Good Morning, Nexus.

I've come for your sage advice once more. Maybe someone can relate.

See, there's this dog. It lives next door in my quaint little suburban neighborhood. Our homes are merely feet apart, possibly no more than 30ft or so from house to house.

This pooch next door is extremely aggressive. i.e. It needs to be walked with a muzzle on at all times in public. It is a medium sized golden retriever mix of some kind. The neighbors have a chain at the side door that allows her 10-13ft or so, until it meets our property line.

If the dog is outside, and me or my significant other pull in the driveway side, closest to the neighbors house, this dog is barking, aggressively lunging and pulling the chain taught when we step out of our vehicles just feet away. Waaaay too close for comfort. This also happens when we have company over. We have been living in this house after renovating for 1.5 years now.

Now on to the more serious part.

In addition to this behavior, this dog has actually come over onto my property on two separate occasions.

The first time, I was walking into my garage and the dog charged me, took an aggressive stance just inches away, and did everything short of actually biting me (thankfully). I thought it was chained up so I was not prepared with my reaction. The owners called her back and actually laughed afterward. I don't think purposely, but I also don't think they had understood what had just happened. I was clearly very pissed off after that.

The second occasion, my girlfriend was walking out the side door with our pug puppy, Pearl, when the evil dog next door again charged them. Luckily I was close behind and ran out after them (with one shoe on) to save them. As my girlfriend was picking up our puppy, with this dog just fractions of a second away, their owners once again called her back just in the nick of time. TWO close calls now.

Needless to say, I feel something should be done. Waiting for this dog to bite one of us, kill or seriously harm one of our two defenseless pugs, or bite a third party (lawsuit) on my property does not seem like a responsible, viable option.

We have entertained the idea of installing a small section of privacy fencing between our houses to hopefully curb this dogs reaction and line of site of us (which seems to piss it off the most). Other than that, I have never been in this situation before and are not sure what, if any options are available.

Do we just have to deal with this?

When I was a kid, we used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood. We had problems with a few dogs chasing us, biting at our shoes and giving us and unpleasant time. When I asked for advice from my dad about how to shed these troublesome pups, he suggested filling a small squirt bottle with pure ammonia. Next time it chases us, or came onto public property showing aggression, give it a heavy dose of ammonia in the face - the eyes, nose, mouth, and much as possible. Now, I'm not saying that this is a great solution to your problems, but it works, and nonviolent/ does not involve law enforcement. They begin to learn who carries ammonia in their pockets. We also didn't know who they belonged to. Your situation is different.


A more assertive approach would probably be: Politely explain to your neighbors that the dog is creating tension. See if they are willing to work with you.

Maybe try asking the owners to allow you to meet the dog. See if it can be befriended. That might change everything

If I were going to try to become friends with an aggressive dog, I would make sure to do a few things.

I would ask the owner to allow the introduction to take place somewhere public away from its house and territory. This will give the dog less reason to feel like it is protecting its home.

I would have a lot of treats in my pocket, and I would address the dog with a calm friendly approach, food in hand.

maintaining a calm state of mind can really help.

If it still doesn't fit, don't push it.

Good luck!!!

Yeah what about just talking to the neighbours, trying to befriend the dog or if thats not possible telling them to keep it away, on a leash, etc?

I also thought you could consider the possibility of getting an ultrasound dog repelant and keeping it at hand... though you dont want to use it while your pup is around

Befriend it my ass. I would start with telling your neighbors to keep their dog the hell away from you and yours, and then I would call animal control every goddamn day until they've hauled it away to the glue factory.

Wow, once again I find myself in complete and utter agreement with Uncle Knucles.

We are two peas in a pod, Pandora.

I have a very good friend who was bitten on the face by her neighbor's dog in front of her two kids. They were totally lax about controlling the thing, and completely unprovoked one day, 100% without warning, it walked into their yard, jumped up and very nearly took her entire upper lip off. A decade and several plastic surgeries later, she still has a very large and noticeable scar in the middle of her face.

If a neighbor's dog so much as gives me the stink eye on my property or off its leash on the sidewalk, I'm bashing it's skull in with a shovel, should I happen to have one handy.

Hippies, you may now tsk tsk tsk and weep pityingly into your granola...

In my experience, dogs only respond to kindness when well trained or in desperate need. If the dog responds to the owners call then why can't they train it to not charge after people ?
A muzzled dog is just sad to behold. You and that dog are being abused by your neighbours, in a nutshell. A very serious word is the least I would do.

That sounds awfully rube of ya! Lol

Mind finding me some granola? I'm fresh out. Mine is full of hippy tears

Here in the UK, we a have a spray can called BITEBACK. Its like pepper spray but is made by dog lovers. It is given to technicians ( like gas engineers, tv engineers etc ) that frequently visit customers homes.

The spray when directed at a charging or aggressive dog will stun the dog dosile. But does the dog no harm, ebay sell it I believe.

This could be worth having to hand nearby, like in your car or garage. If the dog charges or acts aggressive you could spray the dog for your protection. then REPORT it to the authorities.

You should report the dog anyway, so its on record, then if you find you have to use it, then you have the already recorded situation on your side.

You need to talk to the neighbours, tell them your concerns and that you will be forced to report this dog if it continues.
If all else fails. shoot the dog. just say you thought it was an intruder. Think Oscar is trying that one

I am so glad to have you around, Art. I can't say I disagree with you on this one, despite frequently being considered a "hippie" by many.

Really? Ammonia? Mace? Shovels?

This thread make me sick, are you people really that heartless?

How would you feel if someone came along and did that to your pets?



^ Thank you for advising the sensible and compassionate approach.



I just lost a lot of respect for several people I held in high regard.

Dreamer, I was going to edit and remove the ammonia thing - After thinking about it, I decided that's not how I wanted to represent myself.

I Leave it only to remind myself that's not who I want to be, anymore.

Quite stunned that we're discussing angry dawgz at the DMT-Nexus.

Wrong Bark people...

So whats your suggested solution, dreamer?

Oh and, I think nobody here would be that careless with their dogs if they would attack neighbours, so there`d be no reason for them to need to defend themselves.


By the way, the other day I was attacked by two dogs when walking in public land.. I backed off slowly as they barked and charged at me, I was swinging my backpack so they kept their distance. One of them actually bit my leg, resulting in a scratch but nothing big. I was able to maintain enough distance as I walked backwards, until they stopped following me. The dogs came from a house nearby, but I was nowhere near entering their property. I find absurd that owners of dogs that are aggressive to people can let their dogs lose. Imagine if I was a child, they might have killed me!

Now I have an ultrasonic dog repellant which I will take whenever walking around the hills here, in case some angry dog attacks me again.

After careful consideration, I think I would probably squirt it in the face with ammonia first, so as to momentarily incapacitate it. Then I would bash its brain in with my shovel.

Look, I'm all for the ethical and humane treatment of other animals. I have just as much respect for other animal species as I do for homo sapiens, sometimes even more. But if an aggressive dog is coming after me or a loved one, I will defend myself or them by whatever means necessary. Exactly as I would if I were being attacked by an aggressive human, or any other animal for that matter.

I'd like to make clear something that I already tried to point out: It's THE OWNER'S FAULT, not the dog's.

The most common reason that dogs are aggressive I would say is because they are:
1. Mistreated and/or don't get enough exercise
2. The dog think that the person is inside their territory and is a threat to the dog and it's pack.

Most of the time problems with a dog is actually mostly a problem with the owners, talk to them first before you try any other solution, maybe the owner should get a better leash for their dog or even put up a fence around their garden. Explain the situation to them and how you feel about it!

If you do get attacked by a dog at some point don't behave like your instincts tell you to, instead remain calm an relaxed, don't look at it, DON'T RUN, DON'T FIGHT, close your fists so that it can't bite your fingers and just ignore it completely. This way of behaving has worked for me many times when dealing with feral dogs in the woods. I usually carry a gun with me as well but I have never had to use it so far.

Absolutely. I think this is a pretty widely understood fact.