Neighbor's Dog got Loose and Attacked Our Dog

Fortunately no one was hurt.

Wife was walking dog. There is a big German Shepherd halfway up the street. It ran up to our dog and they got into it several times before she was able to separate them and get our dog home.

She's mostly bothered because she screamed for help loudly several times and no one came.

Not sure what we can or should do about this. Fortunately there were no injuries, so I think that means that there isn't really anything legally that we can do.

She went to the house to give them a talking to, and the owner of the dog was belligerent. Didn't seem surprised that her dog had gotten out or attacked out dog. She gave a perfunctory apology, and then started chastising my wife for "giving her attitude".

I am biased, but my wife was far from out of line. She was understandably emotional, but not aggressive or rude.

Not sure what, if anything, I should do about this...

If you know other dog owners in the neighborhood, a good first step would be to let them know that this person has a medium-large dog that gets loose and attacks other dogs and they don't give a E36 M3. A person walking a little hamster-dog may not have been so lucky.

The next thing I'd be worried about is that the dog could get loose and attack someone's kid.

Something similar happened to my dog a couple months ago. Wife was walking him and a labradoodle and another smaller dog wne thru their invisible fence and attacked him. My wife ended up in the middle of the street screaming and kicking the other dogs. Fortunately she stayed upright; my dog got a cut on his abdomen which cost $750 at the emergency vet.

Particularly if the owner is a shiny happy person I'd do a police report ASAP.  We have a lot of smaller kids who walk their dogs in the development, which would have made for a much worse outcome in either my wife's scenario or yours. The shiny happy person needs to be held accountable.

If the owner was E36 M3ty, then 100% file a police report. berkeley irresponsible dog owners, they make it bad for the rest of us.

I would reach out to authorities just to make a note, leave something in writing if required so if it happens again ....

Police report.  File it for future litigation.  Start packing grizzly grade bear repellent. Resist the urge to use it on the dog's owner.

Yes.  Report it.  So that when something even worse happens, there is a paper trail that says there is a history and the owners did nothing about it.

If nobody reports anything, all the next incidents never happened, and the one that finally is reported is the "first incident" and "we never knew...".

Report it.

2am lawn job 

File a police report. 
 

If a dog attacks you, you are completely in your right to shoot it. Just saying...

You said your wife was walking the dog...

If your dog was on a leash, then that other dog attacked your wife and injured your dog. 
 

Just for clarification. Would definitely make a difference on the police report. 

Okay. I recorded the situation and posted it to the neighborhood Facebook group to give everyone here a heads up, also make written record.

I'm not sure who to file a report with. On the animal control website there is a link to file a bite report, but the dog didn't manage to break the skin, so I'm not sure what to do beyond that.

I sent an e-mail to a contact at animal control. Don't know if they're even the right person. I just want record that this dog is aggressive and the owners are aware of their dog's behavior.

Just call the police - at least in my town they went to the attacking dog's house about 10 min after she called (before I even got to the emg vet) and forwarded on to animal control who contacted my wife a day or two later.  Especially on a holiday week I wouldnt rely on an email for prompt follow up, police dispatch is there 24/7.

Yeah my MIL's little dog was *in the mouth* of the new neighbor's loose pit bull before anyone knew what was happening. Fortunately, my wife is heroic and choked their put by his collar until it let the little one go. 
 

Owner was apologetic, said "he's done this too many times! I'm having him put down." 
Except she didn't have it put down. And when AC came by for a report, apparently this was the first time it was ever reported, so no real repercussions. 

In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm not concerned about a prompt follow up. This isn't an immediate emergency. The dog was already inside and under control when we spoke to them.

No injuries (we found a scratch on the dog, but not bad).

It really is about dealing with a long-term issue and preventing something worse from happening in the future.

A pair of dogs got out in our neighborhood and killed an old lady's dog right on front of her. Ruined her life. Up till then, she'd been a community bright spot. Chatty, always positive. Seeing her dog die like that permanently took the wind out of her sails.  

The bottom line is that a dog that the owner lets get out and attack other animals is a public health issue.  

Be glad things came out better than the incident my wife (a veterinarian) dealt with a week ago last Friday.

A pit bull got out and attacked another owner's pit bull.  Whether it's a good/appropriate law or not, pit bulls are illegal in our county.

Owner of the attacked dog tried to separate the dogs, got mauled as well, after which they took a kitchen knife to the attacking dog and stabbed it multiple times.

Attacking dog hadn't been current on rabies vax since 2023.  Sheriff delivered attacking dog to the clinic, owner brought attacked dog.  Blood everywhere-- my wife sent that owner to the emergency room.  Owner of the attacking dog showed up and the sheriff had to make sure the owners were kept separated.  

Attacking dog was euthanized and head removed to be sent to to the state hygenic lab for testing.  Attacked dog stitched up and, as it was crawling with fleas, dosed with meds in attempt to control fleas in clinic.  Dog pick up and end of day after six hours of my wife's time dealing with both animals.  Clinic stiffed on all bills.

County health department sent a deputy on Monday to take the head down to the state hygenic lab.  They were not happy about that duty.  I think the rest of the dog may still be in the freezer at the clinic.

In reply to Karacticus :

What a nightmare! I've had a similar experience, hoping to never repeat it. 
 

As to the original question, report the incident. It’s probably not the first time, and it's extremely likely to happen again, so it needs to be documented. 

I'd report it, too.  No reason to confront someone personally, let the police do that.

I remember a similar instance with my parents- they were walking their dog and another came out, unleashed, and started barking like mad at them.  The owner blamed my parents and their dog.  Thankfully, there wasn't an attack.  

And we had a dog rush us at a campground where there's a law to keep dogs on a 6' leash- I yelled at the owner who was there not doing much- and told them.  They claimed it was a suggestion, so I contacted the park rangers.

Much if this is based on the police telling me in no way that you should ever confront anyone- we had parking issued with people parking in front of our mailbox- so now I call the parking cops.  Seems to have dealt with the problem nicely.

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm not concerned about a prompt follow up. This isn't an immediate emergency. The dog was already inside and under control when we spoke to them.

No injuries (we found a scratch on the dog, but not bad).

It really is about dealing with a long-term issue and preventing something worse from happening in the future.

Make sure you see the rabies vaccination for the attacking dog.  If you don't see that, it is an emergency for your dog.

alfadriver said:

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm not concerned about a prompt follow up. This isn't an immediate emergency. The dog was already inside and under control when we spoke to them.

No injuries (we found a scratch on the dog, but not bad).

It really is about dealing with a long-term issue and preventing something worse from happening in the future.

Make sure you see the rabies vaccination for the attacking dog.  If you don't see that, it is an emergency for your dog.

The recommendation for confirmation of current rabies vaccination is spot on. Verbal confirmation is worthless. It's common for people to describe their pet's vaccines as current when the animal is in it's teens and the last vaccines were given as a juvenile.

In VT it is illegal for a dog to be off leash unless on private property and behind a fence. It's a state law, but locally enforced (which means hardly at all). 

Report it. 

My wife was walking two of our dogs when a neighbor's unfriendly mix came into the road after her. Our whippet got so freaked she backed out of her harness and disappeared into the woods up the road. Now, sight hounds are fast and get lost easily as a result. I left work early and spent six hours searching the mountain for our dog. As it got late I went home to get a flashlight to find Sierra trembling by the gate to the backyard. We moved out to the sticks so that my wife could walk the dogs in peace. She never walks them anymore around here. Neighbor's to both sides of us let there dogs run loose. The ACO is useless and fines have no tooth. 

Report it.

Start a paper trail.

Report it. It may be a child next time. 

Please report it, we did and the next bite was a child that lived a few houses down. Do not tell them you reported it, the cops will not share who filled the report. 

My dad was walking one of our toy poodles, golden ran a full block and grabbed him by the neck and started to shake him. My dad took his very heavy walking stick and cracked the head of the golden and almost killed it. Family came out and was nasty to my dad. He called the cops, dog already had one strike, this was the second the third was the child it bit and it was put down. Absolutely not the dogs fault, E36 M3ty owner and E36 M3ty situation. 

My neighbor and I were attacked in our yards at the same time.  He got bitten when the dog sneaked up behind him with no warning .  The dog came at me but I had a pitchfork and kept him at bay.  The dog (a beautiful GSD) He tried going around me and attacking the neighbors dog.  The neighbor reported it.  It took a couple of months, but we all ended up in court where it cost the owner $1000 in fines.   The owner swore the dog had been trained and was calm and gentle.  The judge told her it obviously was not since it had attacked 2 people in their own yards.  If the dog had bitten me it would be dead.  

I freaking love dogs, but carry a chunk of spark plug and numb the dog with it. It will remember.