Vent. Spending on a fence because of neighbor's dog..

[Heidi Loves Disney]

I've said before that I have an elderly dog who is 14.

Today, my neighbor's Golden Retriever came into our yard and tried to attack my dog. We haven't ever had a problem with this dog because my neighbor had an electric fence.

This dog would bark at us all the time, but since there was a fence, he never came over to us. I stood between my dog and the Golden while it barked and the hair stood up on it's back. Scary stuff.

Backstory is that the adult daughter is 20. She just lives at home and sponges.
Their son is 19. He was just charged with 5 counts of arson, was bailed out, and brought back to live there.
The mom (who is so nice) was upset that her out of control kids moved back in that she moved out. The dad told her to get out. He is an over the road truck driver who is gone most of the time across the country driving truck. That leaves these young adults home alone in a house they never had to themselves before.
Now it's just the dad, the adult daughter, and "arson boy (man)".

The kids didn't think the electric fence was fair and love that their mom isn't there anymore.

My only option is to get a fence. I will have to fence my entire 2 acres of land.

That will cost us a small fortune to have to keep another person's dog out of our yard and keep our 14 year old dog out of harm's way. It's just not right.

For 20 years we have lived here peacefully until now. Revving cars, no mufflers, parties, dirt bikes, no mufflers and now their dog coming after my dog. Sigh.

Sorry to vent. I really didn't want to spend that much money right now. When pricing it, it cost thousands.

 

[DisneyKT]

Sorry that sucks. But maybe you don't have to fence your whole yard. One of my neighbors had to fence his yard for his dogs. He only fenced in part of it. Enough room for the dogs to run and be safe. Good luck to you.

 

[Swimalie]

I'm really sorry. I'm sure you wish you could "charge" them with all or half the bill I have a similar story. Had great neighbors who got transferred (military) but couldn't sell their house so they rented it out. The new people moved in less than 5 months ago and since then we have had to go over 4 times past 8:45pm to ask them to turn down their loud music (last time we got rolling eyes and bad language from them). The music is coming in our house (the bass) and in to our 5 year old's room past his bed time. Now we're looking at spending $250+ on trees to line our property and start blocking out the noise. I wish we could charge them with the trees. Our expense is not nearly as much as yours but I can relate to bad neighbors right now.

 

[msmayor]

You have more than one option. You can formally complain that your neighbor doesn't control their dog and force THEM to do something about it.

They cannot simply ignore the fact that their dog is roaming off their property and on to other's property. There are laws that are designed to prevent it.

If you don't want to spend the money on the fence, then inform your neighbors that you will give them one final chance to restrict their dog to their property or you will file a complaint with the town.

 

[Heidi Loves Disney]

Sorry that sucks. But maybe you don't have to fence your whole yard. One of my neighbors had to fence his yard for his dogs. He only fenced in part of it. Enough room for the dogs to run and be safe. Good luck to you.

I will look into getting only a small part. I'll see what DH says. It's a shame because my calm dog likes to walk (and he's really slow now, poor old guy) on the leash with me. He doesn't run anymore.

How high can Goldens jump? I'm thinking of chain link fencing, but I don't want him to just be able to jump in.

 

[Heidi Loves Disney]

I'm really sorry. I'm sure you wish you could "charge" them with all or half the bill I have a similar story. Had great neighbors who got transferred (military) but couldn't sell their house so they rented it out. The new people moved in less than 5 months ago and since then we have had to go over 4 times past 8:45pm to ask them to turn down their loud music (last time we got rolling eyes and bad language from them). The music is coming in our house (the bass) and in to our 5 year old's room past his bed time. Now we're looking at spending $250+ on trees to line our property and start blocking out the noise. I wish we could charge them with the trees. Our expense is not nearly as much as yours but I can relate to bad neighbors right now.

I highly doubt that they'd pay even on dime toward anything.
The husband knew his son had been threatening his mother and yet bailed him out of jail from his 5 arson charges, brought him back home, and allowed his scared wife to leave. Something is definitely wrong.

I can definitely sympathize with you about the bass sound. Maybe I'm getting old (I'm 41), but I just don't get turning that bass up so the entire neighborhood can head your music. They need ipods or something. It's crazy.

 

[Swimalie]

I highly doubt that they'd pay even on dime toward anything.
The husband knew his son had been threatening his mother and yet bailed him out of jail from his 5 arson charges, brought him back home, and allowed his scared wife to leave. Something is definitely wrong.

I can definitely sympathize with you about the bass sound. Maybe I'm getting old (I'm 41), but I just don't get turning that bass up so the entire neighborhood can head your music. They need ipods or something. It's crazy.

Sad that the dad picked the kids who aren't growing up and acting right over his own wife.

I'm 40 and the neighbor that is turning the music up is 41. Guess he doesn't mind if he goes deaf in a year or 2. And he does this with his 3 kids in the house

 

[Heidi Loves Disney]

You have more than one option. You can formally complain that your neighbor doesn't control their dog and force THEM to do something about it.

They cannot simply ignore the fact that their dog is roaming off their property and on to other's property. There are laws that are designed to prevent it.

If you don't want to spend the money on the fence, then inform your neighbors that you will give them one final chance to restrict their dog to their property or you will file a complaint with the town.

I wish I could, but I spoke to our local police officer. Since we live outside city limits, the township we live in does not currently have a leash law. If the dog attacks a human, then they can do something. If their dog kills my dog, the only thing I can do is sue them for vet bills. It's my responsibility to keep the animals out of my yard.

It's crazy because for 20 years the only things that came into our yard were deer and rabbits once in a while. My dog has lived his entire 14 years in harmony until now.

They have another dog, too. It's a Husky. That dog is shy, but it usually follows the lead of the Golden. I hope it doesn't come over with him because a 2 on 1 fight with an elderly dog who can't hear and can't control is bladder is not a fair fight.

Having "arson boy" living next door makes me really hesitant about going on vacation now, too, but that's another story. Drugs do such bad things to people.

 

[Luvchefmic]

You don't have to fence 2 acres, I live outside city limits and have 2.5 acres.
I have a number of dogs we put a chain link 6 foot fence in the front of our house large enough for them to run around. Any strays come over to the fence and try to fence fight with mine they are met with a shot from the water hose.( the dogs of irresponsible owners)..eventually they have learned.

Hey I didn't recognize your ID but recognized the little dog..from the other thread did you find a pet sitter? How is he doing? Our oldest fur baby will be 11 next month

 

[Heidi Loves Disney]

You don't have to fence 2 acres, I live outside city limits and have 2.5 acres.
I have a number of dogs we put a chain link 6 foot fence in the front of our house large enough for them to run around. Any strays come over to the fence and try to fence fight with mine they are met with a shot from the water hose.

I just wanted to say that after reading this, I really think we are going go to this route. That sounds a whole lot better than having to fence 2 acres. I love the water hose idea, but that Golden loves water. He looks so cute sitting there in his little kiddie swimming pool waiting for someone to fill it up. He's not so cute coming after my dog though. Too bad that dog decided to act the way he did toward myself and my old dog.
I always thought Golden Retrievers were kinda laid back.

 

[Luvchefmic]

in FL it cost about $1000 I think ..I forget it was 2 yrs ago when we moved in
go with a well respected company is my best advice

I think the golden is probably a good dog..with all that has been going on over there its probably being ignored...feel sorry for it but you have to worry about you & yours

 

[Heidi Loves Disney]

in FL it cost about $1000 I think ..I forget it was 2 yrs ago when we moved in
go with a well respected company is my best advice

I think the golden is probably a good dog..with all that has been going on over there its probably being ignored...feel sorry for it but you have to worry about you & yours

Awww. I want to hug all those dogs. That photos is so cute! That would work great for my little dude. I'm going to go price something similar tomorrow.

 

[hugabearjo]

maybe this is a dumb or expensive idea but could you put and electric fence control on your side of the property and turn the electricity back on? I don't really know how those things work but the fence between I would think is mutual property so who is to say you can't make it a hot fence? Just an idea

 

[Colleen27]

How high can Goldens jump? I'm thinking of chain link fencing, but I don't want him to just be able to jump in.

I wouldn't go with chain link unless you're planning on the 6' high style. Standard height (42", I think?) chain link is easy for any medium-to-large dog to jump. Our 9yo lab still clears ours with ease if the kids have the nerve to try playing ball in the front yard without her!

 

[Luvchefmic]

OP You could probably do half the size- in the overall area I mean... still go with the 6 foot like ours is (1/2 the $ for your two)
we love them they're good dogs



Hugabearjo- as far as the electric fence I never had one but I think the "offending" dog would have to have a collar on that works with that fence..

 

[wifeofjack]

We had a similar situation with our neighbors. They got a pit bull that had been abused, immediate panic set in! They would just open the door and let the dog run. We kept our little doggie on a run in our backyard. The pit bull came into the yard, snarling, growling, teeth showing, it was running circles around both my dog and me! Very scary! My husband told the owner one time that if their dog kept coming in our yard and scaring us, there was going to be trouble, he was ignored. It was time for us to go on vacation for 2 weeks. We contracted to have a stockade fence put up between our properties while we were away. When we got home we fully expected some debate, it did not happen. The mother came over and thanked us for putting up the fence and said that she was very against getting a dog, much less an abused, untrained pitbull.
That was 4 years ago, the pit has been trained, it still is allowed to run free, much to all the neighbors' horror, but is calm and does not growl anymore. The fence is still up, a great investment on our part, and the neighborhood is in harmony once again.
Good luck, we have found that the old saying, good fences make for good neighbors, is a very true statement in our situation.

 

[eyor44]

We have a1.5 acres but fenced just the space at the back of the house for our dog. The area is about as big as the one in the picture shown, but we only have a 4ft fence. Occasionally another dog will come in our back yard and will run the fence with our dog, but that is it. Never thought about a big dog being able to jump it.

 

[dawson5]

For the invisible fence question. You could do that, but you would have to know the brand. Invisible Fence bought the Petsafe brand. Even though they are essentially the same, they don't work together. We have Petsafe and my neighbor put in Invisible Fence. Hers will not work with ours.

Also, you said they turned it off. Did they keep the collar on? The batteries need to be changed on the collar about every six months. Expensive, short-term possible solution. Too many "ifs" for that to work, IMHO.

I always thought Goldens were great dogs also. Until a little boy that my son goes to school with, he was attacked by his neighbor's (and friend) Golden. His arm was in a sling for a few weeks and he had stitches. The owner's couldn't stand the thought of euthanizing their pet, so they gave it to people who had a large farm. This dog had bit before.

I can tell you that Collie's can jump a 4ft fence.

 

[torinsmom]

maybe this is a dumb or expensive idea but could you put and electric fence control on your side of the property and turn the electricity back on? I don't really know how those things work but the fence between I would think is mutual property so who is to say you can't make it a hot fence? Just an idea

The thing with an electric fence is that animals can still come into your yard, if I understand it correctly. The electric fence would keep her dog in, which would not serve any purpose in this situation.

I have a 4 foot tall picket fence and the only dog who has come close to jumping it was a really big pit bull. I put the fence up myself. The most difficult part was putting in the posts, because the ground is rocky. I used a post hole digger, put the posts in with a little cement and then nailed the fence sections to the posts on either side. I had one section cut smaller for a gate and installed it with hinges on one side and a locking mechanism on the other.

Marsha

 

[ilovejack02]

Having "arson boy" living next door makes me really hesitant about going on vacation now, too, but that's another story. Drugs do such bad things to people.

I understand , not wanting to leave. After leaving for 10 mins to drop child off at friend's down the street I came home to find, my next door neighbor's pot smoking grandson in my fenced back yard, digging my husband's hunting equipment out of our shed. He must have watched me leave and I guess he needed something to sell, I threw him off property and had him arrested . Of course after a week some body bailed him out and he was back at grandma's . Boy is lucky I didn't kill him, so folks would have shot then asked questions. I knew that he wasn't normally a violent kid, just freaking stupid.

I also live out of city limits also and was scared to leave house alone afterwards. I made friends with the sheriff officers and with a smile and a basket of muffins I asked if they would PLEASE drive by my house a few times while I was on vacation . They happily did and even left me a notes when house was checked.

Explain your situation to them and they might be happy to keep an eye out!

Speaking of Goldens , growing up the neighbor who was a nun in fact lol,behind us had a sweet sweet golden. One day dog FLIPPED and attacked my doxie. All was ok, but Goldie was never allowed to run again, we were very surprised because for the three years prior she was an joy to be around and no issues around other dogs.