Hi Guys,

I was wondering, what can you do if someone is trying to harm (kick) your dog through a fence? Yesterday this happened to my younger gsd while I was in the yard with her. Needless to say I had a argument with the guy (and his girlfriend) and called the police to make a report.

The police officers told me to let the dog go after him next time because he provoked the dog (but I'm not willing to do that for many reasons).

What's the best way to handle this situation? Anyone have any prior experience with people like this? How did you handle it?

PS - Typically we talk about strange dogs trying to attack our dogs, but I couldn't find anything about people attacking our dogs.


Thanks,

Kimberly

i can understand not wanting to just let her get after them (we love lawsuits in this country)... and i don't have any constructive ideas, BUT, years ago when i was in college, i caught a nasty little 12 yr old boy throwing rocks at my GSD/Rott. i went flying out the door, and told him if i EVER caught him doing it again i would turn her loose. he must've believed me, cause he never even came down my alley again that i'm aware of....

Wow, I agree, I don't think turning your dog loose is the right way to go...and I'm really surprised that was even suggested.

Unless you're willing to get into it with someone I think you handled it the right way (calling the cops).

As a deterrant to this happening again you could put a strand(s) of wire around the outside of the fence and post an "Electrified Fence" sign. Anyone STUPID enough to tease a dog through a fence is probably not bright enough to notice the wire is a sham.

Just a thought...

What about vandalism? He is kicking your personal property after all. I'd also be careful about the advise you got from the responding officer. A cop is not a lawyer and good luck getting him to admit that he told you to let the dog go, should something happen.

Ummm, did they say why they wanted to kick your dog?

What happened when you spoke to the people, did they make it sound like they were comming back to kick the dog some more?

If they were kicking at the dog becasue it was barking at them you might explain that you would be happy to call the dog off it it is barking and there is no threat, but that their threatening behavior is really escalating the situation.

The only reason I would tip toe at all here is because this is the kind of case I would worry about idiots like that coming back to poison a dog. They have already shown what they are capable of. I would be wary of leaving the dog unattended in the yard with these folks around the neighbourhood.

I am sure others will have better advice on how to proceed. I typically would try to calm a situation like that, and find a solution both parties can live with, but I can see how it would be VERY difficult. Especially becasue these folks seem kinda crazy unreasonable.

I feel a Jenni post coming on, she has had experience here

Edit: Just realised I don't even know how this all started and it occurs to me your dog may have just been minding it's own business when this started. If that is the case, I can't see any nagotiating working. THey just like to hurt dogs? Kids are one thing but are these adults?

Does "through the fence" mean that the people were or were not standing on your property? If they were on your property, you could get them for trespassing. Did they actually make physical contact with your dog? That's animal abuse/endangerment.

Are these people you know? Are they likely to come back? Are they aware that the cops were called?

See....I am the type of person who would have went out and kicked him myself.....

I think that you handled it correctly and that the advice of the officer should be forgotten.....unless you can get him to put it in a written statement that he told you this.....

People are stupid when it comes to dogs.....if you have a video camera and can get footage of the guy next time he walks by, don't be shy, just step out in plain view and start filming.....that may take care of it, especially if you tell him you are going to turn it over to the police and press charges for being a nuisance.

That's a great idea Sarah, I think I will try the wire along the fence. I want to add a security camera back there too for others reasons. The person that did this was about 18 and I think he was showing off for his girlfriend, great way to prove your masculinity by kicking at a dog through a secure 7' cyclone fence.

I would never let her go after a person (besides the fact I don't think she would unless extremely provoked). This is just a great reason to never leave your dog unattended in a yard, even when you are there people can still be knuckleheads and try to injure your dog.

One good thing I realized, at least if she is threatened she still stood her ground and didn't back away when approached in a threatening manner.

Kimberly

I agree with Carol, I would have gone out and kicked the guy myself, however that probably would have been something I would have regreted later, hehehe.

Funny story...We had problems with neighborhood kids years ago. They would drive through the neighborhood and screetch their tires around our corner. We had small children that were outside playing most of the time. After confronting them many times and even my husband grabbing a smart mouthed one by the collar we knew there wasn't much we could do from a legal standpoint unless they were caught red handed by the police. So whenever we heard their souped up engines coming round the hood hubby would take small pebbles, not enough to do damage but enough to hurt, hide where he couldn't be seen and start taking aim with a wrist rocket at the kids. Might I just say that my hubby is very accurate with a wrist rocket. They never saw it coming. Lucky for us we live in hot Arizona and the cars the kids drove didn't have a/c so windows were usually always down. Eventually, they got tired of getting pelted from the invisible rock monster and slowed down from then on AND if we were outside they would smile and wave at us driving by extremely slow (probably cussing us under those smiles) but hey it worked!!

They were never on my property, just a sidewalk behind it and he never made contact with the dog because I started to yell at him when he was kicking his foot at her. I don't know these people, I saw them working on their car underneath a elevated interstate roadway behind my home for the past 2 days.

She was barking at them every few seconds watching them from my back gate (not crazy barking though more attentive barking) they were about 15' away from the fence. We were only out there for a few minutes before this happened, in this time she went to the bathroom and sniffed around the yard then spotted them. I only made the report to the police just in case something should happen to my dogs because people are crazy and it does happen.

I didn't tell them the cops were called because I had to go back in the house to call them, by the time the officers arrived they left.

Kimberly