Have read through this thread.....and about 100 like it.......with considerable interest. Few things seem to rile passions on BYC as much as what to do about the neighbors dogs. To shoot or not to shoot.......that is the question. BTW, this is not new. If you have ever heard of the saying "a dog is a man's best friend".....know it was uttered by a plaintiffs attorney as part of a civil lawsuit........one started by someone shooting a neighbor's dog. The case of Old Drum.......circa 1869.
https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/education/olddrum/StoryofBurdenvHornsby
So this has been going on for a while.
What creates the havoc is the fact that animals are clueless when it comes to knowledge of property boundaries. There is no such thing in their world. Only the territory which them themselves decide is of interest to them. My parents keep an outside dog, one that is of no harm to anyone, yet she routinely roams at least half a mile in all directions. She turns up in the neighbors yards all the time. And that is just dogs, which tend to return to their home base now and then. Imagine where full sized livestock would go if not confined within a fence.
So what it boils down to is the fact that no dog is going to know where property lines are. They roam and do what dogs do. Good neighbors will know this, and keep them confined. Others simply don't care, or worse......assume that since it is their god.......sorry.....dog......it gets to do whatever it wants, and to hell with you. The fact that it kills your birds is your problem, not theirs. That is the jerk wad response....aka, the bad neighbors. But good or bad, you are stuck with them. You CAN shoot their dog, which may well be in your right, but often not without consequences. Bad neighbors being what they are, they don't forgive or forget. Bad parents can be a bit like this too. The fact that they raised little Johnny Angel to be some rotten little hellion is lost on them entirely. He remains "Angel" in their eyes and they will get all up in your jammy if you try to do or say anything about it. Same with rotten dogs.
There is yet another old farm saying and it is "good fences makes for good neighbors". What fences do is to establish boundaries. Works well for most farm livestock, but not for dogs, cats and other pets who can get past fences with ease, so they don't apply to them. Still free to roam.
So we now focus on our chickens. Most would not think of this way, but in many aspects, our chickens could be considered an "attractive nuisance" ( a legal term). Like a backyard swimming pool is to small children. It is a dangerous thing that children are attracted to. So in many jurisdictions, if you have a swimming pool, it has to be fenced in to keep children out. In the mind of a jerk wad neighbor, our chickens are the attractive nuisance that lured their dog onto your property. They can twist that around to say it wasn't the dogs fault, it was yours. Yes, jerks will do that.
So getting directly to the point, if you allow your birds to openly run free......with no protection from outside predators.......DO NOT be surprised to come home one day to find them all dead. Dogs will do that. So will coyotes, foxes, coons, etc, but accept it as a fact that your neighbors dogs most certainly will come on to your property and kill everything in sight. So if you want to avoid that, it's up to you to protect the birds from that threat. Yes, you shouldn't have to.......but it is a fact that you do. Yes, you can shoot the dogs AFTER the fact, but the birds are already dead, and of course, shooting dogs is most likely to set off all manner of drama to follow. More likely than not it will become a clash of wills between two hard heads. Not all that much different than the Hatfields and McCoys.
So bottom line is, if you allow your birds outside, either plan to yard them......confine them to an established area where you can protect them......or expect to find them dead. It is that simple. We don't think twice about building a coop to confine and protect them at night, and a fence is no different. It simply expands the range they are allowed into by day, and if you want to keep your birds alive, do plan on building a barrier of protection to keep them safe from all harm. It is coming. Just accept that and life will get easier for you and your birds.
if this is true then the dog should never leave their own property therefore not landed in OP's property which I know you know, you stated that in other words.
