Situation occured about an hour ago.

I was leting our new pup out to go "outside", and he did his business then sat at my feet he was on a leesh and it was loose but he stay right there. My neighbor behind me has a Boxer mix and a Plott Hound. He pulled up into the apartment parking lot and saw Finn and I standing there while I was getting his poo baggies out to clean up the grass. Landlord and city rules are clean up after your pet and keep it on a leesh. Not that hard. So he gets out of his car and takes the time to put the Plott hound on a leesh but not the boxer mix.

The boxer mix trots over to finn and I and then locks up. He wouldn't move. I scooped up finn (By this time the owner of the Boxer mix is yelling at him to get come) when my three yr old daughter comes out of the house and stops right on the side walk about 8 feet from me. The boxer mix is facing her but his whole body is stiff with his head down and the hair on his back kind of bristly. Is this a cause to be concerned and was he doing this to greet Finn (he never smelled him and finn moved between my legs) or was he staring down my daughter or was going to hurt our pup?

I am not paniced. I remember how to break up a dog fight and I will tell you that dog would of had to go through me if he was going to go after my daughter. End of the story the owner had to bodily drag his plott hound whos on a flexi and grab the boxer mixes collar and drag him away. If this happens again what can I do to prevent it? Should I speak to the local police station about leesh laws? Is this a sign the neighbors dog could be agressive?

I don't have any issues with any types of dogs. But what threw me is I have never seen a dog lock up like that without sniffing or threatened.

Also during this whole time I couldn't see the dogs face and he wasnt growling.

Opinions?

Thanks Mary

I would speak to the neighbor and explain to him that you don't want that dog near you. Tell him that you expect him to follow the leash law. If you ever see him off leash on the property again, you'll put it in writing to the landlord. That was aggression.

Ok,
I wanted to ask because I haven't been around any type of agressive dog, well barring my hubby's old chow he had, and I didn't want to make a stink if it wasn't called for. I am not upset about it, but I just wanted to know what to do in this situation. Thank you Steve my husband agrees it was agression, but I wanted to double check. I don't want to cause any waves so I wanted to ask before a made some. Looks like there is going to be a few ripples in the pond come next week. Thank you again from my Hubby and I!

Mary McKeever

Mary, you made the best of a potentially bad situation. You have two completely defenseless little ones, and the only responsible action is one of caution and to protect the safety of the little ones. I would be concerned about the Boxer's reaction and most critically about the fact that the dog's were off leash.

Chances are pretty good that the dogs have been off leash in that area before, and may even consider it to some extent their "home turf."

The owner of those dogs needs to keeep them leashed. Whatever you need to do to make that happen, I'd say do it. I suspect he probably knows that, which is why he leashed the one dog when he saw you. Who knows, maybe he just had one leash??

If it were me, I think I'd take another adult with me and go have as friendly as possible conversation with the neighbor. I'd thank him for leashing the one dog, and thank him for gaining control of his dogs and preventing what could have been a terrible situation.

Tell him that with the new puppy, your family will be out alot more and ask if he thinks he could keep his animals on the leash at all times around the neighborhood. If you get a positive response, and he follows through and leashes the dogs (watch CLOSELY every day, and be ready when he gets out of the car with the dogs), then you've resolved your problem. Anything less than a positive response, then I would inform him how important it is, and that you didn't want to go to the police, but certainly will if it is necessary, and go from there.

With a pup as small as yours, there will be no dog fight. That boxer mix could dispatch the little one in short order.

Prevention of coming this close ever again is the key. Watch for this guy always, and take your little ones in until you are sure that the dynamics are under control. (You can go pick up the poop later - don't let anything distract you - you are the momma bear looking out for her cubs).

I hope you are enjoying your new pup. He sure is cute!!

Just wanted to let you know how this is turning out. Thank you both so much for the advice and the reassurance that I did what was correct. We have contacted the police about this. The local police know the area (apartment complexes) and that this area is very family (lots of kids of various ages around). They demand a dog be on leesh in this area because of this reason. Unless you have a dog who is obidence trained and will focus on its owner as soon as its name gets called of just basiclly doesnt leave the owners side for any reason. Since this dog isn't able to do this then it has to be leeshed. We have an open case number now, and the police said it was a good thing not to even speak to this person because it could have potentally gotten into a heated arguement. So they are going to stop by and issue a warning, if at all we see the dog off leesh no matter what the person will be fined after this.

We didnt want this to get to this point, but I am a firm believer in leeshes and if you need one then use one. jmo.

Mary

Hey Mary.

My first ever post on Leerburg was about a neighbor who was similarly irresponsible with his male GSD. Luckily he never attacked my dog, but he did attack five other dogs in the neighborhood before they moved away last week. One of them was a wheaton puppy, the last one was my next door neighbors Yorkie. He could of easily killed either of them. The guy still had his dog loose in front of his house right up until the last day they lived here.

Don't take chances with your pup. Tell the neighbor that you will take action and follow through if you need to. People like this rarely see the problem with their dog. The guy in my neighborhood had the nerve to tell the Yorkie's owner the attack was her fault because she got scared!

Wow. Thank goodness for all the great info Ed has on here and all the good advice a member can get from everyone. Thank you.

Mary

Mary:
From your description I'm not 100% certain the boxer mix was acting aggressively, though freezing/bristling would suggest it. Bottom line is; it doesn't HAVE to be. The owner did not have control of his dogs, period. Steve and Rob make excellent points. Obviously you want to avoid conflict with a neighbor. Protecting your family is far more important, and it sounds like you made the best of the situation. Breaking up a dog fight is something you never want to be part of.

I run a dog-friendly pet shop, and Lauren's observations about the mentality of owner's views of their own dogs is spot on. The "leashed dogs welcome" sign seems to be open to interpretation to some folks. I'd err on the side of caution, and try to both document the incident and keep civility with my neighbor. With some diplomacy, who knows, maybe this guy becomes interested in training/understanding his dogs; even joins Leerburg. As with *almost* every dog issue, so much has to do with the owner. I wish ya the best, that Finn is as cute as they come!

Thanks Chip. We had the cop (very nice guy and he knows about leerburg!!) go and talk to him instead of us. He kept it anonymous, which was nice, though the neighbor behind us said "I bet the lady from earlier made the complaint." The officer met the dog in question while he was there. I guess the gentleman behind us told the officer there are only certain times he has his dog on a leesh, though its not needed because the dog is fully trained, and he didn't see why he needed one. The police officer told my husband "He was not very receptive to being told its city, and village law you have to keep all dogs on leesh in public places." We were ordered if we see the dog off leesh again, to call them immediately. I don't think we are going to be friends with that neighbor, but hopefully we can be civil.

Mary