I had to save my pup last night, from the adult GSD bitch next door.

My wife and I were playing frisbee in the front yard with Duke, teaching him the finer points of "bring it here", while on a 30' lunge. Our neighbors let their dog out into the driveway when they open their gate to drive in or out. It appears that the frisbee play got its prey drive up. Duke was about 25' away, then from behind the cars in the driveway and the bush that lines it, comes the GSD in full sprint. She didn't bark or growl, no warnings at all. My wife noticed her first as she appeared from behind the bush, the pup was about 15' away from there and going towards the frisbee, and said "oh s--t!". My wife had the end of the lunge and I instantly reacted, bolting off the walkway straight towards the dog like a linebacker to the football. I'm 6'5", 210lbs., wear baggy clothing, and am a generally imposing figure. I made the loudest and most guttural noise I could make while charging with my hands out and above shoulder level, to make myself even bigger.

The first bellow came as her mouth was literally about to make contact with Duke's left hip. Her ass hit the ground instantly, she spun a 180*, ran about 7-8 feet or so, and turned around to maybe try again. So I gave her another bellow while continuing to charge. That was it for her, but I gave her two more for good measures while her ass of owner just said "come here" like there shouldn't have been a problem. No apology, nothing. My wife says that Duke, obviously, took off running for dear life but once he saw that I was protecting him he spun around like "yeah, me too!". She reeled the furry fish in, though.

He's completely unhurt and doesn't seem at all worried about going into the front yard. Hopefully he won't develop any dog aggressiveness from this. However, I'm developing some serious aggression towards that GSD next door. This is the second time it's charged onto my property. The first time was towards my wife, while I was away from home! Thankfully it comes when called and they heard my wife scream "get your dog!" before it got to her. Now that I've calmed down, I'm going to talk to them the next time I see them. I kept my mouth shut directly after the incident because of how high my own fight drive was. I'm going to calmly tell them that the next time their dog charges my property will be its third strike with me. I'm thinking something along the lines of "I don't want to be a problematic neighbor, but your dog has charged my property twice in the last few months with the intent of attacking and if she does it again I'll make sure she doesn't get a fourth chance. Please keep her in your yard." What do you more reasonable people think of that?

awsome cat like reflexes! your way nice to have calmed down first.

Sounds like a reasonable plan to me.

 Quote: scott garrett

if she does it again I'll make sure she doesn't get a fourth chance.

I guess my question is what type of relationship do you value with your neighbors. This type of ultimatum will certainly create an adversary of your neighbor. It's easy to level threats at someone, but what are you really prepared to do about your neighbor's dog if he charges in your yard again? Are you going to shoot the dog? Poison him? Call animal control? Hopefully, just the later, since the GSD is not at fault here. So if that's the case, just come out and say it. If you said what you're proposing to me, I would react negatively to that. Everyone's got an ego, and no one likes to be threatened.

Having an enemy living next door is no fun. Neighbors need to look out for each other, especially in this world. I'd definately go talk to your neighbor about it, but I'd also try to keep as much venom out of my words as possible. You're definately going to get more cooperation if you explain to him why it's an issue when your dog gets attacked by his dog. To him, he probably doesn't realize what a big deal it is. Bring him some literature to educate him. Tell him about your training program and how a dog charging into your yard is disruptive and potentially has permenant damaging effects. Bring him a couple of Ed's articles. Refer him to this site. Make it a positive experience for him - make it appear that you're trying to "help him out."

But if you go over there drawing lines in the sand, you're just going to provoke a reaction and create an adversary. I think a less venomous approach will get you better results in this case.

First of all - the scene in which you described how you chased off the GSD is 50% hilarious and 50% awesome! I loved it! Nice job.

Also - ditto Kurt. You catch more flies with honey....

Kurt is so much nicer than I am.

I agree, approaching, at least initially with the attitude of, "Hey neighbor, what can we do to fix this problem so it doesn't happen in the future... I'm here to help" is probably a good starting point.

If that doesn't elicit change, then I'd explain that you fully intend to notify animal control of the problem.

Additionally, most states have laws that permit the shooting of an animal attacking another animal. In other words, a dog attacking yours.
I'd take every attempt to resolve the situation in other ways before I escalated to that level, though.
It's not the dog's fault her owners are irresponsible.

And I guess I'm meaner than most of you.

Common sense and common courtesy are pretty basic things and you either have them or you don't. Period. A nice attitude, a helpful talk, a "Can't we all get along" mentality sound real good but, when you're dealing with people...neighbors...who lack the basics, how much do you think you're going to accomplish?

And at what price? Your third strike may be a situation that results in your pup or your wife being injured.

Yeah, I'd love to "get along" with all my neighbors and by "get along" I mean keep your business on your property and I'll extend you the same courtesy. Your home should be your haven and place of security and we don't waste time or niceties on neighbors who don't instinctively get this basic concept. My own neighbors learned this the hard way yesterday.

I'd file a report with AC or the cops. Get it on record so when the third strike happens, you have documentation of what's occured before.

OK. I am here to support what Kurt said.

And also to agree with Alyssa and Sarah as back-ups.

Please try Kurt's approach first, but always be prepared to protect what's under your roof.

I have a really, really, shitty neighbor who actually called the police on me (I have a 10 lb dog).

The dog accidentally got loose when my ex was unhooking her from her leash and decided to make a run for it. My neighborhood has a dog that sits in the front door window and barks all the time, so my dog ran straight over there wanting to play.

I went across the street and my dog ran to me and I brought her back home. Case closed. Or so you would think. About 20 minutes later two cars of police showed up concerning a 911 call of a vicious dog on the neighbor's property. (I almost had a heart attack because I thought with two car loads of cops that they were coming to tell me my daughter and grandson had been killed in a car wreck or something.) Really now. I finally got them to understand that I had a little ankle biter who had accidentally got off her leash.

Talk about hating my neighbor. I'll tell the rest of the story later, if anybody wants the details.

But she is really considered to be the neighborhood terrorist, now.

One huge factor always in my mind is that I do not want my dog to be perceived as a source of problems to someone else, because that someone else (no matter how nice THEY may be) will talk about it, and teenage boys will hear it (along with other people), and someone with a screw loose might end up seeing my dog as an enemy of their friend.

I do not want that, ever.

So I am with everyone who says to resolve it it the least antagonistic way possible, while still being clear that you would have been within your rights if you had called A/C at the time.

Steve, I am on this web site to get info on training my GSD pup, meaning I am not an expert....I do, however, have a lot of experience with this type of situation. This is what you do...

First of all DO NOT GET EMOTIONAL! A PERSON WHO'S EMOTIONS ARE OUT OF CONTROL WILL LOSE IN THIS TYPE OF SITUATION! You want to remain in kind of a monotone type of emotion, kind of like the attidude of "I am here to settle this WITHOUT playing games"

Knock on your neighbor's door and say:
_______(neighbor's name) Look, there has been 2 incidents regarding your dog (explain each one). This is has become a safety issue and since your are the owner, I need to know what you are going to do in regards for taking responsibility for your dog. Please, give me an anwser I can feel secure about because right now I am not feeling secure about your dogs behavior.

Let the neighbor talk and give you a solution. If you find he is getting defensive, stop him and say.."I am not here to fight with you, I am here to work out a solution so that I feel my family is safe and we can remain good neighbors".

If he gives you a solution you are happy with, change your emotion to a happy one and thank him, shake his hand and go home.

If he doesn't want to take responsibility and is an ass, then let him know, that for the safety of your family, you will be contacting the proper authorities to register a complaint about the 2 incidents and if anyone gets hurt, from here on out, you will be filing a law suit against his property insurance (still talking in a non-defensive way). Let him know you where hoping it didn't have to this but he is leaving you no choice.

95 percent of the time, if you talk long enough without getting upset and the person understands you are only concerned with resolving the problem and not attacking him, things will work out just fine.

Do not hurt the dog!!!! this is the wrong target. Get a can of pepper spray or something. Your target is the neighbor. I have never had to sue anyone in my life because I have indirectly let the person know that if they didn't come up with a solution for a dangerous situation they were responsible for, they would be paying for it. When someone thinks you are coming after their pocket book, it makes them think twice....the trick is to maintain control of the situation by the way you talk and steer him into wanting to come up with a solution....Good Luck!