I Shot My Neighbors Dogs Today
 

No, no, not like that. I used a CO2 powered launcher. It's like a paintball gun. Similar to a Byrna launcher. It's .68 caliber and it can launch solid nylon, pepper or other rounds at around 350fps.

The reason I resorted to this is because these two dogs (both bullmastiffs), relentlessly harass me and my dogs. The female is very aggressive and once broke into my property and had a scuffle with my female who chased her away. Then, before I could get my fence fixed, she came in and charged me. I sprayed her with pepper spray and she ran. Since those events, they became much more aggressive. I fixed the damage to my fence so they can't get in anymore (for now). But, they still charge up to the fence nearly every time we're out there.. Not only is it very annoying, but it's dangerous. Even though they can't get in, "fence fighting" is still dangerous. My dogs are Rottweilers and they don't have a fight or flight response, it's just strictly the fight part. My male got a laceration to the inside of his lip once already.

Initially, I started using bear spray. That worked temporarily the first time I sprayed the female. But after that, they became very cagey. They stay back out of range when I'm at the fence.

So all that has led to the air pistol. This morning I hit them each in the side of the chest, one round each with solid nylon balls. Neither of them yelped but they both turned and ran when hit. Normally after I try to spray them, they come back after a couple minutes. This time they stayed away, so we'll see. The next level will be be pepper rounds. If that doesn't work, then I'm considering installing another line of fence 20-30 feet back from my fence line and would run about 400 feet long. That would not be on my property. It's privately owned timber land. So that's probably illegal. Problems...

At the risk of breaking "lobby" vs "clubhouse" rules;

This following quote isn't in the correct context to you scenario, but is a great line when bureaucracy/legality seems to be an insurmountable obstacle.

lol.

For what I've read, you've been much more tolerant than I would have been;
The neighbor needs to keep his dogs on his property - because as I see it, them charging you and/or your dogs on your property is where you should be able to protect yourself and your property (dogs).

Let's hope this settles things...

I've never had good results when trying to reason with unreasonable neighbors. This neighbor is close enough that I believe they are well aware of what is happening. These dogs are wild beasts that roam free on 500 acres of timber land which borders my property. They are dangerous. In fact, if I didn't know where they were coming from, I'd have already killed them.

I remember 30 years ago when I moved into a rural area, the realtor that we were working with knew we had dogs. She said to me, "oh, by the way, don't let your dogs roam free around here because if you do, they'll be shot". When she told me that I was really offended that someone would just shoot a dog. Now that I live in a rural area, I totally understand it,

What do you have for a fence? One problem I see is they call the cops on you for harming their dogs and the dogs are in their yard behind a fence you're screwed. You can file a report with the police and start a paper trail so if something does happen you have a record of them being problematic. If you have an open fence and can get away with it, make it a solid one on that side.

You probably don’t want this posted on a public forum in case the law or lawyers get involved……

Let me know if you’d like me to remove it.

When that dog charged me, on my property, lethal force was justified. But, I don't want to kill my neighbors dog unless I really need to. Fortunately for the dog, I've dealt with large aggressive dogs and I've been charged before. I've always been able to get them to break off the charge. That time I had pepper spray in hand so I let her get close and hosed her down. I thought that would be the end of it but she's is tougher than I thought. LOL.

The dog owners property does not border my property. It's privately owned timber land. And my fence is actually about 10 feet inside the property line. So when they're at the fence they're technically on my property.

I appreciate that but I don't believe I've done anything illegal. All I've done is to use non-lethal self defense tools against some very dangerous, aggressive dogs that have already attacked one of my dogs and me.

About 20 years ago my father was in his late 70’s. A new neighbor moved in with a very aggresive Rotty that forced my Dad into his detached garage for about 8 hours one day. When the neighbor got home and corraled his dog, my father made the neighbor aware of what had happened. The response was “he won’t hurt you”. No apology at allThe neighbor was absolutely correct. A couple of weeks later the same dog aggressively charged at my father. He was able to calm it with a ball of lead applied between it’s eyes.
When the neighbor came home at the end of the day, his dog was waiting very calmly at his front door The neighbor was cited for having an unrestrained dog with no tags.

So for those who may be offended by this. Let me make a few things clear.

First, maybe you missed it but these dogs broke through my fence and attacked my dog. Then they came back and tried to attack me.

Next, in my jurisdiction, it's illegal to let your dog roam free. It's also illegal for a dog to be a nuisance (barking, harassing, etc). It's also illegal (no surprise) for a dog to be a menace (attacking/biting other animals or people).

This person and his dogs have violated all of that. The force I have applied against them is far less than what they have done to me and my property.

As far as the owner, he is clearly a sociopath. He does not care at all for his dogs or the people or animals they may injure. He let's them free range in a forest. Even though his property does not border mine, and I can't even see his property from mine, I can hear ordinary activity from his property. So I know he can hear what's happening when there is a fight going on at my fence. Yet, he ignores that and does nothing to change it. That's sociopathic behavior.

I'm a dog lover and a lifelong dog owner. Just not the ones that are trying to kill me.

Is animal control not an option? Sounds like they're running loose and aggressive, which should be right up their alley.

send a registered letter to the owner,explaining in detail all that has happened.
This will put him on alert,so if it happens again you can say its the third offense.
Let animal control dept be the bad guy here that takes the dogs away and fines him.

Went out for our walk this morning. I could hear them start barking in the distance when they heard us. Ordinarily, once I hear that, they are at the fence within a few seconds. This time they did approach but didn't come within about 100 feet of the fence. They stayed there, barked for a couple minutes and left. The forest is fairly dense so it's hard to see very far back in there. Anyway, that's only 1 day but it is a distinct change from prior behavior.

Once you sic law enforcement on your neighbor, you are the bad guy.

It must suck having bad neighbors.

Can’t imagine having small kids or grandkids around with neighbors like that. He and his dogs are asking for trouble. He should take care of this issue himself!

After trying everything else, two all beef patties with a ball of Draino inside was the answer for a friend of mine in Columbus, Oh many years ago

I don't know what jurisdiction you are in, or local laws, but animal control will take the dogs away here if called by local LE. You may need to start a paper trail with local PD, that way if you have to use lethal force in the future your ass is covered. If you want any coaching as far as how to get it done, feel free to PM me your number and I'll call you to go over a few different options that will keep you on the right side of the law.

"that has led to the air pistol. This morning I hit them each in the side of the chest, one round each with solid nylon balls. Neither of them yelped but they both turned and ran when hit. Normally after I try to spray them, they come back after a couple minutes. This time they stayed away, so we'll see."

I went back and reread the above and considering how it went your actions seem pretty benign. Neither dog yelped = no pain.
Most likely just startled them. I expect the pepper balls will be needed. You've been more than decent in this situation considering they busted on to your property and attacked your dogs.

Look guys, here's the thing. I've never been involved in an all out "neighbor war" before, but I've seen friends go through them. They're usually pretty bad. I'm well aware that I can call animal control, here that's the County Sheriffs dept. That will set in motion a whole chain of events. The best case scenario is that they would fine him and make him contain the dogs, by fencing or similar. The worst case is that they would take his dogs if they are deemed dangerous. If that happens, they'll most likely be euthanized. Then I'll have a sociopath neighbor to deal with indefinitely. Not really what I want.

Right now, all I'm doing is responding in real time to attacks on my dogs at my fence using mild, non-lethal force. And make no mistake, just because I have a fence doesn't mean it's not an attack. So we'll see how that goes. If I can't modify their behavior then I'll have to consider escalating to law enforcement options.

Yeah. This is basically a paintball type launcher. Humans pay good money to get shot by them. It's a hobby and a sport.

I’ve seen neighbors with annoying dogs and once they were gone they went and got more annoying dogs. If you’re going to be a dog owner then take the responsibility and manage your dogs or maybe someone else will do it for you. You also have to realize that not everyone is a dog person ,, it’s not cute letting your dog run the neighborhood taking dumps on peoples lawns and being charged at when you’re just trying to walk down the road. He’s not going to hurt you,,, famous last words.

Sounds to me like the dog owner won't care what happens to the two wild dogs.

Day 2, no fence charging. Just barking from a distance. No shots fired. Fingers crossed.

Negative reinforcement works sometimes
 

I had a similar experience a few years ago, my neighbors 3 dogs would bark and growl at me from the fence and it got very annoying when your trying to work outside. So one day I decided to try a different tactic by buying a large box of biscuits and found out dogs are like politicians they can be bribed! Once they knew I was the treat guy they would wait at the fence tails wagging in complete silence. :D

I agree with not calling the anybody, once you go down that path it never ends well.

I had a neighbor that every time he left he left his dog would bark non stop and howl. It was to the point that working in the garage was annoying with all that noise. I really wanted to punch the guy in the head the next time I saw him. Well asked my Dad how he would handle it. He said just approach the guy and start with, I dont know if you know this but your dog barks constantly. See if he does anything about it and if he dosent then punch him in the mouth:D. Luckily the guy was receptive and said he would have to put the bark collar on his dog. The neighbor and I are not friends but at least we came to an understanding. I also keep my dogs from barking insistently

Maybe we should call you "Dances with Neighbors" or "The Neighbor Whisperer". LOL.

Yeah that actually went surprisingly well, and seems like an alright kind of guy. I used to have a neighbor who I went to school with and he was not the brightest bulb in the room. He would use a propane torch to burn weeds around his house. I said he Mark could you not do that close to my house. He gave me a snide look and proceeded to the end of his yard next to the green belt area. My wife yells Mark just set his bushes on fire, what a surprise and he melted his plastic fence as well. Luckily that guy moved out about a year ago

You missed the sarcasm in my comment.

I actually got rid of a 4-5 year old chocolate lab because it decided to begin barking very late at night. Sometimes that would get other surrounding dogs going, and I knew I wasn't the only one kept awake at night. These marathon barking sessions happened more and more often over the span of a couple of months, until one night I decided the dog was going. I never had a neighbor complain to me about the barking, but I did it for them also. This was in a rural area where people ride 4 wheelers, shoot guns and can park a car on the grass without law enfarcement getting involved.

Day 5 and still no fence assaults. I'm really kinda surprised. Just one round each and it has totally changed their behavior. I thought it would require some additional reinforcement. But maybe it's also my overall aggressive approach that has deterred them. Dogs are pack animals. They do respond to aggression. If you let them think you're afraid, you're toast. That's kinda how a pack works.

Now that it's safer to venture back there, my plan is to run a line of fence about 10 ft back from my current fence which would be more or less at the property line. I think I'll be done at that point.

I'll leave the dancing and whispering to other people.

Your neighbor let the dogs roam free through that area, right up where they encounter your fence. For them that's the end of their property and they defend it.
That second fence sounds like a good idea.

Your neighbor sounds like a right (insert anything you like here), he's the real problem. Those dogs are just going to get out of hand further until something bad happens.

Yeah. The owner is clearly the root of the problem. But I still have to defend against the consequences of that. The second fence should be a fairly definitive solution but I had to make it safer to get back in there and do that.

So these are the things you deal with living in a rural area. That's the way it is. I accept it. I grew up and lived in big cities until I was 35 years old. I'd never go back to city life. I'd rather fight with wild dogs. LOL.

Shooting dogs while on their property makes you equally part of the issue. Yes, you need to request this thread eliminated.

OK, so I assume you're concerned about the wellbeing of the dogs.

It is my opinion that confronting the neighbor will not be helpful and may just expose me to retaliation if anything happens to the dogs.

If I report him to the authorities, there's a change the dogs will be euthanized. How's that for their wellbeing?

By providing deterrence from fighting with my dogs I'm actually doing more for their safety than their owner is. And I haven't hurt them at all.

Oh, and they are not on their property. If they were, this would never have happened. And I guess you missed the part about them coming onto my property and attacking my dog and me.

Here's where I see the problem.

You need to document the dogs being on your property, etc. (pictures?)
Letting the neighbor know 1st that they are 'roaming' on your land and are aggressive.
Then next time it happens notify the animal control people.
Then you have covered your @ss.
Then do whatever needs to be done on your end.

If the dog owner has proof that you 'mistreated' his dogs as of now, he could do something against you?

:confused:

Well, it appears the problem is resolved. No more attacking or even approaching the fence. To be sure, I just ordered my fence material from Amazon which will arrive in 2 days. Then I'll have a 10 foot buffer. Hopefully they won't try to attack me while I'm doing that.

Better to carry and not need, than to need and not carry.

I'm starting to suspect that some people commenting here have never witnessed two large dogs in an all out fight. That's some scary stuff. Especially if one of the dogs is yours. So if you compare that level of violence to a tap on the chest from an air gun, the air gun is nothing. I also suspect they've never been charged by a large angry dog intent on attacking them.

I may be found dead in a ditch one day, but I'll be laying in a pile of hot brass.

OK, so I'm going to make a statement to the people critical of my actions.

You all seem very concerned about the marauding, wild, dangerous animals that are constantly attacking my dogs and me but yet you show no concern for my innocent dogs, or me. Why is that?

How can you not recognize my right to peacefully exist on my property without being constantly attacked by these animals? WTF is wrong with you?

In my previous life as a logger it was a common practice to shoot any dog that we saw running free in the woods. Dogs running loose in the woods will run wild animals to death just for the fun of it. It's disgusting to watch a pack of dogs run down a deer then leave it to die with it's guts hanging out. Rarely do these "pets" even eat any of the animals they bring down as their owner’s keep them well fed.

Quick update here. No more fence fights. The worst has been a couple times they've come within 10 feet or so, then they retreat. Huge improvement that I could totally live with. I haven't gotten the additional fence installed yet because when I ordered it I accidentally only got one unit (100") and I need 4 units. But, everything is so much better that it's a bit less urgent now. I'll still do it but the pressure is off and I've got no shortage of other tasks.

Glad it's working out for ya

At least you were another statistic like this poor lady....

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-w...harged-killing

What a PIA

That story is very sad but it makes some very important points. First, calling the authorities does not easily solve these kinds of problems. Next, how did these neighbors put up with this for so long? The dogs had already attacked at least two people. Next, I never leave my house unarmed. Next, why didn't anyone come out and shoot those dogs? Next her partner came out with a knife? Well, I guess "it's the thought that counts". Next, he was on the 911 call for 8 minutes for a dog mauling and no help came? The whole thing is messed up. The police and government will not protect you. If you don't take some responsibility for you're own self defense, you're just begging to be a victim.. Even if she just had some bear spray she may have survived. And what a horrible way to die with her partner standing there helpless. Very sad.

It is Florida.


:(

Why, what's up with FL? This looks like it was maybe not in the in the greatest of neighborhoods, but bad areas exist in every state, I think?

Edit: well, sure enough, FL is number 2 behind CA for the most dogs bites and fatal dog attacks. But it looks like those are total numbers, not per capita so may be misleading.

Typo... supposed to be "weren't....