I don’t know where you are located or what the laws are, but here, a dog like that would be shot. And if was chasing one of my horses, shot by me. I shot one that killed a deer in the paddock by my house. I called and told animal control and have pics. Animal control took the carcass and dumped it on the owner’s driveway and talked to them. It didn’t stop. They got more dogs and they roamed too. I haven’t shot another one but only because I didn’t have my rifle with me when they showed up. My neighbors and I have had lots of problems with dogs like this. They kill sheep, goats, one killed my cat—ANY dog in our area loose with no ID AND/OR chasing livestock can be shot, no questions asked. The owner obviously doesn’t care. I wouldn’t either.
Thank you all for the great suggestions. I just had three dogs - including the troublemaker - in my yard this evening while I was feeding. I’m absolutely done with this situation - they all ran back to my neighbor’s property, and I know at least one - a German Shepherd - is his friend’s dog.
Cameras are going up this weekend. I haven’t decided which additional route I’ll go - I’m somewhere between catch and bring the dog to a rescue and shoot something at him if I can’t catch him. I worry about getting skunk smell on me, but deer urine might be a solid way to go.
I would absolutely fence my property if I could wildly afford and justify it, but it’s hugely rocky/uneven/partially inaccessible, so it would be a very large and expensive job. My other neighbor has draft horses who get loose every 2-3 days, and I think they’d go through/lean on/bring down the fence in any exposed areas to get to my grass. (Have I mentioned I am literally surrounded by crazy people?) I am trying to save up a down payment to get out of here ASAP, so I really don’t want to pour money into a fence right now when I might be able to escape by next summer. A few lines of hot wire with a cattle charger might be a more practical alternative to no-climb wire, and I could stomach the cost a little better.
Thank you again for all of the suggestions and ideas! It’s nice to hear that I’m not alone in thinking this situation is absolutely insane.
I also like the idea of a benign sticky thing like pancake syrup if any of them are friendly and if the owner would even notice.
I have used the paint ball gun idea, it seems to work as the dog didn’t return. It sends a few messages, the dog is covered in paint so obviously was somewhere not supposed to be, next time it might not be paint. For the record I would not shoot a pup because of owner stupidity but I may catch and relocate.
@Paige777 Just commiserating with you as I also have an idiot neighbor with a free range dog. ACO did ticket them a couple times, but now we have a new ACO (whose wife is a well known horse trainer) who apparently can’t be bothered. I may have to try the unpleasant something or other on the dog next time he comes over.
I feel so bad because it’s not the dog’s fault….
This
Where are you that the police will handle it?
Here they tell you to call animal control and good luck with that.
I just catch them and take them
To the mani al control/shelter. Either butthead has to pay $$$ to get it back or it gets a better home. It might get pts depending on the shelter but there are worse ends than the end of a needle
Some places do have animal control in the county, many others don’t.
One place where I lived the county didn’t have that, so when roaming dogs went after the older people who were walking for their health, someone took care of the dog permanently. (Yes, in lower Alabama, having people attacked by wandering dogs won’t happen again.)
My suggestion for self-defense is a cattle prod. They’re relatively cheap, you can get them in various lengths, and set them at whatever level you want to. They also make a snapping noise, and that may be enough to make a dog leave you alone, if not, they get zapped.
We had a neighbor that lived in town and had two dogs that were causing trouble there, so he took them to the farm and turned them loose there, no one living in the farm house, he came every so often to check things and feed them, we assume.
We kept finding the dogs in our pastures far away from their home and had told him about it.
The farm house was some 4 miles from our cattle pens, where we had weaned some calves and they were bawling in there for three days before being turned out.
One night it had rained, next morning calves had torn fences in the pens and gone thru two more pasture fences and there were dog tracks in the mud all over, so the dogs had fun that night chasing them.
When I went to tell him about it, he said “just shoot the dogs!”
I told him it was his job to handle the dogs, not any one else to do it for him, to take them to the animal shelter if he could not handle it!"
Dogs were gone, don’t know what happened to them.
Maybe OP can do that, tell this fellow he needs to control the dogs, not fair to expect others to shoot them for him, if he doesn’t want them?
Not to derail, but honest question: how loud are pellet or paint guns?
Because I have some squirrels and bunnies I would like to hurt (not kill), but I have also been VERY reliably informed that a gun shot sound in my neighborhood would have a cop there in under 5 minutes.
I have a pump up pellet rifle that I bought to control my armadillo population. Because it did nothing to deter armadillos I broke down and bought a 22. The pellet rifle does not sound anything at all like a gunshot. If you are not the person firing it I doubt you could hear it at all. Sounds like a BB gun.
DH has one of these and we just had a very curious raccoon hanging around our back door where we take our dogs out. He got the pellet gun out, and shot it right in the stomach and it just stared at us. I hit it with the hose from our second story deck and that was much more effective. Sounds wise, it’s just a little pop.
I had a dog that used to visit my horse paddocks regularly. I snapped him a couple of times with the lunge whip and he learned to stay away.
Very quiet. Nobody will know.
I did that with a pesky dog that kept coming over and being way too interested in my goats. He stopped coming over after he got tinged with the end of that lunge whip a couple of times, but he’d stand across the road and bark at me. haha
Another dog came across my land and down my trails to my horse paddock and started harassing my minis. I took her by the collar and walked her along the road back to her house and the owner did the typical, “I don’t think she’d hurt them”.
I told him she wouldn’t be getting the chance because I’d take her to the pound if she came over again. Owner was miffed but she was kept on his land after that.
I really don’t understand why people don’t care enough about their dogs to keep them contained safely.
You know those smelly fly traps that you fill with water and fish flakes? And it reaaaaalllly stinks?
Pour that down his back. He’ll love it and it won’t hurt him.
I caught my neighbor’s dog, a big Airedale cross, chasing my mare and foal one day. DH went to the neighbor and of course got the “just wanted to play.” That dog did not want to play. He did tell her if it happened again he would shoot it. Sure enough less than a week later, same thing happened and he went inside to get his rifle. Their kids were hanging on the fence desperately calling for the dog and he did break off when DH came busting out with his gun getting ready to take him out. They moved not long after. Ever since, that baby hated dogs.
You just reminded me of the time my father stood in the middle of our backyard with a tandem whip, in his bathrobe, chasing the neighbor’s dog back over the fence. It was a sight. 
I really don’t understand why people don’t care enough about their dogs to keep them contained safely.
Because they think everyone else thinks they are as cute and loveable as they do, much like my sister who gushed that her feral 4yro running through the Air & Space Museum was ‘so happy being 4.’ Zero realization that she had the feral 4 yro everyone complains about.
Some thoughts …
- If you make the dog disappear by dognapping it, you can find out how much he really cares about it by taking it to the local shelter where he can bail it out. He’ll either look for it there and retrieve it, or he won’t.
— If you want the dog to disappear forever, without killing it, dognap it and take it to a shelter three counties away. Put in some distance. He won’t find it. It will find another home – far away.
— He will likely know that you are the one who made his dog disappear if you are the one who has been the most vocal. He will either care, or he won’t. How he reacts will be useful information of what to expect of him in the future.
— If Dog #1 disappears, he may forego getting a Dog #2, figuring it is likely to suffer the same fate, for the same reason. Or – he’ll get #2, which will probably be a more annoying dog, and it will become much worse from here.
-
Whatever happens with the dog(s), the bottom line is that you are in a circumstance where you can’t control other people’s dogs invading your space. If it isn’t this yahoo’s dog, it will be some other yahoo’s dog. Plus their free-roaming or constantly-escaping cats, goats, children, etc. This reality has to be part of your future plans for living there.
-
Give some serious thought to perimeter fencing as an upgrade to the value of your property, so worth a bank loan to create and do properly. Your own fencing is the only control you will have over years of future incursions by neighbor animals (and children and … whatever).
Your neighbor sounds like he may have some serious depression issues, if he is that disconnected from his responsibilities and his life. Nothing you can do about that. But this too is information that may inform some choices. Such as that he is unlikely to move away, as that would take energy and a plan, and it doesn’t sound likely that he will have either.
You have every right to gnash teeth over the boundary-breaking neighbors. But this is your reality from now on.
Fencing is the most important thing you can do for yourself, both now and in the future. It’s an investment in your life, as well as your property. At least have a conversation with your favorite bank loan officer and find out what your options are. 
Pro tip from a long time shelter worker. If you are going to take the dog on a long drive to an out of county shelter, you better not mention that when you drop it off. We don’t accept out of county animals and turn them away. Google some cross streets in advance to give them when they asked where you found it. 
