As others have said, it really depends and they may not even need to come out in person, depending on their process. That’s why it’s worth a call outside the heat of the moment to see what they recommend. Unfortunately we went through this with our neighbors starting in 2020, and here AC no longer has the ability to issue citations on-site. So, I fill out an affidavit and send that along with photos to the ACO, and they issue citations based on the affidavit (this is assuming they don’t witness the violation, which they never have because there are typically only one or two ACOs working in our county at a time). Then unless they pay the citations, several months later we go to court. For repeat offenders you might be able to get an abatement order issued so AC can seize the dogs and hold them until a hearing at which the owners have to convince a judge they can/will contain the dogs.
We have nearly no AC here. The best move for us is to fence out and discourage the animals we don’t want here. We have a neighbor dog that we do really kind of love but she was pressing the goats’ fence. We did an electric wire at her face level off the rest of the electric fence and then I warned the neighbor that I love the dog but she might come home yiping about it. We have a great relationship with neighbor though so YMMV. In your shoes I’d hook up the electric and probably a one strand around the front as much as possible, then be loaded for running dogs off where it’s not fenced, squirt gun, dog spray, lounge whip, as the case may require. You can teach the dogs without ever teaching the humans a thing.
Mini update: owner sent me the usual happy holiday texts on Christmas and New Year’s 
.
Meanwhile, the dog wished me happy holidays in person Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday…
I have reported to AC. They first want to try witnessing this first hand.
I’m glad you called AC. Hopefully they can do something about it.
And you sent the owners video of the doggie visits. Right? 
Nope. After she implied I was lying, argued the photos show her dog NOT on my property, explained my own property layout to me, I’m done with that.
I now take two sets of photos: one with lots of background to best show location, and one zoomed in to best show the dog’s appearance.
Those photos and videos are for AC.
You haven’t had many renter neighbors have you? After 15+ years of living next to the rental from hell, I could give a rat’s @ss about being a good neighbor. I don’t go out of my way to antagonize people, but if your car is sitting in my parking spot, you will know VERY quickly.
When the home on the other side sold, the new neighbors parked in my spot before they even actually moved in. I started to feel bad about being unwelcoming, that was quickly replaced by, WTF, why aren’t they making an effort to be nice to their new neighbors?
I hate to say this aloud, but it is accurate to say the only neighbors I’ve had trouble with are renters. Trespassing, damaging property with 4 wheelers, dogs or kids allowed to play on my property, … all renters.
The owners are all pretty tight and neighborly: dinners, school fundraisers, farm work, etc. Even renters who have been here many years don’t interact with or aren’t as part of the micro community as the owners. I used to be concerned the owners were unconsciously prejudiced against the renters. Now I’m prejudiced for cause.
There are four rental units and five owned homes I count in my little micro community. The entire front length of my property was subdivided into minimum acreage lots. So I have several neighbors while I sit back on the original farm.
This reminds me of when I caught the renter’s kids climbing over a gate well inside my property.
In climbing over the rusty old gate (why not just open the gate?), they broke the bottom rung off it.
I talked to the kids and the parent. No offer to repair or replace the gate.
More recently, a homeowner kid bent a different gate. Just a silly lack of judgement in a fast-moving moment. Kiddo knocked on my door, apologized profusely, and parents called later. Gate was replaced the next day to the exact specs as original.
That’s an example of my experiencing the difference between renters and owners.
Yup. The landlord next door tells us that his plan is eventually to knock down the crappy little house next door, which sits on about 3/4 acre, and subdivide it into 2 lots, build 2 homes and sell them.
I think he was trying to taunt me when he told me this. But I won’t be objecting. Whilst we currently have decent people next door, that isn’t going to last forever, and that house doesn’t get any nicer with time and wear.
I would probably put an electric fence around my real fence to keep the dogs away from the fence. And keep my mouth shut just to avoid trouble. And if that fails call animal control.
My neighbors have a stallion that comes to my property at all hours of the day or night. Usually my dogs tattle on him and my boss mare will protect the herd (provided she’s not in season). He comes up to the fence but so far has not made it onto the property. Last time the boss mare was trying to kick him through the fence… I have spoken with them and they know he can be a problem but he still escapes about once a year. Usually around 3 am.
Just a couple hours ago I went out to walk to the mailboxes to mail some bills and there (for the I don’t know how many times) are the neighbor’s dogs in my barn. They were in the garage the other night, squeezing in under one door that doesn’t close all the way. Paw prints all over where my cat sleeps. Paw prints today all over my barn aisle. They’ve been harassing my longhorn steer, who is too old to move quickly, my cat, and one of them has chased my horse. There are varying numbers. Sometimes there are 2 dogs that look almost alike. Today there were 4—those 2, plus a black dog that looks really young and one that I honestly am not sure that it’s not a hog because it was almost totally round and spotted like the feral hogs around here. The neighbors have certain dogs, then you don’t see those specific ones again and they have new ones. It’s nuts. There’s at least 5 or 6.
I’ve called animal control so many times, have photos, filed complaints and they don’t do anything. It doesn’t stop. I ran back to the house to grab my .22 and as I got up to the barn again, two of them started toward me barking before they saw I wasn’t stopping. I could have dropped the super fat short spotted one that couldn’t get back through the fence easily but …geez…it was such an unfair contest. I grounded a shot in front of 2 others and they ran back through the fence, stopping right on the other side to bark and carry on at me. Even though they go through that board fence, it’s still a good 40-100 yards to the shared fenceline, depending which angle they take. I shot one of their dogs over a year ago that killed a deer right in one of my paddocks near the house. Was standing there tearing it apart. I HATE being put in this position because it wrecks my day to shoot an animal. Even a raccoon with distemper. I don’t want to. But when they aggressively move toward me on MY property, barking and doing this a couple days a week, I don’t have another choice. I just HATE THIS!!
Oh…and they AREN’T renters.
The problem with the dogs that run loose is that they become territorial and because they are roaming on your property they add your property to their territory. I had that problem with Cujo and his owners refused to do anything about him and his 100 pound brother that roamed loose and came after me at my gate. He had an accident. I don’t regret it one iota but I am angry that his owners made it necessary. Too many people mauled here by packs of dogs. Not me.
And they were renters. They moved. I think the were going to move anyway. Cujo can bite their new neighbors.
Amen. What’s crazy is that they replaced ALL of the fences on that 13-acre place with goat-wire fence—and added new fences to subdivide about 10 acres—when they moved in. EXCEPT for the back fence onto my place. So there are multiple trailer houses and other buildings on at least 2 of those acres and approx. 40 head of “wagyu beef” cows and babies and at least 7 Jersey and a holstein cow fenced off in a tiny paddock. There is NOTHING green anywhere. The stench is crazy. Don’t get me started on how suddenly the dairy cows showed up there and they’re selling raw milk. Oh…plus the 5 mini donkeys and 2 mini horses. They got rid of the 3 full-sized horses that they had before. The cows have a body weight rating of maybe 2. The sh-- round bales they’re feeding is abysmal. And then there are the dogs…
Is that even legal where you live?
https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/nonpasteurized-outbreaks-maps.html
I hear you on hating to shoot the offenders. I don’t mind visiting doggos…but they will Not harass anything I own. Full stop. Owners get a chance or two then I’m done. If there are no owners it’s over.
I had an issue like that years ago. A neighboring farmer had a little stallion kept in a single strand of electric and he was constantly escaping and running my fence line trying to get to the mares. Over and over, his owner would come catch him and walk him home.
One cold winter night I came in from chores and all I wanted was a hot bath. Started the bath, popped open a wine cooler…and heard the sound of hooves and screaming pony outside my window.
I made two phone calls. The second one was to his owner, and I told him if he didn’t agree with my first call, my next call would be the sheriff.
My first call was to the vet.
Owner came over and we castrated that pony under my yard light that night, in the snow.
I can just see the look on that pony’s face… “I’m not going back there again! Who knows what they might cut off next time!!!”
Please be careful. Thirty years ago, when I boarded at a different barn, we started to have a ‘dog problem.’ The area had been quite sparse for homes, but then people started buying and building. I had to ride my horse about a quarter of a mile along the gravel road to reach the trails. We could handle the single, loose dog who would run down the driveway to bark at us. If it stepped onto the road, I would turn my horse, and she would actually chase the dog back onto its property.
However, as more people and homes appeared, the number of loose dogs did, too. And formed a ‘pack.’ In a group of riders, the dogs weren’t that big a threat, but I rode alone often. And THEN, the pack started going AFTER kids on bicycles. The dog pack/threat stopped/disappeared soon after one such incident (which I witnessed). I do know that one dog was shot/put down by his owner (whom I knew). That was too bad. It was/had been a nice Golden Retriever-type dog when not running loose in a pack. A simple solution would have been to tie the dog up, get a kennel for it, or keep it in the house.
Well, anyway, please be careful of these dogs that are showing up on your property. It might not be JUST animals that the dogs go after.
