Animal control is on its way...Update post 73...

[ihvpower]

I've got a neighbor who has a little Border Terrier that absolutley HATES anything and everything. Occassionally, the dog will get loose and attack my much larger and extremely sweet Border Collie. After taking the abuse several times, I told my BC to defend herself against the BT and she grabbed the BT by the scruff and shook her senseless. I will tell you honestly, that if that little dog gets loose while my girls are free-ranging, I will not hesitate to let my BC defend them. the neighbor has full knowledge of this too and I will not feel guilty in the slightest...........

 

[Laney]

That is a real shame about the Border Terrier. I have one of those. He is the sweetest dog on the planet. They have a HUGE prey drive. We have several training techniques that work on them as far as poultry etc goes. Our Border can be in with the chickens with us and won't go for one. That's not to say if our chicken killer lab (belongs to the inlaws) goes after one he won't join in the fun, because he will.

Step one, every time he chases the geese or ducks, he goes in the pond. Thrown as far and deep as he can get thrown. HE hates the water.

Step two, we make sure that he knows always that he is lower than us in the pack and what belongs to me is mine. Then we let him know that them chickens is mine. I don't care if he thinks of them as food, as long as he thinks of them as MY FOOD.

Our neighbor next door (that's like 20 acres away) let us know that he has show cats. They are kept fenced in the yard and if our dogs came to visit his wife would shoot them. We told him, we understood and thought that was fair. He of course meant inside his fence.

I let my dogs run loose on our property but have trained them to return to the whistle. They absolutely love love the treats they get when the come back to the whistle. If I got a report from a neighbor that they were upsetting them, their livestock etc it would be the last time they ran loose. It just so happens we are the only ones in the area with livestock.

Laney

 

[Kenabelle]

Thanks for the side advice, everyone. And sorry, I should have started a new thread. I think cayenne pepper and barbed wire might do the trick.

 

[mvktr2]

Quote:
Shoot the mother-in-law!

Seriously you do have other options, first talk to your future spouse, have them apply the necessary pressure to your MIL (that shouldn't be your job). (It should be noted that if the future spouse won't do this, you have bigger problems than dead chickens!) Secondly you could always get a dog that your MIL is scared will maul her beloved fido... perhaps an Anitolian shepherd or another herd guardian.

Hopefully your future spouse didn't inherit their mom's lack of perspective and dare I say, common sense! For the record I have a highly prey driven Boxer (busted out 4 windows attempting to get to neighborhood cats in our old home, even had to call animal control to get a neighbor to reduce their out of control cat population after she 'caught' one in our fenced in backyard) and I have the common sense to not let my dog wander in a yard with 'prey/chickens' unsupervised. Fwiw when supervised I can keep her completely under controll, but wouldn't trust her for 5 seconds without me present in the company of a flock! (I don't have my flock yet, we'll have to work on it... I believe in her)

As for the OP, it seems you're well within your rights and in good moral standing (often two different things) in regards to destroying this dog. You've been more than patient but I too share your partner's fear that the neighbor will 'retaliate' and I don't know how much your pets or livestock roam into his yard. Shooting the dog with rocksalt is a very VERY valid suggestion and a good middle ground showing you mean business, know that if you shoot it from less than 20-25 ft away it could be lethal. Also while the neighbor does seem to be hard headed, there may be room to work with them if you can impress upon them what the dog has cost you in terms of time and money. Someone had great advice of writing the cost and time down on paper and showing him. At that same 'show him the cost' meeting I'd ask him to reimburse you for the cost of 'ALL' chickens lost. Asking for money will set the reality of the situation in cement for your neighbor. Sadly you know your neighbor and the situation best and these options may be too little too late.

As something of a dog behavior hobbiest, due to dealing with my tightly wound Boxer/fostering several dominant breed dogs, I'd like to make something VERY clear. There is a Grand Canyon sized difference between animal aggression and people aggression in dogs. The two are simply not related 99% of the time. Because a dog kills chickens, chases horses, and harasses pigs doesn't mean it's gonna maul innocent children. I totally disagree with a statement made by a previous poster that this was essentially an attack waiting to happen, but only YOU and your neighbor are capable of properly assessing this dog and your situation. Also don't believe the hype surrounding APBTs. Multitudes of independent studies prove there are several dog breeds with higher human bite rates than APBTs, in many studies they don't even rank in the top 10 and along with Labs are the most incorrectly identified breed (due to fear and media frenzy I suspect). FWIW Lab's and several Shepherd breeds are recognized with high bite rates, the numbers are also skewed by the fact that most small dog bites go unreported due to the lack of damage, and it is suspected some small dog breeds may actually lead the way in attack numbers... just food for thought. This is why breed specific legislation is simply ignorant of facts and based on politics (getting re-elected by playing on people's fears), ignorance, media sensationalizm, and fear. Granted when an APBT bites, people/livestock/whatever it is quite often serious because of their bite power and tenacity (I assure you the same is true if a Great Dane or many other breeds bite). It's what they were bred for... but guess what so were Boxers, Great Danes, English Bulldogs, American Bulldogs, all Bully breeds, MANY breeds of terriers, most Mastiff type breeds, Dauschaunds, and more. THERE ARE FEW BAD DOGS, but BAD OWNERS are a DIME A DOZEN!

Good luck to both of ya,
Phillip

 

[cassie]

Get some electric poultry fencing. It isn't all that expensive and it's easy to install.

 

[citrusdreams]

Quote:
I agree with most of what you said. My comment about this dog being an attack waiting to happen comes from the fact that he has had no training at all whatsoever, and the owners have no control over him - not just in keeping him in, but the dog listening to them at all. He has no respect for humans because he's the alpha in his home, and to me, that makes a very unpredictable dog, and a nice recipe for disaster.

Thank you for your thoughtful post. I too read that bites from smaller dogs go underreported, and that they might have the highest rates of bites. In my experience, the little dogs are *always* the more aggressive ones. But that's just in my experiences.

The dog owner really makes a difference I'm afraid, no matter what breed.

 

[eekgads]

I agree, TRAINING a dog is essential to being a good neighbor.

HOWEVER, remember, it's VA LAW that if your dog chases and/or kills livestock, the owner of the livestock has the right to shoot to kill the dog. PERIOD.

The dog's life is NOT more important than the livestock's life. Also, to some people, the livestock might be their livelihood. On top of all that, what's the dang dog doing in someone else's yard to begin with? This is not being a good neighbor & a responsible dog owner.

I have 3 dogs & they are all monitored around my chickens. The 2 bigger ones (70 & 90 lbs) are afraid of them (not bird/hunting dogs), which is great! The small one (7 lbs) gets closer but isn't about to take on any of the chickens. Life is so much easier when dogs are trained properly...it also makes them more valuable & welcomed. Even as much as I love them, if any of my dogs ever killed one of my chickens, they'd be put down the next day.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
In most places it is legal to shoot to kill a dog attacking your animals, however, you can be charged with animal cruelty if you shoot to wound. Hitting the neighbor's dog with rock salt can land you in jail. The law is stupid, but that's the way it is.

Quote:
Most people know that an animal aggressive dog may not be people aggressive. No, they may not attack a child out of the blue. However, if they enter somebody else's yard and attack a child's pet, what will the aggressive dog's reaction be if the child tries to interfere and save his/her pet? It's still an accident waiting to happen. Also, some dogs that are not used to children can and do see them no different than another animal. People that choose to keep animal aggressive dogs have a responsibility to train and contain them. Anything less is not excusable.


Quote:
The fastest way to get this thread closed is to make it a breed argument. Size and tenacity are what determines the injury of a bite. If my Lhasa Apso bites anybody, their injury will be no more than a row of pink spots, and the medical costs will not exceed the price of a band aid. A larger or more powerful dog can do a lot more damage. That's why the little guys aren't reported as often. They bite, but the damage is usually (but not always) minimal. This isn't a breed argument. A good dog is a good dog. Bad dogs are owned by bad dog owners. If somebody doesn't contain their dog and their kids are crying because it got shot, the blame is with their parents, not the person protecting their animals. People that don't contain their predator pets put other animal owners in the terrible situation of having to decide which pet gets to live. Personally, I wish that irresponsible people would rehome or shoot their own dogs instead of forcing it on others. If somebody has a dog that they can't contain, they either have chosen the wrong dog or they shouldn't be a dog owner.

 

[Equus5O]

I recently posted about rescuing an intact adult male Rottweiler. He was great with people. We have an 8 year old son. Of course, we exercised caution.

He alerted whenever he saw something. It's bad enough that he killed a cat nesting on our property. Two neighbor women walk up and down our road every day. What if he had alerted on them, and charged down toward the road? Not only wouldn't I be able to forgive myself if that happened, but imagine all of the other ramifacations?! Our property isn't secured, and our dogs aren't confined. I just can't imagine an aggressive dog on our property. I'm not going to have a dog that I can't train to stay on our land, and I can't imagine having a dog that won't stay.

When I brought the dog back to work so that the shelter could take him, I wasn't concerned about my own or other's livestock. I was concerned about my son and other innocent people and our own pet dogs and cats.

What if my son had gotten in between the dog and another animal that had been inadvertently let out? I know that the day the dog killed a cat and I scooped up my mother's JRT that I was setting myself up for an attack. I can't even imagine my son being in that position.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
If he is a renter can you not go after the owner to either get him to loose the beast or go after his (the home owner) insurance company for compensation?