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Is your neighborhood part of an HOA? If so, I would check the bylaws around dogs and if there is anyway to have them try and enforce a leash with this neighbor. I live in an HOA and itâs required that all dogs be leashed, among other things.
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I hope this helps. I have lived in 3 different HOA communities and they all acted differently. One would have been all over your neighbor about it whether or not the dog was well behaved or not 
Iâm curious about how these things work. We moved into our new house in November and the bylaws state that pitbulls and a couple other breeds are not allowed. There are several pitbulls that live here so I canât tell how they would enforce something like that or if they even bother. I think there is a 2 pet limit as well and there is at least one house that has three dogs 
If they wonât do anything, at least you have it documented that you went to them about it as a first approach. I would hope giving the nipping occurrences, they would take it more seriously but logic doesnât always prevail.
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Iâd go straight to animal control. No point in talking to your neighborâyou tried that multiple times and it didnât work.
I had to deal with a very similar situation just last week. A neighborâs dogs were coming onto our property and attacking my dog. Our property is 52 acres, and the neighborâs house is on the far side from our house and barns. These dogs came all the way across 3 fields and attacked our dog while she was with me back at our barn. I talked to the neighbors and told them what had happened. She wasnât rude, but she wasnât sorry either, and she didnât seem to be taking it seriously. Anyway, two days later the same thing happenedâher dogs came all the way across 50 acres and attacked my dog again while she was with me at our barn. This time the dogs didnât leave when I yelled at them, so I had to hit them with a bucket (the only thing handy) to get them off my dog. And then they started snarling and snapping at me. They finally ran off, and I chased them all the way home, so mad I was in flames. The dogsâ owners werenât home, which was probably just as well because I was incoherent with rage.
The next day I went to the sheriffâs office and filed a complaint. I wanted to start documenting the problem, and I hoped a visit from the sheriff might get the ownersâ attention. Within 30 minutes of filing that complaint a deputy came to my house to get my side of the story, then he went and talked to the neighbors. I havenât seen or heard those dogs since. The deputy at the sheriffâs office and the deputy who came to my house both told me the same thingâI have every right to defend my property âwhatever it takes.â
@FitzRoy, dogs that approach people and ânipâ are being aggressive, and you are not required to tolerate it. It may be just a matter of time before a nip turns into a bite, so best to put a stop to this now. File a complaint with animal control. And maybe keep an electric cattle prod handy, just in case. Donât feel guilty and donât worry about what everybody else thinks. Iâm pretty sure the owners of the dogs that were attacking my dog think Iâm a very nasty b**** but I donât care. I can go back to my barn without being bothered and those dogs are still alive.
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If the dogs were to be taken away, potentially upsetting the children in the household, the onus for that would be completely on the dog owner, not you. Those dogs need to be on a leash, period. If you can, get photo/video evidence of them running around unattended. You said there have only been ânipsâ so far, but a nip is still an act of aggression (in this context) and should be treated like a bite. What happens if the dog goes after someone else while on your property and the person is injured? Who is liable in that situation? You, or the dog owner?
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The cattle prod is genius!
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Or a can of wasp spray! Iâm a dog lover/owner. A nip is a bite - no need to sugar coat it. A multiple offender who bites ME on MY property wonât be going home a happy camper. Sorry!
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THIS!
A dog has repeatedly put its teeth on people in your yard and the owner has done nothing about it. I, too, would be calling animal control and the local police to make a report. I would also go find myself a super soaker and put a mixture of vinegar and water into it and have it with me at all times in the yard. A shot of that should give the dog something to think about without doing any actual damage (and honestly, I would be hard pressed not to use it on the dogâs owner as well).
I hope the owner HAS put them in training, for the sake of the dogs.
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I kind of agree that itâs easier to train the dogs. Apparently youâre starting to make an impression if Dumb Owner is putting her dogs into training to protect them from you! lol
Iâd have a good quiet weapon at the ready when you go out until you get a few chances to use it. When a neighborâs two labs attacked my chi in our yard I happened to have a plastic bag with cans of soup in it, as we were just returning from the grocery store. It became an instant prison weapon, I landed several good thwacks and ran them off, and they never came back. They were also older, fat and not real committed trouble makers so that was the end of it.
There are dog zappers, squirt gun with lemon water or some such, etc. Iâd hesitate on wasp spray b/c TBH I wouldnât really want to do serious damage to a dog that sounds like if you gave it a good kick or thwack would probably just avoid coming back again. Says me, projecting from way over here not knowing or actually seeing the actual situation. YMMV
Loose dogs I swear itâs an epidemic. I have them in my yard often, sometimes I haul them to the Sheriffâs Office as strays and sometimes they get a rock tossed at them and run off.
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You have the right to enjoy your own property without fear. Report the dogs.
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Iâd call AC and would have no regrets about it. I just had to do this with a new-ish neighbor that kept letting their dogs run loose - weâd talked to them several times and they knew we were pretty fed up. The last straw was the day the dog was chasing my horses in their paddocks and the dog owner told me he was being âtoo friendly.â No, he was being an asshole, my horse had been hurt once already on a previous âfriendlyâ chase, so I called AC that day. No dogs over here since. I hate having to call and be seen as the neighborhood jerk, but really the people who donât/wonât control their dogs are the jerks.
With the situation you have described, Iâd also be very concerned about the liability you have for injuries to people on your property. Not your dog, sure, but you know it is a recurring issue, and if someone gets hurt on your place, you better believe theyâll go after you/your insurance as much as the dog owner.
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Maybe you should get one of these.
The noise alone might deter the dogs from venturing onto your property.
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Oh that is rich!
She should have trained her dogs in the first place! Some peopleâŠ!!!
I agree with those who said you should report the dogs. AND have a âweaponâ ready when they come into your yard. I have used a plastic gun with water+ lemon juice with good results before, on a barking / nipping Chow mix (not my dog). The zapper racket sounds good too 
Iâm sorry you are in this situation. It sucks to have neighbor problems.
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There are also motion activated water sprayers/sprinklers on Amazon fairly cheap. Iâve been looking into them due to my neighborâs 200lb intact mastiff tearing things up here, chasing the barn cats, peeing all over everything (including my front door), and making a general nuisance of himself.
I donât get people.
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Yes, report the dogs.
I strongly suspect all the neighbors who have tolerated this obnoxious behavior for the sake of neighborhood harmony will be delighted someone else called AC. Yes, of course, youâll be the scapegoat, but I promise you, your neighbors will be relieved someone finally took action.
Favorite story about my ex (not the reason he became ex.) We had a problem dog in the neighborhood, a husky or malamute with a very high prey drive and some previously reported dog and cat aggression issues. We had a new puppy. Husky came after the puppy in our yard while running loose. We reported it. Agricultural county, severely understaffed animal control, gave us chapter and verse over our right to defend our pets and livestock on our property, and to please do so - because the offending animal was always safely back home by the time he arrived.
Neighborâs solution is to get up earlier to let his dog run loose, not realizing we were also early risers.
Ex is out in the yard with our dog early one AM when the husky starts stalking it. Ex is screaming at the husky, while training a shotgun on it, waiting for the husky to cross our property line. Owner of husky runs up the street and confronts robe wearing, shotgun holding ex, saying âHe wonât hurt anybody!â Ex lowers shotgun, says âI know. Because I wonât give him a chance.â
Didnât have a problem with the dog after that.
Not suggesting that you go all vigilante on your clueless neighbor, but people are really, really stupid and tunnel visioned about their own dogs. Get Animal Control involved.
The last time we dealt with a loose aggressive dog, multiple people in the neighborhood had run-ins with it, BUT no one had reported them because they didnât want to make waves with the neighbors. So the dog that had at least 4 legitimate incidences of attacking people didnât come to ACâs notice until the 5th time.
Report the dogs.
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Report the dogs. This is an issue for animal control or the police (if they are the same) not a HOA. Health and safety, which this is, are not things for HOAâs, they are things for animal control and the government. We tend to forget this.
Meanwhile, have a good solid weapon to hand. And when the dogs show up? Go after them first, right to the edge of the property line. You donât have to hit them, but they cross onto your lawn? You start snarling, being âbigâ and otherwise think offense not defense. (I might not suggest this approach with a truly aggressive dog, but with these it sounds like it might work)
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I would definitely call animal control. I hope your MIL isnât too terrorized. Fear of dogs is very real.
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I agree with McGurk. When I told another neighbor that I had filed a complaint with the sheriff about the aggressive dogs she told me those dogs had also been harassing them. Itâs a pretty safe bet that FitzRoyâs neighbors have had problems with the unleashed dogs as well.
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I agree, call AC and/or the police department. The neighbor has already shown you they arenât interested in solving the problem. Solving it will be up to you.
We had neighbors many years ago who let their dogs run loose. They started chasing cattle. They were warned repeatedly that it was occurring. The sheriff was called multiple times. They refused to believe it/keep the dogs at home. So there just wasnât any other choice. SSS was put into effect.
Obviously, you probably donât want to go that far, but a Super Soaker, maybe even a paintball gun? Those things hurt, and the owner will hate having to wash off the paint. I used a lunge whip on another neighborâs dogs who were chasing my cats one day - I had nothing else to hand, and those dogs STILL run if they see me! I donât mind dogs necessarily, but I donât tolerate them on my property, endangering my animals.
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Being nice didnât work, call animal control any time these animals are off leash, and any time they are on your property, take photos or videos, hopefully with time stamps. The HOA wouldnât be a route I would take, because they donât enforce much, and all of them are friendly with the neglectful owner of the offending dogs, and their dogs are roaming too.
Also, you need to be hypervigilant when the MIL is visiting, one fall can be fatal.
For the record, even if the owner has to get rid of the dogs, itâs her fault, not yours, and if her kids lose the dogs, itâs her fault. However, I bet no matter how many people say they donât like the dogsâ aggression, I bet there will still be blowback against you when animal control acts.
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