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[Kelly66]

To start with a bang-the neighbor said to us, "your dog is going to die."
We had been getting multiple emails from our homeowner's association about the people across the street from us having '2 pit bulls' who have attacked children and small dogs-at least three incidents that were emailed to us and one more that we know about. The other one we know about, we heard that their Siberian Husky had to have several stitches in his face. We had heard at the homeowner's association meeting that the neighbors with the pitt bulls were to appear in court and didn't and now there was a warrant out for their arrest. Then I saw the dogs-I think one is really a Great Mastiff on leashes being walked instead of just being let out the door running freely in the neighborhood as usual.
The emails from the homeowners association said things like -consider these dogs dangerous and dial 911 if you SEE them. Well I saw them once and called animal control. THREE HOURS later they called me back and said they couldn't do anything because I didn't see the dogs right now! I had called information to try to get connected to the local police department. They told me I could call 911, but I couldn't get a number for the police. I think I finally looked it up and the police told me there was nothing they could do.
So, although women and children continue to walk their tiny dogs in our neighborhood, I put mine in the car to walk them (we do have a fenced yard) by myself, but there was no convincing my husband to do this. So we go out our front door with our Golden Retriever on the leash and our little 9 lb. rescue dog. These two dogs come charging across the street and start attacking my GR. My husband gets between them and I pick up the little dog and get between the cars (which were only in the drive because the garage had just been painted). I am trying to dial 911 and pressing the stupid screen and nothing was happening-so I scream to my husband to let go of the GR's leash-he is just spinning in circles trying to stay between them. My dog runs to the porch and I finally get 911-who, after asking my name and my address and what town did I live in, then asks me if my dog is being attacked right now. Apparently because we were able to get my dog away from the pitt bull (during the phone call) who has attacked four other dogs it was no longer a concern. They told me that I should call animal control and asked if I had the number.
I asked for the number (the one they gave me was not the number I had called before).
So I called animal control who came out and told us that they can't do anything unless they surrender the dog. They also told us that they can't do anything unless the dogs attack off of their property, So I asked if that meant on their sidewalk and they said yes, their dogs can attack anyone all the way to the curb. But we were on our side of the street literally IN our own yard. Animal control people, I guess, have taken them to court three times and 'the judge just looks the other way.' That is what she said, I am not sure what that means. I asked if the Judge was appointed or elected, but no one knew, but she did give me his name.
So the police did come out, but as far as I know there was no report made and we were not asked to sign anything because the police looked at our dog and said he was ok. We went inside so we wouldn't aggravate things because we were upset. After quite a bit of discussion we saw the owner of the dogs put the pittbull in the back of the animal control person's car. My husband says to me, 'well they can't blame us.'
So the police leave and we leashed up our dogs and went out for a walk. We hadn't left our yard house when the neighbor says, "You dog is going to die." So I dialed 911 again and they said, 'is this a life threatening emergency?' And I said if somebody is going to die that sounds life threatening to me. They asked me if she said she was going to kill the dog or the dog was going to die. Apparently since all beings die it is NOT considered a threat if they just say he will die.
So the police came back out-the same officers, I bet they hadn't been able to get six blocks. My husband apologized to them and we told them what happened and that we would be inside. They knocked on the door across the street and no one answered so the police just left.
I wanted to build a fire and sleep in the back yard, but DH said that would just invite trouble. The dogs always sleep inside with us. I piled all the lawn furniture in front of the gate and put all the aluminum cans and the rest of the lawn furniture on the fence on the other side of the house, and spent most of the night looking out the window. I am wondering if they will be bright enough to circle around to put poison in the back yard for the dogs or will just march across the street in our plain view.
Does anyone have any reasonably priced ideas for us? I want to hire private security to watch the house, but I GUESS we can't afford that-I mean who really needs to go to college?
I am trying not to go to the homeowners association and make a big deal, but I am really tempted to tell all the neighbors that I see walking their own dogs nicely on a leash on their property where their loose dogs are allowed to kill them to come over and walk them in my yard. Apparently the people who lived here before we did would go outside and fuss at people who walked with their dogs on the sidewalk in front of this house, but I would rather the dogs walk over here then over there and get hurt.
Now I do admit that I allow my dog (from inside) to bark at people who are INSIDE our yard, even if they are on the sidewalk. I used to have a little Papillon who I had previously (taken a few years to ) trained to NOT bark at people across the street only when they are in our yard. One time, after we lost the Papillon to liver shunts, my GR was barking at another GR who was standing in the front yard talking to another dog, so I put him on the leash and we went outside and I explained that he is lonely because we just lost our other dog. So he got to play for a bit and was happy.
Anyway, our new dog alerts to everything and when one dog barks the other one barks and they just keep going. So lately I spend a lot of time working with the dogs barking. I go to the window and pet them and tell the dogs, 'You are a watch dog' until the strangers get off our property and then walk away and say, 'they are gone now.' After years of doing this with other dogs it has worked in the past. I even had a dog (he was a Siberian Husky) who would go to the window when I said, 'you are a watch dog.' These dogs I have now are only two and a half years old though so we are still working on it. I teach them it is ok to bark at strangers but not the neighbors in their own yard. We just got new neighbors next door and I worked really hard and got the GR to recognize them and not bark at them. So the other day they had a back yard barbecue and you could see my GR scan the crowd and see the neighbors and not bark. But then the people who live there all went inside and my GR began to bark so I called him over to me, but by the time he got to me the owner next door went to the grill outside, now my GR knows the word 'grill' because my DH keeps telling him- 'do want to come grill with me?' and practices training with him throwing him tiny pieces of food. So I said to my GR -look at the Grill-and you could see his eyes go to it and then he realized it is the guy who lives there and relaxed. So cute! Thanks for reading this far.