Farm dogs and new neighbors. Ugh!

[newbury]

<snip>
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稚 see it in time. I ran closer and yelled and thankfully they stopped and came back.
<snip>
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 的知 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. <snip>

I'm surprised they did not do an MRI and a catscan. They make a profit on those also.

To clarify - was this across the street on the

100 acres of vacant, over grown woody land across the street

?

If so, on neutral land that neither of you "own", I'd offer to "share" some of what you think a reasonable stapling of the wound would cost.

Dogs get in fights, your dogs keep coyotes away. What does her dog do beside "provide comfort" and bark?
What if a coyote had gotten the barkmeister?

 

[Groo]

I'm surprised they did not do an MRI and a catscan. They make a profit on those also.

To clarify - was this across the street on the ?

If so, on neutral land that neither of you "own", I'd offer to "share" some of what you think a reasonable stapling of the wound would cost.

Dogs get in fights, your dogs keep coyotes away. What does her dog do beside "provide comfort" and bark?
What if a coyote had gotten the barkmeister?

yup. yotes must not be too bad if yappers are still wandering the earth.

 

[LouNY]

If they are crossing a fence, you already have posts up run an electric fence either the string type or a narrow ribbon on a good fencer.
They will nose that ONCE and then give it quite the leeway.

 

[plowhog]

Off leash dogs are the responsibility of the owner. Who started it or not doesn稚 really matter. Your dog caused damage and you bear responsibility that. Trying to dictate where your neighbor took their dog is quite frankly insulting.

Isn't it simpler to just pay the bill and try to avoid these situations in the future? This isn't really a lack of money issue, right?

 

[Hanshans]

Off leash dogs are the responsibility of the owner. Who started it or not doesn稚 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稚 worse and it wasn稚 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.

I agree with RUneumann on this one. Your dogs left your property and caused damage. I would consider yourself lucky that the other party is willing to pay a portion of the bill....

 

[jfh28]

I've had large dogs all my life including Kuvasz and Pyrenees so I know about LGD's......bottom line it is the dog owners responsibility to keep their dogs on their property.......and if they get off then it is the dog owners responsibility for whatever damages occur....in this case your dogs damaged your neighbors dogs.....doesn't matter where it happened as it wasn't on your property......if I were in your situation I would immediately offer to pay half the bill and thank my lucky stars if she accepts instead of going to the authorities and having your dogs declared dangerous and put down......assuming you can settle this and still be friendly with one another going forward is more difficult for you.......your dogs are only doing what they were suppose to do......protect.....thats what a LGD does....and you don't just have one dog...you have a pack of LGD's which makes it even more dangerous...changing that behavior now will be extremely difficult......I had one wolfhound who came to me with the kill instinct and it took over a half a year and a lot of hard work to change that......and you've got four to deal with........and they're beautiful dogs and I'm sure very calm and loving to you.......but you've got a very dangerous situation on your hands that needs to be dealt with......you could try getting an experienced trainer with aggressive dogs to see if they can get your dogs to be accepting of the neighbors dogs........i doubt it will work as once a LGD has decided something is a threat then it is always a threat......but its worth a shot......you could completely fence your property so your dogs can't get out and presumably nothing else could get in.......I had to install 7' high fencing with the last foot angled like a prison fence to keep our pyr in.......but thats expensive.......the other thing you can do is muzzle your dogs whenever they are out and unsupervised for even a minute even on your property........a muzzled dog is a safe dog......keep in mind that once word gets out.....and it will.....your dogs are marked as dangerous and will be treated as such when seen.....so you are not only doing this to protect people and pets.....and fortunately it wasn't a child that was attacked......but you are also doing this to protect your dogs........I truly hope you can find a solution that works.......Jack

 

[Dadnatron]

I am confused. Where exactly did the dog attack occur? On your property... or across the street on neither your nor their property, but on the 100ac vacant lot?

If on your property, I wouldn't pay anything, but I would insure your pets stay on your own property.

If on the vacant lot across the road, then you are liable, regardless of who 'lived their first' or 'who was out of the yard'. Your dogs have the Right to run your property, but they do not have the right to run the neighborhood. Certainly, an attack off your property puts the neighborhood at risk and you LEGALLY at risk.

If I were you, I'd get a geofence and teach them to stay on your land. Otherwise, the cost of putting up a fence is going to look pretty cheap compared to a legal settlement should it happen again. It does not matter whether her dog is out and barks 24/7, your dogs cannot attack it. You can file a complaint, but you remain liable for your animals... on or off leash.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I wholeheartedly agree with the opinion that if their dogs came onto your property, it's the other owner's vet expense. Doesn't matter which dog started the ruckus, their dogs were not on leash (although no leash law applies here) and not on their own property. You've already gone the extra mile in trying to assist with the emergency care of their animal. For her to circumvent your expertise and go to some high-dollar money grabbing vet for basically a second opinion is out of her pocket - not yours. They simply need to understand who's responsibility the extra $1200 expense is - and it's NOT yours. Their choice - their dollars.

We have pretty much as similar situation here. Had a new neighbor, albeit a renter, with a pit bull dog and one other young mix breed. The huge pit bull came onto our place, 13 acres, and up to our back door challenging anyone that wanted to come outside. She, the pit bull, made two other challenges to me, also on our property. After the county animal control came out the 3rd time, he warned the new neighbor that the next call would be a $600 fine. And advised them that I have every right to simply kill the dog if its on my property, on sight.

Now, I'm definitely an animal lover. The last thing I want to do is to put someone's pet down. But on the other hand, that pit bull was definitely a serious threat; it meant business. I've owned pit bulls before, and know they can and will kill, be it another animal or a person. But I will not tolerate being challenged, especially on my own property.

As a matter of perspective of the kind of dog owners they are, we see their dogs - the pit bull and a young mix breed, chained up in their back yard 24 hours a day - no matter if it is freezing cold out or pouring down rain. It seems to me that people of that mentality do not deserve to own dogs.

 

[tcreeley]

Put a page wire fence up around your land on their side and road. (Home Depot cheap stuff - 5'high + Tposts)

Electric tape works too if set low for small dogs that go exploring through the same spot over and over.

Fence now and avoid problems down the road. You will also save money in future vet bills and maybe law suits.

Fences make good neighbors. It wasn't until we told our neighbor that we were going to use a BB gun to keep their little darling away from our chickens that they started making an effort to keep track of him.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I can see the days of free ranging dog being limited even in very rural country places.