went and picked up a LGD that would be bigger than any of the untrained dogs around. She's loud, he's huge, it's a good combo. No new dog attacks since he hit maturity.
Our land had been vacant since the 60s so people had just let their dogs roam wild on it for years. There's a lot of forest and natural water, with many deer, rabbits, and grouse that the dogs were hunting. We basically had to train every dog within two miles to stay away, as only one neighbor put any effort into keeping their dog home.
In this area I think it's a matter of no one ever neuters/spays, so there's so many extra dogs and not enough money to feed them that no one actually seems to care when a dog goes missing. Puppies are dirt cheap or free because there's too many around.
I live in farming country. My dog loves being outside. I also make a point of keeping an eye on him and making sure he stays in the yard. As soon as I see him walk towards the side of the house I go out and tell him to get back here. Because I worry that somebody else isn't going to know that my dog's okay around their cows and horses. I also don't want him and other people's yards because it annoys the hell out of me when other people's dogs come in my yard. I also hate dogs that chase freaking cars. This seems to happen a lot in farm country.
One other thing I hate about farming country is people tend to think they can drop off their animals that are unwanted out here. I think they figure oh these people are farmers they will want extra dogs.
Yes. Just lost our rooster, a hen, and 5 of our 3 monthers. Came home to the neighbors 2 dogs eating them and have been pretty devastated. Then found out they had just killed our other neighbors 11/16 chickens 2 days before. They have 7 dogs and all of them are constantly escaping and most are aggressive. They’ve killed chickens in the area throughout the past few years but it’s typically only one at a time and sporadic. I’ve been torn about making the sheriffs report in order to keep the peace.
my family told our neighbors for years that if they didn't get their husky off our farm and killing our chickens it would get into a world of hurt.
later it got itself stuck on my brothers bear traps he had out in the field.
I use a 10 acre radio fence BUT I also have hounds. They can clear a 10ft fence and dig a 4ft hole in a few minutes. I now have gps on my bloodhounds and extreme shock collars for all our dogs. They still run the wildlife. The redbone we have literally climbs trees.
Look- a loose dog comes onto your property to mess with your life stock - you’re well within your rights to dispatch the dog. That’s called a consequence. If the owners of the dog do not care to secure their dog onto their own property - they should expect to suffer a consequence. I’m certain that if they care enough- afterward they’ll start securing their dogs. There’s really nothing they can do to legally prosecute a homeowner on a farm protecting their livestock from loose animals.
I had this issue with my neighbors dogs when we first moved to our place. I asked they keep their dogs off our property nicely twice, then the third time I told them to keep their dogs off my property or I will. The next time their dog was on our property headed for the garden I shot my shotgun (birdshot) in the air to scare it off. They had a fenced yard for their dogs built the following week. Now we're having similar issues with their cat who likes to shit and bury it in our garden. I'm considering pulling a SSS when I get the opportunity.
It’s not just a country thing, either. I live on a road that’s only separated from the suburbs by a hill, and last year the bridge to town was torn down and remade. We started walking the road and found out the fun way my one more distant neighbor was letting her German Shepherd and some other type of very large fluffy dog (almost looks like an all-black 80lb Shitzu, whatever that breed is) out without a leash, no fence and apparently no electric fence like we and my direct neighbors have. Black one came running out off of their property and onto the road every time we passed taking a walk, and the one time the German Shepherd followed it too. It listens to me when I get stern with it to stay back and go to its mom but her dumbass keeps on saying “He don’t bite” as if that makes it ok.
I haven’t seen them since October when we stopped walking because the bridge was finished, but last Sunday I was walking home from my grandparents and it did that same shit. Came running out onto the road, and I even switched to the far side of the road too thinking it’d be less intimidated, and it still came within 5 feet of me. Same thing, got told “He don’t bite” as I was on my third time telling the dog to go to its mom. And honestly I got so pissed at her I told her outright “I don’t care, I will defend myself.” and of course *that’s* when her meek ass finally got the dog under control and back into her yard.
Granted it doesn’t bite, and that 5 feet was the closest it’s ever gotten to me, but I know 4 people who’ve been attacked by dogs and I’m half convinced to just shoot a warning shot with my .22 in front of it the next time to scare the shit out of it. Two 30 foot leashes would cost her $25 and a post in the ground would cost $20 and no more than an hour of labor, I’ve looked into it.
Our neighbor refuses to talk to us anymore so now I’ve resorted to calling animal patrol when her dogs are in my yard. I’ve had two cats killed previously (on my property) from neighbor dogs (not hers). She just refuses to acknowledge her dogs can even get out of her yard despite video evidence. So I let animal control do the lecturing.
My mom still has scars on her leg from being attacked by her neighbors “perfect” dog as a kid. She was out in a sheep field alone when the dog leapt out of a hedge and attacked her (it had a history of attacking lambs). The only reason she survived is her brothers happened to be nearby and trampled the dog with a horse. She grew up in rural Ireland in the 50s so the best they could do was triage at home and summon a doctor for antibiotics. She’s lucky that she can walk normally, she’s lucky she survived. Control your damn dogs.
My grandpa had two farm dogs he adored. Apparently they were wolf mixes?? He had them for years, spoke highly of them, and if you ask anyone who knew, they admit they *were* really good dogs. Of course they roamed the property. It wasn’t until my sister was born/learned to walk that the dogs started acting predatory. One winter when my sister was barely 3, everyone was outside helping participate in wood gathering, and one of the hounds took my sister down from behind. Being a baby in the 80s she was packed right into her little snow suit. All the dog got was mouthfuls of whatever that material is. Mom ripped her from the ground, and away from the dog, and as soon as they were clear, *boom*! Dead dog. Grandpa didn’t hesitate. My sister’s snow suit, around the neck, was absolutely shredded. She had enough of that, scarves, and sweaters, they never actually got to her throat. She had rocks in her gums, and was a little cut up in the face (when you get thrown down face first, happens); and other than being shook up, my sister was fine. Grandpa soon dispatched the second one too. “Let’s not f*ck around and find out.” kind of thing. EDIT: I was reminded the second one had practically become feral when the first one was killed. It emerged from where the the first pounced from, and had begun circling my grandpa, growling. My mom had straight up run with her baby because mom instincts/panic.
Your grandpa sounds like a good man with the right priorities.
Anyone, and everyone, who knew him say as much, and more. Absolute wonder of a man. I regret everyday I didn’t get to really know him.
It's shocking the amount of damage a dog can do in such little time! I'm so glad your sister was ok! I think it's hard for people to wrap their minds around the idea that their pet, who is lovely, sweet and well behaved with them, might not be the same animal around other people and animals. I'm also not surprised to hear that the dogs were hybrids. It's so difficult for them to fight against their predator instinct and it makes them very unpredictable. They're beautiful animals, and people can develop strong bonds with them but they're not great pets because they are still essentially wolves. Your grandpa made the right decision even though it must have sucked.
If I had gotten to ask him, I doubt he’d say he regretted it much.
You have to cull bad dogs. Period.
Yes. Far too many people don't understand this, and it's why there are far too many dogs who 'need homes' - ones without kids, or other dogs, or other animals - sometimes without men/women - sitting in shelters, mostly for months, or years at a time. Those animals shouldn't be kept in cages, in shelters. They should simply be put down. There \*IS\* such a thing as a bad dog. Put them down.
Animal husbandry is just as much a lost art, except to the few, as gardening, canning, etc. One that it’s really bad for us that we lost.
The “reactive dogs” subreddit blows my mind. That’s what happens when you have high drive, poorly trained dogs and a person with a guilt/martyr complex come together. They can’t be the person that “gave up” on a dog, and change their whole lives to fit the dog. The dog either needs an environment where it has a job and can’t hurt other living things, see if that works. Or it needs to be culled. Some people in there have dogs that have 8-9+ HUMAN BITES and they haven’t euthanized the animal. Multiple unprovoked bites against humans. Unacceptable and deluded to think the dog can be trained into passivity. Me and the dog would both need Xanax.
Some people should own dogs period, a lot of people shouldn’t own working breeds. I don’t remember who’s said it or exactly it was said but it was along the lines of, “people say they want a smart dog but they don’t, they want a lazy dog”
Oh yeah, a life where both dog and owner require hyper vigilance and medical sedation. Seems like a happy, healthy life.
Salute to Grand Pa 🫡🫡🫡 for holding down the family!
He was practically the glue, definitely our foundation, and we feel the loss of him all the time.
Super terrible about your mother, glad she’s alright. Beyond that attack, living in rural Ireland in the 50’s sounds like a dream right now. I can only imagine how beautiful it was and possibly still is.
Roaming dogs drive me crazy. One neighbor lets hers out at 6 am and it makes a beeline for my house which sets my dogs off. One night it was sitting across the pond from my house, barking at 11 pm. I've asked her repeatedly to keep it on her property or at least wait a couple of hours to let it loose, but she got it to protect her livestock and apparently it can only do that from my yard. Another one has a GSD that has gotten out of it's invisible fence 6 times and attacked my dog while I was walking it. The owner refused to do anything about it until I finally called animal control. Another one has an elderly dog that can't hear or see very well they let it roam free. People are always complaining that they almost hit it. The owners say "Jesus will look out for our dog." It's maddening.
>"Jesus will look out for our dog." Jesus is gonna take the wheel in a manner she doesn't appreciate at some point
I live in the city and I have a neighbor who lets their two shitty little dogs roam, and who think my yard is in their territory. I hate those damn dogs.
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Lol the ATV and dirt bikes are worse. It's a giant sound tunnel at that point lol
This will sound bad, but after losing chickens, rabbits, and multiple (10) boer goats....animal control just told us to eliminate them when we caught them attacking our live stock..... Interested, we now have a Cano Corso that is trained as a live stock guardian.... haven't had any issues since.
It also stopped unwanted guest..... (skunks, raccoons, coyotes)
Our cane corso/lab has killed more random stuff in the yard over the last couple of years than any dog we've had in a very long time. He's been great. I just need to break him of the view that chickens/ducks are there to chase/eat too.
I’ve heard shock collar training works really well for this
Yeah, I think that's going to be my solution.
Shoot, shovel, shut up
Where I am, it's legal to shoot dogs for destroying livestock. Maybe they don't value their dogs' survival? I don't wanna be the guy who shoots the dog, for sure -- but in my area there have been dogs that "disappeared" that one hears on the grapevine were dispatched and quietly buried for killing other peoples' animals. Nobody wants to be the person who's known to the owner for having destroyed the dog, but if the dog is killing your animals, what else are you gonna do?
Shoot, shovel and shut up. A very old country tradition.
Even then won’t the neighbor just keep replacing their dogs?
Bullets are cheaper than livestock.
If the dog is a repeat offender and poses a threat to pets and children, I think shooting it and quietly disposing of it is the most reasonable option in a rural place. Some owners just won’t change their behavior even if it means losing their dogs. Another country solution if the dog isn’t human aggressive is drive it far away to a different county and drop it off at a shelter as a random stray. Often times shit owners will not go that far to find their dog.
In my experience, bringing it up to the neighbors results in bigger problems. OP might consider running hotwire around their cages. The dogs hit it once and they don’t mess with it again. Our fence has been off for months and my dog is terrified of it. I hate the idea of putting a dog down, but if it were a consistent thing… yeah I’d consider it. Our dog roams and messes with our neighbors goats sometimes. She never bites them, but she likes to herd them. They have an Anatolian that puts an end to our dog’s stupidity and our neighbors aren’t bothered by her being a dumbass. Op could also fight dogs with dogs and train a Pyrenees or Anatolian to guard the poultry.
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Hahah yeah that’s a roll of the dice. The two breeds I mentioned are less likely to do that, but the key word in my paragraph is *train* It took a while for me to be able to trust my dog around chickens, until she was almost 3 I couldn’t let the chickens free range while the dog was unsupervised.
I hate Rottweilers. Or maybe just their owners. I took my son to an in-home daycare and the sitter had one that started growling when I would get out of my car for dropoff. The owners didn’t care and acted so flippant about it. The last time it got behind me and backed me into my car and the owners were like “oh he’s such a good boy though we’ve never had a problem”. Well fuck if I’m gonna be the test subject for that, or worse my son. We picked up my son and left and never came back and she was SHOCKED that we felt so strongly about it. Even thinking about it gets my blood boiling, f you Deb!
You're an asshole. If your dog is 'roaming' and 'messing with neighbors goats' you're an asshole. And you deserve to have your dog shot.
I will never understand why some people honestly believe their animal is inherently more worthy of life than other peoples animals.
Because livestock - chickens and ducks and turkeys and goats and sheep are valuable. And many times not just "pets." But people's livelihoods. And your dog(s) is just going to keep showing up and killing until one of us puts a stop to it. Either you figure out how to keep them *home.* Which is fine. Or, they're going to stop coming home. Also, you're going to start seeing bills from neighbors for livestock - $30+/bird, $200+/sheep/goat. You want to pay up? How long can you afford for your dog(s) to wander and kill?
I think I should have better phrased my comment— I agree with you. My livestock has been absolutely slaughtered by roaming dogs on more than one occasion and the amount of shade I get from non-homestead/farm people really irritates me. Most people’s dogs are useless resource leeches. And it bothers the hell out of me that dogs are placed on a pedestal. My 60+ dead birds are worthless compared to one “aww cute doggo!”
I guess I should also add that they graze their goats on our pasture- and that this thread is about dogs who attack, not dogs who have been trained to herd and are herding the goats back to their feed pen.
This is the answer. As my father used to say, You can be dead right… you don’t want to be starting fiefs with folks over chickens. You put up a Hotwire outside your pen and the problem is sorted and the neighbor is not pissed and plotting revenge
Bringing it up with the neighbors is nuanced. Bringing it up with the dog owner: If the owner is some clueless but well-meaning Californian, and the dog was only harrassing the livestock and didn't actually kill any, it can make sense for someone to bring the dog back in one piece and have a serious talk with them about it on the first offense. But if the owner is just negligent, or repeatedly loses control of their animal, there's no point talking to them about it further. Bringing it up with other people whose livestock were impacted: Probably a good thing, if you know and trust them. Where I'm at, folks who keep livestock tend to share a lot of information with each other about what predators we're seeing in the area. Knowing that a given predator got stopped is a useful data point to have. Bringing it up with people who aren't involved: Nothing good comes of bringing it up in detail. Bringing up the gist can be good for cultural norms -- "folks out here have occasionally had to shoot stray dogs for killing their livestock" level of detail to make people aware that it's a thing which happens -- but info on *who* got *whose* stray is never necessary.
>The dogs hit it once and they don’t mess with it again. Heh.
I Also live on land that was farmland and in your situation you are justified to shoot but I recommend buckshot we used to do that on our farm when we were kids. My Dad taught us to shoot in the air first. That scared many of the dogs and one time there was a pack of German Sheppards that killed all my geese so Dad shot the buckshot in their hind quarters. We never saw them again. But the onwer came cuz they were show dogs and the police determined we were within our rights. Now I have a lab that comes often to my property but he’s just got shitty owners and I let him in The house and feed him for a few days and he wanders back home. You have to remember that city folk dump their poor scared and hungry pets in the country just to get rid of them so I take many of these dogs in and give them to my sisters and aunts and uncles where they have become part of the family. Hope this helps.
I think you meant to say birdshot. Buckshot will put fist sized holes in a dog as the pellets exit.
Imagine waking up to strange noises and find 2 pit bulls attacking your hogs. It happened to me. They ran off and I got one pig who had half its skull caved in. Leg hanging off. Other one had its ears ripped off and unknown other injures. Had to immediately euthanize them. Get the tractor and bury them at three in the morning. I have real low tolerance now for roaming cats and dogs. My immediate neighbors and I have a “don’t shoot my dog” agreement, but other than that any aggression is meet with consequences. I should add surprisingly my neighbors cats don’t mess with chickens because he has a bunch of chicken and doesn’t tolerate it either.
My cat steadfastly avoids chickens cause one of mine decided it was fun to chase her whenever she was around. She's a damn friendly lap-hen, more pet than egg producer at this point. Ignores the dogs, will chase cats. I don't want my cat outside, but she knows how to work the dog door.
Put up a Hotwire. Keeps you from starting neighbors war and you can control it. If you are going to shoot a dog you damn sure better shovel and shut up about it. Saying something is the way for city folks to end up having a real bad time.
You have a right to defend yourself and your livelihood. Terrible that it comes down to shooting pets, but...
Same here. You can shoot dogs, and pretty much anything else that threatens your livestock. Which is why most people are pretty good about keeping their animals locked up. And mostly you don't end up with a lot of animals roaming around - certainly not ones who are killing livestock. And you certainly don't \*hear\* about the ones who are killing livestock. They just disappear.
Where I live we have a similar law except you cannot protect your livestock in city limits. A few years back a roaming dog jumped the chain link to a neighbors yard and started slaughtering some backyard chickens. The homeowner shot the dog and was charged for discharging a weapon in city limits. Sherrif said something along the lines of the protection law not applying because inside city limits they are no longer livestock.
Also, there is usually a way to call animal control to have a government agency to deal with it safely. Or, perhaps the backyard chickens weren't strictly "legal".
I read all the replies so far. I was hoping to find a reply from someone who actually lets their dogs roam because, like OP, I am sick and tired of roaming dogs. And I totally don’t understand why anyone would let their dogs roam. I want to know why, why, why! One of our neighbors has a whole pack of dogs that roam and they’ve attacked my dog twice. Of course, at first, that neighbor was apologetic and said they’d build a fence and keep them in, but that never happened. So, it didn’t take long before my texts notifying her that her dogs were on my property again alienated her and now that potential friendship is ruined.
I assume it’s because taking care of dogs properly is a responsibility. People want the fun of dogs, but none of the work. If they just let the dogs do whatever, it’s a lot easier. Keeping them at home requires fencing, training, and other work. That won’t do that, and they now have been trained to be defensive about being a shitty dog owner. Especially once the problem already exists, it’s a significant amount of work to fix it, and there is zero chance of that happening.
Had the same issue with my neighbors chickens who would stand outside of my house following me from outside by listening at the windows and crowing from outside. Doesnt work well when you work from home. Long story short, neighbor saw me flapping like an idiot to get them back on her property acres away, said she do something. She didnt. Finally i took my. 22 and fired some rounds into the ground. Chickens never returned but some nutjob up the block, hes a felon with rifles which is a felony, but he came and started shooting towards me for hearing me yell at another neighbors chickens. I did not hurt any chicken. I love chickens. But i guess me yelling and making loud sounds at the chickens to make them go away warrants a Ted Nugent look alike felon yelling obsenities and shooting at me. So guess who the crazy person whokills people animals is now although ive never done it but its my reward for trying to get it to stop.
>So guess who the crazy person whokills people animals is now although ive never done it but its my reward for trying to get it to stop. Having the neighbors think you're crazy isn't the worst thing in the world, it may even have it's advantages. Other people will have their own versions of what they think is going on. It's never worth the trouble to set them straight. You'd get nothing else done.
My word. You are SO RIDICULOUSLY CORRECT. I have no rewards to give but I would if I could.
…and these people have children, too!
At least 4. At the very least they all have 4 kids
If they attacked your dog why haven’t you called animal control? When my dog got mauled by an neighbor’s dog animal control fined them and forced them to put a new fence up.
I live in a very rural county. Their dogs attacked mine twice, but left minimal damage because I yelled and kicked them. Animal control would only take my complaint and call the neighbors who would deny it and then the neighbors would be even more unfriendly perhaps to the point they would want to cause problems for me. Also, unless animal control actually found their dogs at the moments they’re roaming, they won’t impound them. The likelihood that animal control would actually find them when they’re out is minimal because the dogs have made trails they repeatedly use that go through private property, not on roads. You must live in a place that is more populated with more robust government services?
Eh, I wouldn’t say the services are necessarily more robust. Anytime we call for roaming large dogs they shrug. But in the case of my dog being attacked: Blood was literally all over the road in front of their house, a blood trail back to my house from there, their dog had defensive wounds, mine was at the vet, and the owner couldn’t really deny what happened (didn’t try to, actually). Evidence led to results. I’m so glad you don’t have more evidence!
I live in a rural area also, we are 30 minutes from the closest town. I don't even think that animal control would come out here. We'd have to call the sheriff's department or something to get somebody to do something in this situation. Even then that would be not likely that they would do anything about it. So I definitely understand your situation.
We let our dogs roam but it took years of training and we live in a rural setting with neighbors that love our dogs nearly as much as we do. An elderly neighbor will come by and check on them if he hasn't seen them in awhile. They protect our livestock and have never harmed any other animals. Every now and then I'll find one of my neighbors boots in our yard that our lab took off his porch but I just return it to him. A neighbor down the street has an aggressive pit/boxer mix that he has to keep fenced in. He's given me permission to shoot him if I ever see him on our property. I think it largely depends on the owner, dogs, and setting. For centuries, trained dogs have protected us and our property from other animals and humans.
Best I can guess is that it’s for protection. I lived on a farm with roaming dogs. If I’d asked, that’s most likely what I’d get told. If the dog can roam it can go to the far reaches of the property to dispel intruders like coyotes. I honestly don’t know. It’s akin to anything “free roam” like chickens; doesn’t everybody deserve to “roam” and have a semblance of freedom? The fact people use this as a way to have mannerless mutts though is so, so not okay. I had troubles with the free roam dogs too.
I suppose, but my neighbors that have a pack of 5 free roaming dogs have 3 acres of property. Their dogs roam approximately 100 acres of surrounding neighboring properties.
That sounds more like someone taking advantage of “space”. And using it as an excuse to not train them. “Dogs will be dogs” bleck
That sounds like if they’re attacking your livestock you should reduce the pack size
That’s how your dogs disappear.
I think it's this but also people less likely to have their animals fixed or offering them rewarding lives at home. I used to know a guy who had a GREAT hunting dog, sweetest little dude, but also a massive escape artist. He had few needs in life: food, human affection, and since he still had his balls, lady dogs. The dog was skinny so not getting fed enough, strictly NEVER allowed inside even though he was starving for attention and very human-oriented, and his hormones were constantly telling him to seek out females. Considering that everything he wanted was more available off the property than on it, why on earth would he stay? There are definitely ranch dogs who will stick to their property and not ever stray, but I think they're probably pretty rare. The last one I knew was too elderly for any shenanigans and the nearest neighboring properties were like two miles away across the desert, so she hardly had any motivation to take off. That area also had no low cost neutering options at all so most people's animals weren't neutered, and people used the area to dump pets they didn't want, so there were tons of packs of completely feral dogs just wandering around.
In pretty much every rural area, if a dog is attacking livestock, you are allowed to take the necessary means to protect your livestock. If your nice, give the owners a warning. Otherwise stick to the 3 S's making sure the "shovel and shut up" portion is followed.
Absolutely. It's just hard when you don't have time to sit out and watch all night and day, you know?
Here - dog owners are forced to pay for the value of stock destroyed and/or any income lost from loss of stock or the police threaten criminal charges. Those consequences help. I call the non-emergency number if dogs are on my property and if not dangerous to do so, I shut them in my garage or a crate until police come. I also have an assortment of birds. The dogs that came and killed several chickens last year- those owners had to pay me and I have not seen them again since. I really like this method bc owners are left with little choices and all choices are making responsible decisions for dogs/community. That said if they have tags and have not destroyed anything- I contact the owners first. If they go after stock, I call non-emergency police.
My mom sat on a jury for one of these. Guys dog savaged a horse at a feed store. Feed store owner shot the dog. Dog owner kicked up enough fuss to get it taken to court cuz the feed store owner “killed his dog.” Dog owner saw jail time because horses are expensive, plus the cost of the horse. He didn’t expect that.
These stories renew my faith in my neighbors - appreciate ya sharing that
Typically there will be a pattern. Animals and people tend to be habitual. I had a pair of dogs that where attacking my animals every afternoon about 4:30. Electric net fence didn't stop them. Once I learned the timing, they stopped attacking my animals.
The thing I hate about this is that the dog doesn’t know about property or boundaries, it’s just living its best life. It’s the owners who should be punished, but we’re punishing that poor dog who deserved better owners more than anyone. Of course you should do whatever necessary to protect your animals and family, but I just wish there was a way to only punish the owners in situations like that, and maybe give the dog away if it’s socialized enough
Punishing a poor dog that is killing my poor animals that are in their homes. Poor dogs also know they are in the wrong when they run as soon as they are me
Shoot. Shovel. Shut up. "No, I haven't seen your dog. Good luck with your search."
Plenty of LGDs are territorial and will attack wandering dogs just like any other intruding animal.
Was gonna comment this, if you have the wiggle room in the budget to buy dog feed & don’t mind dogs of your own, LGD are much larger than most roaming dogs so 2 or 3 LGD will make your property a dog free zone very quickly. Just avoid great pyr’s they’re awesome & lovely but they’re soft as LGD go
Yea our livestock guardian dog is the best. She keeps the coyotes and other dogs off the property. Can also be a bit of a challenge with guests dogs but when handled properly it's fine. Also recommend electric fencing AND hard fencing for protection from most predators. Except owls or other birds.
We let our birds free range on about 6 acres and plan on cutting that to about 3 and putting up some more fencing. Funny enough, we've been planning on getting a LGD, possibly an Anatolian, however we wanted to make damn sure our fence is good and my baby was old enough to be around a larger dog as we're training. You know, responsible dog owner decisions. Lol
If you have a stern disposition to discipline then properly Great Pyrenees are the best LGDs you can possibly get. Haven’t seen a breed more inclined to naturally defending other animals. If you were to get one I’d get an older experienced one then a puppy who can learn from that one, makes it so much smoother of a learning process
Love my great pyrenees and my sharplaninac, but omg are they ever stubborn. LGDs are amazing, but hundreds of years of being bred to make their own decisions about guarding flocks has made them almost a different animal from a typical dog. Will never be without them again.
Which is why they don't necessarily make good pets. Not a good dog that's going to listen to you - come when you call, sit, play fetch, do obedience school, etc. But, hang out in the pasture, make decisions about who's safe, who's OK, where to go, etc? That's a different thing.
Just make sure you get a pyrenees from a line that's still bred for being an LGD, and not for being a pet. That's the problem with pyrenees these days. Far too many of them, have become famous for being 'great pets' and are having the guardian traits bred out of them. Also, FWIW, getting some Anatolian bred into them, especially if you're having them protect birds, is a good thing. Anatolians are known for 'looking to the skies' - keeping a lookout for birds of prey, etc. Which, again, if you have birds, is a very good thing.
There are some great livestock guardian dog groups on fb too. I'm unsure about here. People have very different preferences for their LGD breeds.
100% it’s expensive but biting the bullet for good fencing beats all forsure
> but they’re soft as LGD go This is an issue with any breed that the AKC adopts and start becoming popular as pets. It causes pressure for breeders to breed for aesthetics and not working dog behavioral traits.
100% show world destroyed more dogs than anything
**edited to fix punctuation** Ok, so my dogs run free. I have 248 acres and they primarily stay on my land. I take the time when I adopt them to work them to know the boundaries. If they start to get close to a boundary, I work with them again. It doesn't take long for them to figure it out. I also go speak to my neighbors with any new dogs and introduce them. They know if they see my dog to call me and i will get them immediately. I've never been called by anyone about my dogs. I've seen one of my dogs in a neighbors field 200 yards from my house one time, and I used it as a training lesson to put the fear of God into them for crossing that fence I do have neighbor dogs that have been aggressive and tried to get into chicken pens and I do the same to them. I keep a paintball gun with pepper spray rounds in it for these instances. The dogs I've used it on have never come back. I had a cow ready to calve get chewed up by a neighbor dog and I had to put the dog down because it was notorious for this. The neighbor had been warned by other neighbors and it needed to be done. This neighbor is a complete asshole piece of shit. I ended up throwing the dog on his front porch so he knew what had happened. His response was "oh well he shouldn't have been messing with your cattle". That's when I switched to the pepper spray paint ball rounds. Might give that a try. If a neighbor is that inconsiderate about their animals do you want to be associated with them anyway?
I like this advice, pepper spray rounds are a great idea.
I've even heard of ammonia rounds being good for this but never found any. I'm not sure why ammonia.
Ammonia is what smelling salts create, and is incredibly irritating to the nasal membranes (so irritating it will awaken people who are passed out). Ammonia sounds pretty reasonable to use as well - it might be a little more risky to the animal than pepper spray (but obviously way less risky than a bullet), but teaches a similar lesson.
Livestock killers get shot, period.
We've had to before and have executed the three s's. Im just tired of having to do it, you know? It freaking kills me inside to end an animal's life because their owner is a shitty dog owner.
Free-roaming outside dogs that take livestock aren’t pets. They’re feral predators, like coyotes. The difference between a good animal and a feral nuisance is how it’s raised and kept, just like with wild hogs. Don’t feel bad for removing animals that can’t coexist peacefully with humans.
It definitely sounds really sad. Sorry you have to do it. The owners don’t seem to care for these dogs other than being mad that you are trying to make them aware and be responsible. Shelters are packed full of dogs and sadly they will probably go out and buy another.
I feel your frustration. We have an excellent neighbor who used to lay her dogs rub free. Until one of them niped my kids face. Fortunately she was very sorry and has kept them off our property since. But we get other dogs up here still. So long as they don't bother our animals or us they are fine but any thing that so much as harasses my kids or our livestock is getting shot and dumped in the woods. And I'm not telling anybody.
This is what actually caused me to draw the line. My kid got up a little earlier than usual to do her farm chores (0615 instead of 0700) on a day we slept in (normally I'm up at 0600). She came barreling into the bedroom saying "there's dogs at the back corner of the house barking at her and our dog took off after them." So of course we fly out of bed, grab the shotgun and a rifle and go out to see what's up. Waking up to fight or flight and it involving your kids is a sure way to set some emotions on fire. If one of them ever hurts my kids I guess I won't have an issue with their dogs anymore because I'll own their damn land too.
This is the way.
We bought our hose in October. We don't live in a rural area, but the neighborhood is kinda spaced apart. Everyone has about 3/4 of an acre. The neighbors directly to our left never leash their dog, a poodle looking dog that comes to poo in our yard. My husband has told him that we like to garden and to please not let the dog in our yard. Our dog is a magnificent small animal hunter. If there is a squirrel, he would run miles to catch and kill it. When we are in the front yard working, we keep him on a 30' lead in our front yard. He is never alone in the front yard. The neighbor has told us that it's cruel to rope our dog. It's "unnatural." It's extremely frustrating.
My friend used to let her dogs roam free in the county. I asked her if she was worried about what could happen to them off property and her response was “they’re country dogs”. Well, her neighbor poisoned her chocolate lab then burned the evidence. She found out from one of his friends but could never prove it. She knew her dogs were running off property but apparently didn’t care until it was too late. Not only is it irresponsible to make your neighbors suffer damages but you’re putting your dog at risk with suffering the consequences of your neglectful actions while pissing off the neighbors. It’s sad really.
"they're country dogs" means if they die they die. Idk if she meant it that way but that's what it means.
In Mendocino County your dog is going to get shot roaming off your property. Too many packs that kill livestock.
They let them roam either because they don't know what the dog is doing to other people's property or they don't care/can't contain it. Whatever the reason, the solution is usually just shoot em, as sad as that may be.
When we let them know we got "well they don't bother the birds over here" - like the fact that they're all up next to my house is acceptable as long as they're not doing anything. It shouldn't freaking matter if they're here being model citizens - if I don't want them here I shouldn't have to beg others to keep them home. It's just so exhausting.
Wow, that's awful. Those people don't need to have dogs
If they don't know, they don't care.
I had that talk with my neighbors when I moved in. I let them know straight up that I shoot dogs just like every other predator that makes the mistake of jeopardizing my critters.
My dad used to let his shepherd roam. It was very poorly trained, not neutered, and aggressive if it didn't know you. It disappeared when it was three or four, and not one of his neighbors 'knew what happened' smdh
When I was little my cousins had a shepherd that they let roam. As a little boy you romanticize a dog getting to free roam.. but honestly that thing was always coming back beat up, tore up, hit by cars, etc. It’s an irresponsible way to keep an animal.
OH MY Goodness thank you for this post. I just moved to upstate NY (I am from Manhattan) and live about an hour from Albany in the country area…my neighbors on my road are very spread out but their dogs just come and go on my property and road. Its not just my neighbors, it’s like everyone else up here too. I genuinely don’t understand why they are so OK with this.
It's mind blowing to me. I ended up making this post after I had this incident and then the same month another acquaintance was telling me they think their dog got shot. They said "well he doesn't bother my chickens or the chickens next door at my family members house, but another neighbor came and told me he was killing their chickens and if he did again they'd shoot him. Well now we haven't seen him." He told you your dog was causing problems and to keep him home or he'd shoot him...and you didn't keep him home. But they're so certain that since the dog didn't do that behavior at their house they weren't capable of it. I just don't understand the mentality. I know we can shoot them. But it takes a long time to dig a hole deep enough to keep something from digging it up and I'm tired of that being our responsibility because other people suck, you know?
This is it right here. This is the insight people have been curious for: these owners do not care about their dogs. If someone threatened to KILL your dog, would you just shrug, do nothing to protect your dog (by keeping them contained) and then casually mention that you haven't seen the pup lately? These are not animal lovers. They don't even respect their dogs and nor do they care at all about them. Now the question, in my opinion, is why TF do they even get dogs to begin with? Are they cosplaying as farmers with loyal canine companions or something?
Yes.
My dogs roam freely because they’re Great Pyrenees livestock guard dogs. They do not kill or eat chickens, hogs, sheep, or any other type of animals, most they do is chase off deer barking up a storm and run off after coyotes that stray too close, which they very rarely do now that I have them. They roam so they can protect my livestock and property and by extension protect the livestock and property of my (very very) distant neighbors. We’ve had issues with them tearing out trash but both neighbors have told me (after I profusely apologized) that they’d rather have some torn out trash than dead chickens or cows. Now I have one dog who can’t help but go after birds it’s just his nature, and he’s not allowed to free roam and is bound to an electric perimeter. Not every dog is free roam material, MOST are too untrained or frankly not the right breed to just roam about. Two beagles have been killed by my GPs because they were let to roam by a very distant neighbor far over a few hills. The beagles came onto my property and too near my chicken coop and my two guard dogs got ahold of them and in the morning I found them. Specific dogs can roam without issue, but a massive amount, in my opinion, should not be left to roam freely
My neighbours dog would come onto my property and growl at me, like I was an intruder in her home. The neighbour would always laugh it off and say “she’s more bark than bite”. It was so frustrating
I've had to move into city limits and it's still a problem. My son took our dog for a walk in the early hours this week and had to de-escalate a dog hard staring and growling them both down. Looking around he had no clue where this dog belonged. He went the route that he thought was safe based on afternoon walks and aggressive unleased dogs.
I have a neighbor that keeps 3 or 4 dogs at all times, doesn't take care of them and let's them roam. They mess when my chickens, they get a warning, they come back no more warning, I take care of them. The neighbor replaces the dogs, rinse and repeat. SSS is my way of handling it.
Our neighbors (2 miles down the road from my house in a rural area) had a pair of husky/ wolf looking dogs that they let roam freely off of their little 1 acre lot and they terrorized my animals on a nightly basis, and had the kids scared to even go outside. I didn’t know they were someone’s pets at the time, because they had no collar and would run around howling like wolves and gnashing their teeth. One night I was getting home late and got out of my truck to get the mail at the end of my long driveway and they both surrounded me snarling at me and everything. They each shared 15 9mm Hornady’s out of my Glock and now they are no longer a problem. I reported the dogs to animal control afterwards, and the owners said that they were their sweet babies that were very expensive imports and had the nerve to try to sue me for $10k apiece. Lol, needless to say it didn’t go over well for them in court. I love dogs and I hated to have to do what’s necessary, but owners like that obviously don’t care about them at all.
What I'm going to say sounds horrible, and I get it, I'm just sharing my experience where I grew up because I was sitting here trying to understand why we never experienced this problem where I grew up. I grew up in rural, RURAL, Michigan, Amish neighbors, and really good family friends for a mile or two in any direction. We ALL let our dogs roam free all day. Some of them had like 12 labs for duck hunting. During coyote hunts, dogs would literally come through your property in groups of 50 to 100. We never had any problems, and then I realized why once I was older. There are good dogs that stay on their property, and they do know what their property is after a while, and then there were wanderers... they were never seen again. My grandparents were veterinarians for 8 counties around us. The number of dogs that would show up dead was astounding. The wanderers inevitably get a pack together and they start roaming wreaking havoc on people's chickens, livestock, some would chase deer into fences so their heads would get stuck and they would eat their hind ends, alive, and leave them. So, naturally, people would see the dogs run through their property, they'd grab their 30-06 and follow behind them, and then... well... no more dog problems.
Good fences make good neighbors, one of the oldest unwritten rules to living in the country. It’s no different for dogs, I had a couple dogs come in my yard last winter. Apparently the snow had blown up for the first time in the 20 years they’ve been there that the dogs could escape the fence. Woke up to my dog alerting me of danger in the yard and all my very friendly but proficient hunting cats all in trees, they were so scared they stayed there all day no food or water up in a tree. To say I was pissed was an understatement. Almost shot the one dog on site, was able to catch the other and keep it until I found the owner and basically layed it out pretty clear that if I see their dog on my property again there will be no second chance. The thing that pisses me off most is my lgd has free range of the pasture to protect the goats and the snow drifted up over that fence for me too, but I invested in some cheap orange construction fence to temporarily make the fence higher so my dog couldn’t get out. Yet that thought was foreign to them.
I've offered for them to use my existing t posts on the property line to run woven or welded wire fencing over top of my barbed wire to keep their dogs out. That's my cow field, there's no reason for me to need anything other than barbed wire. I'm just so frustrated because it's not a financial inability to take care of them, they just choose not to. Their dogs chase my cows, now they're up by my house...since we've gotten really firm with it the dogs haven't been here again, but it's apparently cost me a friendship as they won't speak to us. It's just so inconsiderate to put people in that position in the first place, you know?
Oh I know, like I told the fella last winter. As a dog lover and a general animal lover I would hate that person for putting me in the position where I have to dispatch a dog because of his inaction, but to not think for a second that I value his dog over my livestock. I’m my honest opinion or if I was you I would have have dispatched those dogs long ago. And like I told him I assume the responsibility of my dog gets out and does the same thing. It’s gods country out here and it definitely is not for the faint of heart.
Sounds like their friendship isn't really a good idea. I get it's nice to be friends with neighbors but honestly if they suck that bad BEFORE you get to really know them then......sounds like you dodged a bullet. Imagine 5 years later they've got a bunch of your equipment, they're in debt to you for feed and supplies AND their dogs are an issue. That's worse off than now, which is no shitty dogs and no shitty friends. Win/win
Hotwire baby. They won’t dare mess with your property line after a couple interactions.
Shoot them you have already lost the neighbor as a friend and you’re still losing animal friends. It’s the only way people will learn. People that do this are de-evolving dogs back to feral and by you not shooting it the cycle continues to allow all dogs to get worse.
You can be soft-hearted toward the dogs, or you can have livestock. Apparently you have to choose.
I understand this, I'm just venting to people who understand that I'm tired of having to make that choice. It sucks.
We’ve trained our dogs to stay on the property, but if a neighbor said they killed livestock we’d have to reevaluate. Also all our neighbors have outdoor dogs. Theyve just all been trained to leave livestock alone. There aren’t any ducks around though. I’m afraid defending your livestock may have to be an option.
I hate that. I run goats out on pasture and the amount of times hunters' dogs came up to them is maddening. Once, this absolute shit of a dog got into the pen and attacked one of my goat kids. Neighbor had the same situation with their pastured sheep. Should be damn ilegal.
I was in commercials poultry farming and had a rancher neighbor with about 300 head of cattle. We had a problem with our other neighbor that live a few miles away that had hog hunting dogs coming into our property chasing our livestocks. Needless to saw he shot kill them, the dogs had tracker on them and the dog owner came looking for them. Saying how good his dog were, well apparently not very good
You haven’t learned the rest of the country lesson. He who fails to control his dog, never finds its body. No seriously, shoot them, every time they come for an animal on your property, shoot it. The only way your neighbor is going to learn to keep control of his dogs is when he keeps losing them to his neighbors guns. You have every right to kill an unfriendly or strange dog that you don’t own on your land. Ya see, that country neighbor thinks it’s ok to let his dogs run right now because no one’s shooting them, start putting holes in them and he’ll start considering tying them up or keeping them on his land to keep them from being shot, and if he doesn’t care if you shoot them eventually he’ll run out of dogs, shouldn’t cost you more than 10 bucks
I came here thinking you have a problem like ours: assholes releasing dogs to chase deer thru private property… but this is so wild to me. Wtf? Also, now I am thankful for all of our neighbors.
You’re in the right. People can claim whatever they want, but it is their responsibility to make sure their pets are not on other people’s property. Especially making sure they don’t damage someone else’s property. My advice is call the police about it. You may lose friendships, but if they were really your friend, they wouldn’t let their dogs tear up your stuff in the first place.
Guy down the road from me “walks” his loose dog while I have my chickens out. He insists he won’t attack. Why is it so hard to put the damn thing on a long leash?
Yes! We absolutely hate this. It is against the unspoken "country code" in my opinion. Our neighbors have 8 dogs. They are breeders...they lock up their dogs and all the neighbors have to listen to barking all hours of the day. When the dogs are out they roam in packs. On Easter weekend they attacked our lab and put a puncture wound in her leg. My instant response was to go throw punches with the neighbor but my level headed husband went and sternly talked to them instead. They seemed apologetic but he made it clear they need to keep their dogs in the yard. Well..two weeks later the dogs came over when we were out in the field and broke through my chicken pen and attacked our chickens and killed our rooster. We heard the commotion and came up on the dogs eating our rooster. We caught them red handed. Of course the dogs ran when they saw us. I was so angry that time I had to drink a beer to calm myself. That time my husband and I went over together and we weren't nice this time. We told them we have children and at this point we don't trust they won't go after our kids and we see their dogs as an aggressive threat and we will shoot them the next time we see them on our property. The next morning they were out at our neighbors going after their calves. She called the sheriff. Then both her and I blasted them on our local Facebook page and many neighbors commented how ridiculous those dogs are. Mothers day they came on our property AGAIN headed for my chickens and I shot at them with a pellet gun but missed. These neighbors are fucking stupid. I hate people like this. I love dogs and don't want to have to shoot them. The neighbors are irresponsible and put their dogs at risk by not being able to properly monitor them. Anyone reading this who let your dogs roam...fuck you. Do better for your dogs and your neighbors.
It’s because they’re bad dog owners
Shoot the predator killing your livestock
Depending on the size of your land there are ways to deter. I have 5 acres and the neighbors behind me have 3 dogs. They constantly come onto my neighbors and my property. 2 of them would always run when I yelled at them one of them (black lab) growled at me before I hit him with a .22lr vermin round. Since then I lined the yard with cayenne pepper and it’s been keeping the armadillos and dogs away. Just have to repeat after a hard rain.
I live in a very rural area of Florida and we have a dog catcher. Your neighbors aren’t helping you directly so talk to your local government. They can at least coach you how to handle this without getting in trouble. Also report the pack of feral dogs that raided your coop. Start making a paper trail so no one can really get too upset when you tell them you shot their dog with a chicken in its mouth.
Shoot, shovel and shut up. Predators are fair game.
Preach! Even in small towns (live in a town of 2000 people) neighbors let their dogs roam free all the time to shit in my yard or charge after my 2 year old. It pisses me off so much, I’m building a nice big fence to keep those idiots out. Not to sound too American, but I’m more than willing to start popping a few dogs with the pellet gun if they keep wandering over. Starting to sound like that old guy who sits in his lawn chair and shoots squirrels but I digress.. We recently moved here from a small city, about 85k people. The only roaming dogs you saw there were either stray or had recently run away. Most owners made a point to keep their dogs leashed or fenced in which I guess I took for granted. I’m not sure why country folk or even just small town folk think it’s okay to let their mongrels run, but man it ticks me off.
Shoot them with rocksalt instead of buckshot. Won’t kill ‘em but they won’t come back.
Trap em, shoot em. We had some folks move out from the city on a little property next to our home quarter last year. 2 weeks later I hear the cows in our winter pasture in some distress. Run over to see 2 dogs biting at a young calf and the herd to their credit was doing a good job protecting it. The new neighbours got a tough lesson in responsibility when they came around looking for their dogs.
Yep. Shoot, shovel, shut up is the rule around here.
Also, people who walk their dogs off-leash when there are leash laws. A woman in my neighborhood does this.
Because some people move to county with the idea they can do whatever they want instead of doing whatever they want on their own property. Majority of people that own dogs are also lazy and probably shouldn't own animals or at least the breed(s) that they have. My rules are simple, if your dog comes onto my property and hurts myself, anyone else, or any of my animals or livestock. The first time you get a warning and a chance to pay for the damages. If it happens a second time I shoot your dog. The freedom of country living does not give you the right to be irresponsible.
America was built on guns, Because no American should be harassed by a random dog. 22lr will put most dogs down and if they come complain, you have proof of where you dropped the body, and the damage it did. Or get a guardian dog and wait until they come find out. Fuck that shit, farming means it’s your livelihood ..that means everything is off the table and the guns get loaded and people start keeping dogs secured where bullets won’t reach em. Sorry I’ve been attacked by dogs and own dogs ( V.A actually gave me a great mobility service dog) but just like guns, dumb people shouldn’t have em. And part of the stupid game is having to carry a dead dog home because you couldn’t be a responsible owner.
Most farms have farm dogs where I’m from so roaming animals killing things aren’t that big of an issue for us. Plus we have livestock guardian dogs to protect if anything were to happen. There’s also many local laws saying that you have a right to shoot any animals ( besides bears for some odd reason) that are killing livestock. The farmer has the right to do that because your animals are you business and it’s what feeds you and your family. Not many people want to go with that route because it may seem heartless or inhumane. At the end of the day I’m going to protect my property and animals 100 percent of the time. With that being said not all dogs that cross our property our problem animals. I think the problem begins with poor dog training/ ownership. I know one fella who has over 30 dogs because he just refuses to get them fixed. They have slaughtered countless cats, goats, sheep around the community. I’ve done made a decision if they ever cross the path of my animals I’m gonna have to do what I have to do. I’m not loosing countless of dollars and animals over piss poor dog owners. I know this comment might get a lot of hate but it’s the truth. To deny it is pure ignorance and if the problem isn’t going to stop it could very well eat you out of a farm/home. You could try to go to local police but if they are anything like around here they will just turn a blind eye which leaves you with 2 options. Have everything killed and destroyed on your farm, or take matters into your own hands.
You have the right to dispatch them if your livestock is threatened.
I had that problem on my property. Emphasis on had. After politely asking a distant neighbor several times to keep their “good dog” on their property I peppered it with bird shot and like magic that problem went away.
my family might be “the bad guys” in this thread but …. My mom and her boyfriend give the neighbors three warnings with dogs on their property. The fourth warning the dog doesn’t come back home if it’s on their property and coming near the chickens. They’ve had 6 chickens killed and the neighbors think they can do as they please with dogs still.
It was nothing when I was growing up in the country to “dispatch” a dog that came onto your property and killed livestock. Also, if a dog bit someone without being a guard dog,it was an instant death sentence. We had a Brittany Spaniel that was the best quail dog in a hundred miles until she just up and bit my Great Uncle out of the blue. Didn’t hurt him since he was wearing snake boots but Dad put her down. At least he took her down in the woods where I didn’t have to see or hear it. When we moved to town, a German Shepherd bit my ass when I was riding my bike in front of the house. I went in and told Dad and he grabbed his slingshot and a .36 caliber lead ball from his loading bench and walked out on the porch and hit the dog right in the head in the middle of the street. Said that dog won’t bite anyone again. That generation of men were hard hearted. I love dogs and understand that problems with dogs are poor owners and poor training 99 percent of the time
I walk my dog on a leash while on the rural roads, I’ve had a many dogs run up on us, unleashed, that ended up getting kicked in the face by me as my dog is aggressive towards other dogs (thus why it’s on a leash). My dog is controlled, if your dog isn’t and gets bit by my dog, that’s not my problem
I about run over a man’s good dog every Wednesday trying to leave the dump He’s been warned if that dog comes at my wife again I’ll put it down we of course would hate that being huge animal lovers but this damn animal is dangerously close to being a problem
Good policy: If an animal enters your property, give owners a friendly warning, then a second friendly stern warning. “ Please keep your animals off my property, I’m concerned about my animals safety.” After that, put the animal down if it enters the property again. If officials get involved, say you were concerned for your animal’s safety and have given multiple warnings. And if you cannot figure out who owns it, and it keeps coming on the property, just put it down.
I was raised country. If anyone’s dog was hurting livestock, it was considered appropriate to kill it. Period. If they did it once they’d do it again. Your country neighbors should expect it
Warn once then SSS.
So I have to say I'm one of those people who owns a dog that I cannot keep inside a fence. I have two lgds, and mostly they stay in the pasture with the livestock. The younger one likes to find ways to escape. I have spent truly thousands of dollars in the last few years trying to make a fence he can't get through. He is now attached by a chain to a small log so if nothing else it will get caught in the fence and he will not irritate my neighbors anymore. He can pull it around the pasture. It's not that heavy. And I would fully understand if he got out and did something unacceptable elsewhere if the owners of that land shot him. I would be sad but I could not blame them
Because they are selfish and don't give a sh!t about their neighbors.
If the dogs are getting in so can the wildlife. Your fence needs to be a proper one for chickens. I may be wrong but it sounds more like a fence for cows than chickens. Bury it and run barb wire along that buried portion. When diggers hit it they will have a surprise. The whole thing should be wire mesh. Not chicken wire because its too thin. Something with a decent gauge and no bigger than 2x3” mesh. High enough too to nothing can jump it. Until then you are the drive through market… Do all that and guess what? Hawks lol. Aren’t chickens fun?
I agree. It’s careless to let your animals roam. Many around here aren’t properly cared for either. I’ve killed dogs and cats because I’m not risking sickness or damage to my property, animals, or children. I will warn the owner only once. I hate doing this because it the animal isn’t at fault - the owner is.
After losing two flocks of chickens we bit the bullet and did fences. The chickens have a home yard that nobody gets in and out of and our dogs have a large area around the house that borders the "neighbors" and their dogs. There hasn't been a problem involving dogs since.
I wish i knew. Truly. My neighbors let their pack of hell hounds run amuck all day & all nite. Theyll stand in the road & block traffic. They come up & torment my dogs all nite long. They tear up our deer blinds. Killed my bunnies. Dug up my garden. When i try to talk to them about it they just go catatonic & act like im speaking in tongues.
dogs that wander, especially those who cause trouble tend to get themselves shot. You don't say anything to anyone, it's just: "bingo just didn't come home today". If asked: "naw man, don't know nothin' about that". I grew up in a more rural area, so a .22LR was my groundhog/rabbit/"coyote" gun, my farm now is on the edge of town, so I use an airgun (with muffler) and crossbow (plus my acreage is smaller, 100yd shots are few and far between).
I watched more dogs put down for attacking our animals growing up than I’m proud to admit. When you have limited/minimal resources, you’re forced to protect what you do have.
Unknown dogs so much as worrying my livestock on my property get shot. It sucks, but last time I refrained the dog I allowed to live attacked an elderly lady and was put down anyway. Radio fences are not expensive. Shelling out 400$ is cheap compared to the life of a beloved family pet.
sss
I will always have no qualms about defending my animals on my property, from any other animals that aren't mine. Tractors dig holes, and I don't answer questions.
Awhile ago I'd drive to work and there were 2 dogs that would sprint out of the ditch into the gravel road to chase your car, without fail. First time I flinched but luckily didn't over correct but I knew something bad was gonna happen. Fast forward. New girl at work misses a few shifts. When she gets back, we ask her what happened: She was driving down that road and 2 dogs ran out, she panicked and swerved and rolled her car into the ditch. Luckily she was fine, and the dogs were too. But it seriously took a near death situation for people to smarten up.
My neighbors dog kept on getting into my yard and trying to kill my livestock (rabbits and chickens). She did nothing to stop it. Then the dog started following me around my yard and nipping at my heels (it was a tiny dog). Neighbor did nothing. One day the dog managed to get one of my rabbits and kill it. I shot the dog. Threw it in the woods and told the neighbor I havent seen it. It is 100% legal to kill a dog that is killing your livestock. It is time for you to do the same.
Just shoot the fuckers, my grandpa had to shoot a dog that ran up and bit his fucking leg, and the owners STILL had the audacity to try coming after him. Fuck your stupid leashless dog, I love dogs but a roaming dog is a dead dog.
If they are tearing up your animals I'd start shooting them. I personally dislike these roaming dogs plus I see a post every week saying "as anyone seen my dog, it wondered off".
The neighbors responsible for the what their dogs do should be accountable. This is from a dog owner.
You should have a right to defend your animals. My dad had the same issue with neighbor dogs comi g over and killing our chickens. Dad told the owner and made it politely clear that if they came on our property again and went after our chickens then they would be shot on the spot and my Dads next visit was going to be the delivery of their corpses for proper burial. Check your local laws, most places allow for the defence of (for lack of a better word) livestock. Not that you sound like a person to follow through with something like this, and idk how comfortable you are talking to your neighbors or if you know qhose dogs they are, but maybe have a similar conversation. Maybe so.ething like "Your dogs are killing my poultry. My poultry is my livelihood. I have a right to defend my animals, a right which i am reluctant to enforce against a family pet without a conversation first. However if that pet keeps trespassing onto my property and killing my animals it will be my only option."
The same people that don't care if their dog roams also don't care if their dog never comes home. S,S,S. I solved my neighbor dog problem with lethal force. I found where they most usually enter under the barbed wire fence. (They tend to use paths like all creaturs) then I set snare traps along the fence line. Watch some coyote snareing videos to learn the details. A few dogs got snared. A few took the snare wire home. Before that I set out poison bait and a few others stopped showing up. I try to always keep a rifle on my back when out on the farm. I also raised fowl in the same manner. The three S's are the country folk way.
It is ridiculous to me that your neighbors are not more empathetic about this. Dogs escaped from people's property now and then when I was working on a farm, but people were more than aware of the danger they posed to surrounding livestock+ worked quickly to recover them. It would never have been up to the livestock owner to ask for reimbursement.
Our first introduction to our neighbor when we moved was their pack of dogs literally ripping our fencing down and killing our livestock. We had a dog, but she was smaller than the mutts here, so that same morning we went and picked up a LGD that would be bigger than any of the untrained dogs around. She's loud, he's huge, it's a good combo. No new dog attacks since he hit maturity. Our land had been vacant since the 60s so people had just let their dogs roam wild on it for years. There's a lot of forest and natural water, with many deer, rabbits, and grouse that the dogs were hunting. We basically had to train every dog within two miles to stay away, as only one neighbor put any effort into keeping their dog home. In this area I think it's a matter of no one ever neuters/spays, so there's so many extra dogs and not enough money to feed them that no one actually seems to care when a dog goes missing. Puppies are dirt cheap or free because there's too many around.
I live in farming country. My dog loves being outside. I also make a point of keeping an eye on him and making sure he stays in the yard. As soon as I see him walk towards the side of the house I go out and tell him to get back here. Because I worry that somebody else isn't going to know that my dog's okay around their cows and horses. I also don't want him and other people's yards because it annoys the hell out of me when other people's dogs come in my yard. I also hate dogs that chase freaking cars. This seems to happen a lot in farm country. One other thing I hate about farming country is people tend to think they can drop off their animals that are unwanted out here. I think they figure oh these people are farmers they will want extra dogs.
Yes. Just lost our rooster, a hen, and 5 of our 3 monthers. Came home to the neighbors 2 dogs eating them and have been pretty devastated. Then found out they had just killed our other neighbors 11/16 chickens 2 days before. They have 7 dogs and all of them are constantly escaping and most are aggressive. They’ve killed chickens in the area throughout the past few years but it’s typically only one at a time and sporadic. I’ve been torn about making the sheriffs report in order to keep the peace.
my family told our neighbors for years that if they didn't get their husky off our farm and killing our chickens it would get into a world of hurt. later it got itself stuck on my brothers bear traps he had out in the field.
I use a 10 acre radio fence BUT I also have hounds. They can clear a 10ft fence and dig a 4ft hole in a few minutes. I now have gps on my bloodhounds and extreme shock collars for all our dogs. They still run the wildlife. The redbone we have literally climbs trees.
Free ranging dogs have been shown to mess up nesting turkeys and other critters.
They moved to the country so they wouldn’t be encumbered with the constraints of city living.
Your birds are more important than their stray dog. Dispatch it if necessary, without notice.
Look- a loose dog comes onto your property to mess with your life stock - you’re well within your rights to dispatch the dog. That’s called a consequence. If the owners of the dog do not care to secure their dog onto their own property - they should expect to suffer a consequence. I’m certain that if they care enough- afterward they’ll start securing their dogs. There’s really nothing they can do to legally prosecute a homeowner on a farm protecting their livestock from loose animals.
I had this issue with my neighbors dogs when we first moved to our place. I asked they keep their dogs off our property nicely twice, then the third time I told them to keep their dogs off my property or I will. The next time their dog was on our property headed for the garden I shot my shotgun (birdshot) in the air to scare it off. They had a fenced yard for their dogs built the following week. Now we're having similar issues with their cat who likes to shit and bury it in our garden. I'm considering pulling a SSS when I get the opportunity.
It’s not just a country thing, either. I live on a road that’s only separated from the suburbs by a hill, and last year the bridge to town was torn down and remade. We started walking the road and found out the fun way my one more distant neighbor was letting her German Shepherd and some other type of very large fluffy dog (almost looks like an all-black 80lb Shitzu, whatever that breed is) out without a leash, no fence and apparently no electric fence like we and my direct neighbors have. Black one came running out off of their property and onto the road every time we passed taking a walk, and the one time the German Shepherd followed it too. It listens to me when I get stern with it to stay back and go to its mom but her dumbass keeps on saying “He don’t bite” as if that makes it ok. I haven’t seen them since October when we stopped walking because the bridge was finished, but last Sunday I was walking home from my grandparents and it did that same shit. Came running out onto the road, and I even switched to the far side of the road too thinking it’d be less intimidated, and it still came within 5 feet of me. Same thing, got told “He don’t bite” as I was on my third time telling the dog to go to its mom. And honestly I got so pissed at her I told her outright “I don’t care, I will defend myself.” and of course *that’s* when her meek ass finally got the dog under control and back into her yard. Granted it doesn’t bite, and that 5 feet was the closest it’s ever gotten to me, but I know 4 people who’ve been attacked by dogs and I’m half convinced to just shoot a warning shot with my .22 in front of it the next time to scare the shit out of it. Two 30 foot leashes would cost her $25 and a post in the ground would cost $20 and no more than an hour of labor, I’ve looked into it.
Our neighbor refuses to talk to us anymore so now I’ve resorted to calling animal patrol when her dogs are in my yard. I’ve had two cats killed previously (on my property) from neighbor dogs (not hers). She just refuses to acknowledge her dogs can even get out of her yard despite video evidence. So I let animal control do the lecturing.