I’ve lived here for 9 years and have been on good terms with my neighbor, until now. When I first moved in, he introduced me to his “free range dog” which was allowed to wander anywhere. The dog occasionally came into my yard but never bothered my horses.
That dog died a bit over a year ago, and last summer my neighbor got a puppy. Said puppy is now almost a year old and is the new “free range dog.” This dog is in my yard for hours every day, wanders down the street, narrowly misses getting hit by cars, and is roaming farther from home. Two days ago he ran into my mare’s paddock and chased her - I happened to see it happen and went after him with a lunge whip, at which point he ran home.
I’m at the end of my rope with this neighbor. Since he got divorced a few years ago, he’s started all sorts of fun behaviors, like setting off fireworks, burning when we’re under red flag warnings, letting his teen daughter do donuts on my lawn with their Polaris, etc. Now, the dog issue.
The mare in that paddock will attack dogs, but my other mares won’t. I just put the third ride on my four-year-old the other day; if the dog chases her while I’m on her, it won’t end well. (My ring is about 30 feet from the paddock the dog was in.) I have hot electric fencing, but the dog slips through. It’s HorseGuard, so animals have to touch both the top and bottom wires on the tape simultaneously to get shocked; I think it’s unlikely the dog will do so.
I can talk to the neighbor, explaining one of my horses will attack, but even so, I can’t see him caring enough to do anything about it. The dog wanders the neighborhood for hours at a time; clearly my neighbor isn’t concerned with his safety.
Our animal control out here is absolutely useless; I left a message but doubt I’ll hear anything back. My thoughts are to put up game cameras to gather proof and document anything that happens. But, said neighbor has been in foreclosure for a year; if I sue for vet or medical bills, I’m unlikely to see any money. Plus I don’t want an incident to occur in the first place.
What would you do? I don’t have the thousands of dollars it would cost to put up a perimeter fence. Adding another line to my existing fence will also cost a bunch, and given the shocking issue mentioned above, I don’t think that it would stop the dog. I’ve been looking at electric dog whistles and things but have a hard time believing they’ll work. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Or at least for a couple weeks before taking it to the shelter. It’s gonna get hit in the road.
