Neighborhood Dog

wweeeelllllll this is a situation of "whats good for the goose is good for the gander" .... or "the law applies to you but not to me because i know my dog"

dogs are territorial, that is a fact... and dogs dont know what a property line or that garbage set out on the street is off limits.. in their minds its free food! who could blame them?

There really isnt much you can do that would be considered nice or neighbourly...... you could go talk to the people you suspect as the owners and maybe they'll understand. but you dont really know for sure, so there is a 50/50 chance that the dog was dropped off and is just being fed by a kind heart. Thats been the case with a dog around here.. two actually..... i made the mistake of feeding a little pit bull twice - the lady down the street was also feeding her but on the side of the road - so the dog camped out on my porch. she DESTROYED a lot of things. i was very close to hating dogs because of her..... i have never taken a dog to the pound in my life but came within inches of doing just that because she was horrible. of course i was also taking care of a toddler and a newborn baby AND a paralyzed dog so my patience was thin to start with. the lady down the street finally took the little pit bull and she has a happy home now. but it took someone saying something threatening(no it wasnt me!) before she took the situation seriously. by threatening i mean someone said they were going to shoot that dog in order to put everyone out of their misery. had i not been caring for babies and crippled dogs i would have loved to take her in and train her, but i couldnt do it.

Now, recently..... there is another dog in the neighbourhood but he came to the old couple nextdoor before he came to us. which means they fed him first.... so he hangs out on their porch and not mine!!! they dont want him but they feed him. for the most part he's a well behaved dog until he sees a cat or a chicken. then he is a hell hound.. when he first started that i walked nextdoor to tell them their puppy was loose and bothering the live stock.... i got a weird look from their daughters boyfriend and he said "kay.." and went back inside. two days later i found out the weird look was due to the fact that the dog didnt really belong to anyone.. the old lady just felt sorry for him so she started feeding him. and in my book that means you own the animal..... the law tends to see it that way too. if you're buying food and setting it out then that animal is your responsibility if it makes trouble. kinda like "You saved its life, now you're responsible for it"

in your situation with your dog..... unless you talk to the owners and convince them to restrain their dog then you'll just have to restrain yours and always be outside with her while she is on a leash. thats just the way it is. 

 I think it will be worth your while to go out of your way to track down the owners and tell them your concerns. Tell them what you told us.....that your not trying to tell them how to train there dog but he is in danger by raoming around without being properly introduced. Tell them your dog is territorial. See if you can have your dog introduced properly to there dog. If all else fails at least you made the effort to compensate for their irresponsibility.

Besides all that......dont they worry about him getting hit or some other accident......running in the words after prey and getting lost? Oh my heart would break if I didnt know where my dog is....rural community or not.