Punishment for dog off lead on the road?

tbourner

So section 27 of the Road Traffic Act says you're not allowed a dog off lead on a public road. Does a designated road mean any road in the borough? Or is it only roads that have been designated as dog-lead-roads?

Also, it says anyone who does it is guilty of an offense, so is it punishable? What kind of punishment? Does it depend on what the dog does?

Reason I'm asking is there's a guy down the road who lets his dog roam the streets all the time, their door is left open. He's a friendly enough dog, at least with people, but he comes into our garden, craps on the front lawn and then wanders down to the back gate down the side of the house where he pesters our 2 LARGE dogs through the fence, they get nasty with him and start attacking the gate - it won't last forever and it's only cos we go and tell them off they come in, if we were upstairs or something the gate would be down within a minute!
I went out front and told the dog off before, shooed him out, but my neighbours got funny with me cos they thought I'd kicked him! We've heard the owner chatting to them as well (they're good mates) and he was saying how he'd had a complaint from someone else and told them to "f*ck off it's my dog". So that's nice.

Anyway, wondered if I could phone 101 or the dog warden or something? And what would they actually do? We're looking at getting a front garden gate but don't think it's fair that we should be forced to!

cjmumto2

Gosh poor you. I would phone the dog warden first and then see what they say. A dog is not allowed to wonder around like that. They can atleast point you in the right direction. The only other thing I was think is to get the compressed air cansister and spray it at the dog to scare it off but the neighbours may get iffy so probably best to get some authority involved.

But I suppose the ulitmate best option is to get a front gate.

sarah*a

When we first moved into our house our biggest dog could jump over parts of the back fence and would run round the block and then bark to be let in the front door

So we fixed the fence so she couldn't get over it at any part.

Two weeks later the police (well - community officers)were at the end of the garden sizing up the fence and our dog as one of our elderly neighbours was worried our dog would get into her garden and attack her. Despite us showing them that there was no way she could now get over the fence we had to extend the fence upwards by another 2 foot before the matter was dropped.

It didn't bother us to do it (didn't cost much - we bought wooden trellis from £land and tacked it on ) and now it's quite nice to see this lady who was quite scared coming upto the back fence and talking to the dogs

However we were left with the certain knowledge that if we didn't do it they would look to take our furbabies away Thankfully we are good owners and try to be good neighbours so just got on with it.

So maybe a call into your local community police station for some advice might work? Especially if you can give them times and dates of when this dog is roaming the streets.

Good luck - let us know how you get on

tbourner

Problem with that is if PCSOs went round to see them they'd just tell them to !!!!!! off as well, and then they'd know we'd complained about them and it'd cause issues. These aren't responsible owners, I don't think they'd be that willing to fix the problems, I'd just like to know what the legal side of it is, whether I'm legally entitled to do anything if the dog comes in the garden, and whether I can tell them it's a criminal offence if it all goes south one day.

babyshoes

My first port of call would be your local council - they should have a webpage. Ours have been surprisingly good about things like noisy neighbours and fly tipping - yours may not be so good, but they should be able to advise you.

orlao

The dog is out of control in a public place under the terms of the DDA (even though it's not attacking anyone!) so your dog warden should take it seriously.

Another option is to pick the dog up and deliver it to the local pound as a stray. That will cost the owner money (£50 in my area) to get it back - would that change his attitude to letting the dog wander?

If the dog causes any damage you can use the small claims court to recover costs but I don't think that route would help neighbourly relations...

hethmar

The dog warden is the person to speak to. They could go to the owner and explain the situation - IF they care about the dog and I wonder if they do, if they are willing to take chances with his life - then they will put the matter right. If not, the dog will be picked up and taken to the pound where they have 7 days to reclaim. In my experience 90% of owners do not reclaim because the dogs life is not worth the £60 fee to them .