Neighbours Dog Escapes, No Fences etc.

steeeb

Hi Everybody.

I am looking for some advice on what to do regarding a particular situation, it's quite long in order to fill you in, so please stay with me.

We moved in around 2 years ago, and was greeted by our neighbor (both have corner plots, not attached) with "I hope you don't have children, my dogs don't like children.". Good start, right?

The dogs sometimes got out, perhaps once or twice a week, on one occasion when the neighbour was cutting their grass - the dogs were barking at the car as my girlfriend pulled on our drive and the neighbour didn't seem to do a massive amount about it.

The neighbour is a bit unsavoury, but we've not fell out or anything. They are council or housing association tennants I believe, in any case, we don't want to fall out with them, but we want them to get there act together.

The problem, however has gotten a lot worse. We are both on corner plots, and have a drive next to each other with no fence going up in between. We have a fence and gate next to our drive and a fence from our house to garage which offers some protection, except for on the drive. The neighbour doesn't have any fences at all, except a bit of hedge near where they get on the drive - this is how there dogs kept escaping, just running off when the front door was opened.

However, the council recently took down their asbestos garage, so now when the dogs go in their back garden (they never walk them it seems, but got quite a big back garden) they just dart off out. They have no fencing at all between their front and back garden and the dogs are escaping 3-4 times a day, I've seen them at the local shops and down the road, fouling on the grass verge outside and all sorts.

This morning in our garden are 4 great big piles of doggy doo, whilst we can't prove who it was, I'm pretty sure it was there dogs.

So, what can I do to solve this. One of their dogs is vicious, especially with children. No children play on the front any more since I guess there parents have seen the problem, my pregnant girlfriend is scared to go out sometimes.

We don't want to cause a fuss and we don't want to fall out. We've mentioned the problem to them, and they mentioned they won't put a fence up as they may put a new garage there "in a few years" sigh. We don't want to affect things so there drug dealing children cause a problem with us (that's a whole different story), we don't want to affect anything if we come to sell the house.

We could call the dog warden when the dogs are out, but that could be in 2-3 weeks when I get a chance to do that with them staying in a certain location when they break free - and by then someone could be injured by the dogs.

Before the council took their garage down, we were going to put up a fence between the two drives therefore somewhat helping the situation, now that there front and back gardens have no fence between them then there is no point because the dogs are constantly out.

Any suggestions on what to do?

elsien

Call the dog warden anyway. And get any concerned neighbours to do the same - weight of numbers and all that. The dog warden doesn't need to catch the dog out and about, if there's a problem they can call round and have a word anyway, and point out the owner's responsibility under the updated legislation. This now applies to any dog, just just the named breeds under the dangerous dogs act.
https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview


Alternatively, give them the information yourself.

steeeb

elsien wrote: »

Call the dog warden anyway. And get any concerned neighbours to do the same - weight of numbers and all that. The dog warden doesn't need to catch the dog out and about, if there's a problem they can call round and have a word anyway, and point out the owner's responsibility under the updated legislation. This now applies to any dog, just just the named breeds under the dangerous dogs act.
https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview


Alternatively, give them the information yourself.

Ahh, excellent. Thanks for that.

candlelight_2013

Yes, call the Dog Warden. We have had the same problem with our neighbours, and one of their dogs attacked my husband.

Last summer our lives were a misery because we were frightened to go out into our own garden.

Recently I emailed our Dog Warden and explained everything to her. She has made a house visit but unfortunately the owner wasn't at home, but left her card with the daughter asking the mother to call. This she hasn't done, so the Dog Warden emailed me yesterday to say she has sent out a warning letter and that if we have any more trouble to get in touch immediately.

Don't put up with any more nonsense, I wish I had known about them sooner. We are entitled to feel safe on our own property.

Candlelightx

steeeb

candlelight_2013 wrote: »

Yes, call the Dog Warden. We have had the same problem with our neighbours, and one of their dogs attacked my husband.

Last summer our lives were a misery because we were frightened to go out into our own garden.

Recently I emailed our Dog Warden and explained everything to her. She has made a house visit but unfortunately the owner wasn't at home, but left her card with the daughter asking the mother to call. This she hasn't done, so the Dog Warden emailed me yesterday to say she has sent out a warning letter and that if we have any more trouble to get in touch immediately.

Don't put up with any more nonsense, I wish I had known about them sooner. We are entitled to feel safe on our own property.

Candlelightx

That's excellent. I have sent an e-mail, so hopefully they can do something about it. It's more the fact that the dog could just randomly attach a child or something that is my main concern. It's an accident waiting to happen, really.

Confusedandneedhelp

steeeb wrote: »

Hi Everybody.

I am looking for some advice on what to do regarding a particular situation, it's quite long in order to fill you in, so please stay with me.

We moved in around 2 years ago, and was greeted by our neighbor (both have corner plots, not attached) with "I hope you don't have children, my dogs don't like children.". Good start, right?.....

QUOTE]

Wow, just wow...

Some people genuinely dont deserve to have kids or pets, or breathable oxygen fo rthat matter..

aileth

Excellent advice in this thread.

Good luck, OP. I've never had the misfortune of such a situation, but I expect it's pretty terrifying, especially if they're essentially wild.

WeAreGhosts

elsien wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview

thank you so much for that link, it has helped me too.
my neighbour's dog got into my garden last week and left a huuuge pile of you-know-what which was disgusting [runny! _pale_] so i picked it up in a bag and took it back to him. his garden is not fenced, either. so i will be passing that link onto him if it happens again.
cheers

good luck OP.

LannieDuck

If the dog warden fails, could you not put a cheap fence around your sections of both front and back?

I know you shouldn't have to, but in a year or so, you're going to want a safe dog-poo free place for your baby to crawl around...

steeeb

They e-mailed back say they've put it in there system, but nothing looks to have been done yet. I will perhaps e-mail them again asking if they've done anything yet.

RE Fencing: Between my garden and drive is fenced, and the back in fenced but there is a gate that has a gap under it which there small dog gets under - I'll be changing this next week.

ska_lover

steeeb wrote: »

The neighbour is a bit unsavoury, but we've not fell out or anything. They are council or housing association tennants I believe

I stopped reading when I got to this point.