Farm dogs and new neighbors. Ugh!

[piaffepony]

I need some opinions... Sorry for the novel.

I have a 52 acre horse farm and 4 German Shepherds who are free to roam the farm, although they usually follow me around most of the day everyday since I work at home.

2 males and 2 females, all very well behaved and socialized. We take them to a very busy dog park a lot and clients will occasionally bring their dogs to the farm too. My two females are not aggressive to large dogs at all invited or not.. they are totally fine with small dogs that are accompanied by a human and once familiar, have no further issues. I have NEVER had any issues until now.

My new neighbor (our houses are approx 350ft apart) has lived next door for about 6 months but is the daughter of my former neighbor.. so we’ve known them for 20 years. When they moved in, they brought their 5 small dogs.

I previously leased the 2 acre pasture that separates our houses. My large pasture goes behind their house. There is also 100 acres of vacant, over grown woody land across the street that we will do a little trail riding on... so basically my dogs are accustomed to accessing these places, but don’t bother any other neighbors or their property.


One of my neighbor’s dogs comes out and constantly barks and antagonizes my dogs. She usually keeps the smaller ones in the house and usually keeps a close eye on them when they’re out, except for this one azzhole black female dog who likes to stay out more. The azzhole usually stays on their property.. I’ve only seen it come onto my property or the vacant lot across the street a couple times but the dog doesn’t listen to my neighbor very well when he call. The issue is the shared fence line is much closer to my house than theirs, and it’s only a 5 strand barbless wire fence so the dogs can easily go through. Neither of us have the cash to put up no-clime wire on the 650ft fence. My dogs have taken off after it several times but they always stop and come back when I call.

Wednesday when we were both outside, some of her dogs wandered across the street and our 2 females got ahold of the smaller white one because the black one ran away. I was working on the tractor and didn’t see it in time. I ran closer and yelled and thankfully they stopped and came back.

Since I’m well stocked and versed in veterinarian first aid and friends with a large animal vet near by, I told her I would grab supplies and come over to check it out and contact my vet to see if we could save her some $$. I shaved the wounds and cleaned them thoroughly. Took pictures to text to vet because there were 2 wounds that were borderline. 1 could’ve used a couple stitches but was on his flank (a high motion area where the stitches might not hold). The other on his lower neck. Neither one were critical or disfiguring and there was very little blood. The vet said he was out on an emergency call, but basically said the same thing I did. “Yes they could try to stitch them, but not the end of the world if it wasn’t. But would definitely need antibiotics and pain meds (which I already had on hand and gave to my neighbor along with bandaging supplies).

After I left, they decided to take him to the ER (the one I hate...because they strongly push a lot of unnecessary treatments). My neighbor then texts me a copy of the bill saying “I’m going to need some help with this!”. It was over $1200! They did a ton of unnecessary crap...they did an iv cath, fluids, ran a huge blood panel, basically shaved the whole dog looking for wounds, general anesthesia to staple the two wounds up and kept her overnight for observation. The last time I went to this place, a horse got out and ran over my oldest dog but her only injury was a 6” nasty, but superficial laceration to a front paw.. maybe worthy of a couple stitches but definitely not mandatory. It was swelling up so I took her to there to get it xrayed just in case. They wanted to do blood work and put my 13 y/o, heart worm positive, well behaved shepherd under just to do the X-ray! I told them “No freaking way! I won’t take that big of a risk with my dog’s life for an X-ray. Ace her and take the X-ray...” they got their supervisor and she agreed to my request and said all looked well. They acknowledged that it would heal fine if it was kept wrapped.. the vet proceeds to grab cleaning and wrapping supplies... I asked her how much wrapping her foot would cost and they said $45!!! Ummm no thank you. I have all the stuff at home and have bandaged hundreds of wounds. I still walked away with a $420 bill.

Anyway... She acknowledges that her dog is the instigator and is causing issues. I will probably help her out some with the bill to keep the peace.. but how much is fair? The thing that bothers me the most is that she doesn’t seem to be doing anything to contribute to a solution. The majority of her property isn’t fenced either. Neither one of us have gates for our driveways. I’m going to put a couple of hot wires low on the fence to hopefully deter my dogs from going through it, but I’m not going to lock them up! My dogs have a purpose.. they keep the coyotes away from our animals and alert us if a horse is out, or causing trouble. Hers are strictly pets. Are there any other low cost solutions I could suggest to her? The tension between our dogs is growing and the electric wire is not a totally full proof solution either.

 

[rustyshakelford]

If my dogs leave our place and do damage I feel I’m responsible. If a dog comes here and gets torn up that’s not on me. We keep our dogs near with a wireless pet containment system by pet safe I believe. Ours are dog aggressive but don’t stray more than 100’ from our house.

Brett

 

[Groo]

You already did what was fair, then she took the dog to a vet that like to charge a huge pile of money, and let them run over her. That is on the neighbor. She is the one that let them charge her $1200 for two staples all because she thought more should be done.

Maybe you put up some wire welded fencing as your share of the expenses. It would at least keep yappers out, even if your dogs could jump it.
another option would be invisible fencing to keep your dogs contained.

 

[RNeumann]

Off leash dogs are the responsibility of the owner. Who started it or not doesn’t really matter. Your dog caused damage and you bear responsibility that. Trying to dictate where your neighbor took their dog is quite frankly insulting. Had their dog attacked your dog or family member and then told you when or how to treat them you (or anyone) would tell them to pound sand. Your dogs have been aggressive in the past and were aggressive in this case- fix it and prevent it from happening again. Thank God it wasn’t worse and it wasn’t a human- trying to separate them or otherwise. Let me guess.....your dogs would never do that.
I speak harshly because the neighbors and community can now show a pattern if it happens again. It goes from a one time thing that you dealt with to negligence on your part- both civilly and criminally.

 

[747driver]

Something we have dealt with here in the mountains of Tenn. New neighbor who thinks they still live in the city. Tenn. has no leash law out in the country. The owner takes responsibility for their dogs should they go off our property and do damage. We have 24 acres to their small 1 acre. We have let our dogs roam free for 10 years with no problems. Hence we elected to put up 1200' of goat fence ( $2000 ) to keep our dogs from going near the neighbor. They didn't like it since it was so close to their house....but I told them we didn't want our dogs on their property, which has worked well for us. Seems the lady didn't appreciate your vet help ! But I also understand in their wanting their vet to check out their dog. That should account for something. To keep the peace maybe you can split the cost ? As ^^^^ said, now there is a incident the neighbors can document should more things happen. Good Luck !

 

[rustyshakelford]

Off leash dogs are the responsibility of the owner. Who started it or not doesn’t really matter. Your dog caused damage and you bear responsibility that. Trying to dictate where your neighbor took their dog is quite frankly insulting. Had their dog attacked your dog or family member and then told you when or how to treat them you (or anyone) would tell them to pound sand. Your dogs have been aggressive in the past and were aggressive in this case- fix it and prevent it from happening again. Thank God it wasn’t worse and it wasn’t a human- trying to separate them or otherwise. Let me guess.....your dogs would never do that.
I speak harshly because the neighbors and community can now show a pattern if it happens again. It goes from a one time thing that you dealt with to negligence on your part- both civilly and criminally.

Except when the injuries dog came onto her property the responsibility falls back on the owner who didn’t contain their dog. Had her dogs gone onto the neighbors place and caused problems I’d agree with you. My dogs job is to keep my family safe from people or animals that aren’t supposed to be there

Brett

 

[thepumpguysc]

I feel for ya Pony.. I'm "kinda" in the same boat.. No injuries or anything like that BUT, my neighbor of 20+ years just sold his property..
MY DOGS have the run of the place.. always have..
I haven't met the NEW guy yet but I KNOW theres gonna be a problem.. cuz they're "barkers"..
****, they bark at me when I pull in.. just to alert the wife.
They do charge & then stop, well in advance of doing any bodily harm.. They're small dogs but still.. any dog "could be" dangerous.
I'm gonna say 1 thing & then leave it alone.. LEASH LAW..
Even for me.. I KNOW I'm in the wrong..
Well, make it 2 things.. I would hand them a couple/few hundred & have a GOOD talking to w/ them.. explain YOUR SIDE & FEELINGS about the situation..
About your vet experience, THEY'RE decision to take it to the worst vet in town, bla, bla, bla.. & see what they have to say..??

 

[widefat]

If I understand correctly, her dogs came onto your property, where your dogs got hold of them.
If that's the case, your a better man than I am to even offer to pay for Mackenzie and Connor's (see MacLawn) expensive vet.

If my dogs wander onto someone else's property, then that's on me.

 

[TheMan419]

I'm sorry you lost me where you tried to some how say your dogs were better than the neighbors because "they are just pets".

However I'll put that aside and see if I can give some unbiased advice.

First off whose property were the dogs on when this happened?

If the neighbors dogs were on your property I don't think you owe them anything more than what you have done.

If your dogs were on the neighbor's property you should pay the bill.

If it was on "neutral" ground then splitting it in some manner is equitable. I am not sure half to you is fair, maybe pay 1/3 of it?

However it seems to me you are "victim" blaming. You are not a vet, the neighbor does not know the vet you called. Their animals are likely "family" to them (as my dog and horses are to me and I am sure yours are to you). So you trying to dictate that they should be fine with just your "vet" care of the animal is seriously misguided. If one of your horses was some how injured I am sure you would not just let someone else dictate what care they should have.

That all said how about a cup of coffee. Without blaming them for anything invite them over for a cup. Discuss the situation. When you feel the urge to tell them how they should have handled the situation.... bite your tongue. That is not your call to make. Not your dog.

 

[Paddy]

It's the never ending "the situation changed". We have always let our dogs run and for the most part of 25 years, the dogs became friends with our neighbors dogs. In hind site, it may have been best to introduce all the dogs with both owners near by. Dogs normally get along when the owners are standing there. Over time they won't pay much attention to each other.

I had a neighbors dogs nibble the feet of 4 rabbits in my hutch. He offered to pay but instead, we had them over for rabbit dinner. Glad to be rid of those darn rabbits and make a new friend.