OT: Question on what you would do in my place..

When you talk to the cops use the words Shotgun Pellets. Cops take firearm violations much more seriously than BB gun complaints. And show the cops what you're working on in the garage. You'd be surprised how many cops are car guys. Always good to have the local fuzz on your side, ya know.

Stop making excuses about walking those dogs, take them on patrol of your perimeter. Your lot is big enough. I always give my dogs a job of checking the perimeter of my yard. And I live in a So Cal suburb. When they get a little older and calmer, that will be their job. When you let them out, if you've been patroling your fences, the dogs will just check them by habit. Then they will come back to you and ask "Did I do a good job. Dad?"

You sound like a lot of us. You NEED to keep your temper in check, or bad, bad things result. They look like pretty nice dogs. They are too old to stand much chance of adoption if they get put in dog jail while you're in people jail. Food for thought, Jonney. You sound old enough to have NO excuse for tantrums.

chili, always with the difficult answers.

 

You have to walk them on the leash to get them accustomed to walking beside you. Then you wean them from the leash and they will stay close. As far as training to be perimeter consious dogs, you keep them on the leash and when they see something and look at you for approvel, you tell them, "watch 'em, boys" and when they do you should give them a treat. Kibble carried in your pocket works. Pretty soon they will point out potential intruders to you on their own. After a month or so of this they will see checking the fences as their job and become really useful guards. All they will do if they don't have duties is get into trouble.

Tantrums? My temper has gotten me into serious trouble. Learn from others mistakes. Jail is full of the WORSE kind of people. I know this to be fact.

Good luck man. They have each other for company while you're gone to work. Give them something to do. And don't wait to get started, they become harder to train when they get older. Unlike people.

 

Thanks for the advise Chili, I will try what you said. I do walk them aroun my property but no on leashes, ( they ate their harnessess) But when they are good they do get rewards. As for my temper it has gotten me into a lot of trouble in the past. But my fiance has helped me keep a tight lid on it. I know all out jail, especially military prison, now that sucked the big one. Thanks again.

Jonney

 

You should call the people from P.E.T.A and tell them your puppies are being shot. You'll have a bunch of people protesting in front of your neighbor's house, plus you might even see Pam Anderson there.

Going over to his house with a gun is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I really truely hope you guys were kidding about that. Sucks that your dogs are getting shot at, and hard for me to have an opinion either way having only heard from one guy. But threatening someone with a gun is a great way to either get yourself shot on your way up the porch or land yourself in jail for making threats with a deadly weapon. I can't imagine one positive outcome happening from doing that. Stupid.

 

I agree. I was joking about going over to his house with a gun. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I'am still better than a butter knife.

Jonney

 

Yeah, I would second or third on the security camera set up. Because there is no proof and since you live near the guy it's going to be worse if you accuse him of it. Even if the cops just ask him about it, he's liable to think you accused him.

On the other hand, if you have a security tape showing him doing it again, you can have him nailed. Check your local laws -

One other thing that might work is just a general, non-specific letter to your neighbors telling them that you've had some vandalism problems and you're adding some security measures to prevent it from happening. Suggest that they might want to keep an eye out for that sort of thing and report any damage they may have had.

That's sort of a subtle way of telling this neighbor not to do it again, without calling him out on it.

Personally, I think people who abuse animals are about as low as they come, and it would be nice if you could catch him on your lawn with a gun and shoot him in self defense. Aim for the groin.

 

Just my opinion, but -

Go and shoot pepper spray all over the door handles to his car & house (and anything else he touches frequently). And then go tell him you know that he's the one who shot your dog, and that you have a special treat for him.

See, pepper spray doesn't evaporate. It just sits there. Every time he touches something with the pepper spray on it, it'll get on his hands. It's only a matter of time before he touches his eyes, and walaa! Intant pepper spray to the eyes every time! And he'll have no idea what the hell is going on. Trust me, it works.

He'll learn quick that you're an evil bastard and that fucking with you & your dogs is a BAD IDEA. And even if he doesn't, you'll still be causing the asshole a lot of pain and misery that he is most deserving of.

Enjoy!

 

I feel the same way about mine. Theres nothing I wouldnt do for her.


Jonney

 

Jonney I'm an old guy had many dogs in my life, had my heart broke by as many dogs as women, when I was 16 someone poisoned my dog I had owned since I was 2 yrs old. If I could have found out who did it I woukld still be in jail today. Got 3 now, latest is a 4 month old bloodhound. Live way out in the sticks, nearest neighbors about 1/4 mile away, been here 16 yrs, their dogs have always been a pain in the ass, chase my cows, eat my dogs food, come on my porch & try to catch my cats, shit in my front yard by the walk, etc. Growl at me in my own yard. Chase cars, bikes, my brother in law lost some skin and did about $3500 damage to his Harley because their big ass dog ran between the front wheel and the frame then back wheel went over him, probably 150# dog, bad wreck. Killed the dog, they replaced him with a bigger one.Quite a few years ago we had a conversation and he told me to pepper their asses with birdshot. Been a while since I had to do that but they are becoming a huge problem again. Don't try to hurt them, wait until they are a long way off, just sting them, don't bring blood. Owner told me to do this. Works for a few months, then they are back again.

Dogs and kids are the two most common problems between neighbors. Dog owners have the responsibility to make sure their animals are not a threat or nuisance to neighbors. You asked for advice, if I were you I would build a kennel or something where the dogs could not get out and bother the neighbor. Make sure it is not close to him, smell, barking noise ( a barking dog in the middle of the night drives me nuts)etc is not a nuisance. Maybe have a nice civil conversation with him, ask him to let you know if the dogs get loose & bother him, be willing to work with him to solve the problem, maybe apologize for the dogs getting loose & on his place, tell him what you found but don't accuse him of doing it. Being nice gets a lot more accomplished, that old shed on his place might have a Model A in it, can't never tell. Besides, you both gotta live there. Having neighbors you don't get along with can make life misreable.

Sorry for the long rant, but your question hit a nerve, both sides of the fence, been thinking about your problem since I first read your post, finally decided to give you my two-bit opinion. Now, I gotta go work on the 32. Good luck.

 

Calling the cops would be the best thing, but where i live the cops dont seem to have the resouces to help. OR dont want to spend money investigating animal cruelty. My famil raises domestic wolves. And i had two of them shot. ONe had been shot on several different occasions. The last time he died. MY last pup was shot in the face buy my neighbor who bragged about it, but nothing was done.

IT takes all kinds.

 

Thanks for the advise. I have talked with my neighbor on many occasions about my dogs. He has told me that he hates them barking during the day, but it is only when people are on, or walking by my property. My dogs dont bark at night because I am home, my dogs dont bark when I am home unless someone pulls into my drive way. As for the smell my porch is a long way off from his house, and I clean up after them constantly, because I dont want that smell either. I have appologize for my dogs getting out, and on every occasion hes told me to kill my dogs and have children. I am going to talk with him tomorrow as it will be my day off. I am also going to rebuild my porch/kennel so that the dogs wont be able to get out and cause any trouble, I should have done it the right way first but I really could not afford the supplies. I broke down and sold my 440 I had for some cash so that I can get all the materials I need. As for them barking during the day there really isnt anything I can do about that, I have tried those no bark collars they just eat each others off. This guy does have some tin on the very back side of his property he has told me about. But doesnt want any of taken or sold, and he wont let me walk back through the woods to look at it any way. My fiance and I had talked about this over and over since I found the bee bee's, I am noy going to accuse anyone I am just going to ask if he has seen anyone on my property because someone has been shooting my dogs. I am going to report it to the police and get an informal report done up. I will see where it goes from there. Hopefully with me rebuilding my porch and telling my neighbor I have found proof that someone is shooting my dogs will deture him form doing it anymore. If it happens again then it will be cause for more security on my side to get proof of who it is. Thanks again for the help.

Jonney

 

Go to him and ask him if he has seen any punk kids with BB guns around because they have been shooting at your dogs. Tell him you wish you could catch the bastards so the police can throw them in jail. Let it drop that you are worried because you will be working all nights that week. Do all this with a friend present to collaborate your story.

Make sure you have lots of no trespassing signs, beware of dog signs, and tresspassers will be shot signs. Make sure you have filed a police report about people shooting at your house and dogs and show the "shotgun" bbs to the police.

Then drive away when you go to "work". Hide your ride and walk back and sit in the house with the ligths off. Make sure your dogs are real riled up and making noise on the screened in porch so he knows they are there. You might have to do this for a few days.

Then when the asshat comes on your property, past the no trepassing signs, with his gun, take a camera (or borrowed one - 35mm with a long lens is best) and snap several pics. Make sure you use real fast film to work in the low light.

Make sure you get pics of him shouldering the rifle to shoot at the dogs again.

Then put a few rounds into the ground at his feet,or a tree next to him, and call the police. They already have the previous police report about someone shooting at your house and dogs. Your neighbor has absolutely no reason to be on your property, had to walk past warning signs, and was told that you will shoot people you find on your property with guns, because they have been shooting at you. He has been warned multiple times and multiple ways, and came on your property with a gun and intent to harm your dogs on your porch. Make sure you use a light caliber varmit gun - like a .22 so that if they ask, you tell them you use it to shoot varmits, and thats why it was loaded and near the back door. Make sure the gun is 100% legal.

If there are local good ol' boy cops around, call the state police. Call the state police directly and tell them that someone was shooting at you in your house. Also tell them that you are afraid for your life and am not going to go outside because of the lunatic with the gun. Make sure they know that there is already a police report in for people shooting at your house. Make sure they know that you fired a shot or two into a tree or something to scare the person off.

Then when they get there, they will go into the back loaded for bear looking for the person who was shooting at your house. Give them the film you took of the asshole shoulding his gun at you and your house. Let them find all the collaborating evidence like footprints, etc...

Your neighbor will be spending time in the pen, but you might end up spending a night in jail while they develope film and collaborate stories. Tell them that you set there with a camera to get the person, and only after he started shooting at you, did you return fire. Don't lie to the police for any reason, or embellish, or anything. Give them the straight goods.

I bet that when they go to question the asshat, he will start lying through his teeth about how you were shooting at him and he wasn't doing anything. The cops will smell a lie on him, and none from your...who do you think they will believe? You even have a witness that collaborates you telling him that you were having problems, and that you wanted the police to take care of it like a nice law abiding citizen. The only reason you shot back was because he was shooting at you and you thought your life was threatened.

This way you are 100% in the right, noone is hurt, and the asshat not only gets to spend some quality time in jail, but will never step onto your property again since he will never be sure you are not home, or sitting there with a gun...waiting for him again.

Then just make sure your dogs are tied up and can't get free after that.

 

I think I'll add a little story of my youth:
We had a bird dog for years. Very good dog that stayed home - untill he got older. Now this was in the late 60's, & we had 5 acres; before any leash laws were thought of. He somehow decided it was fun to go three neighbors up & chase his cows. The guy called us the first two times, & we apologized & tied the dog up (but he got loose). The guy said if it happened again he'd shoot him. It did & he did. He called us & said to come get our dog's body. We did, apologized again for his trouble, & left. Bottom line is if you're going to have a dog you have to be responsible. (not saying you Jonney are not being responsible - the guy had no right to shoot the dogs on your property.) I would love to have a dog, but I have no fence & I'm not going to put one on a chain. If you can't properly take care of pets then don't get them.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.

 

I have had really good luck with invisible fencing. I bought the unit and wire and installed it myself (welded up a plow-type thing for the 4-wheeler) for under $300 on 3.5 acres. Took about eight hours to bury the wire, and the dog has only gone through it once since she was trained (about six months ago)... and that was when the battery in her collar died.

You neighbors won't complain about an ugly fence, and you won't have to look at one, and your neighbors won't complain about your dog coming over to "visit" them.

Ben

 

My dad suggested the invisable fence. I was wondering if it really worked. I still want to put up a 8' fence around the back side of my property and have the invisble fence in the front. where did you get the invisible fence from? I really dont have much of anything else to sell but I am trying to get enough money to get the porch/kennel fixed and hopefully get started on the fence. Thanks for the advice.

Jonney

 

Jonney,

a good friend of mine bought his PetSafe system online, from Radio Systems... but the same company also makes the Guardian brand, which is sold at Wal-Mart... they are about the same price. Innotek seems REALLY high priced.

The basic system is about $100 and covers 1/3 acre, but at the bottom of this page, there are options for any size yard:

http://www.radiofence.com/dog_fence_standard.htm

My friend has two beagles on his system, and I have one Anglo-French Hound (about 60lbs) on mine. It works great, and is really nice for her to be able to just go out and run!

Take care,

Ben

 

You can get a spy camera. I picked one up for about 50 bucks. Hooks right up to a vcr. Point it at his proerty and see if you can catch him. If you aint got the cash, pm me, pay shipping back and forth you can borrow mine.

 

Thanks for the info Ben. I dont have a VCR Jason but thanks for the offer. I am cheking in the invisible fence. Thanks again for all the help.

Jonney

 

Hey Jonney...any luck talking to the neighbor? Just curious what kind of response you got from him about all of this...

 

A little o/t but i understand not wanting to really harm the dogs, if you load your own shells next time use some rock salt/water softner pellets instead of shot, it shouldent got through the skin and i KNOW they sting like a bitch.
Hope its an idea that helps.

 

No answer yet. He is conviently (sp) never home. I tried asking his wife but she said she doesnt watch my property to notice anything. I am starting the reconstruction of my porch/kennel. I was able to sell a 440 magnum I had for some cash to by materials. i called the police and they were no help either they said that my dogs were still alive and seemed to be ok. If one or both of my dogs would have been hurt badly or killed they would have something to go off of. After the the proch is redone I am going to tery and get a fence up with a invincible fence infront of it just for good measure.

Jonney

 

First of all, we have to assume you are not somehow at fault also, that your dogs aren't getting out and bothering the 'old fart', that they aren't barking a lot and bothering whoever is doing the bb-thing. I have no use for people that don't keep their animals at home and/or let them raise hell at all hours. You say one of your neighbors has voiced displeasure. If that were the case, and I were the culprit, of course I would have talked to you about my displeasure first. If I did that and they still barked or annoyed me and you wouldn't take action, then I would be using something more effective that a bb-gun on your dogs, I'd be after you.....

On the other hand, are you sure the blood is dog blood? Maybe the dogs have been eating rabbits or birds that somebody shot with a bb-gun.

Since you love your dogs this much, it shouldn't take long to stake out your property and observe whoever is doing this. Pretend you are on a hunting trip, spend the night on the roof or some other place with a good view of the surroundings. Take a weeks vacation, go on the night-shift, whatever it takes. I personally would use a gun with a caliber starting with a number no smaller than a '4', returning fire at the first opportunity.

 

My Brilliant wife had (yet another) good idea. Call the A.S.P.C.A.!
These people are worse than Hyenas when it comes to people who abuse animals. And they have been known to stake someone out for free if the "suspect" is hard to catch in the act.

there you go!fast,free,legal, and you can still hand this guys balls to him if it comes right down to it.
good luck! Remember, just because you don't have a local rep does not mean someone will not show up. We had three officers for the entire panhandle of Texas and they would pop up at my neighbors house quick as hell(they used to beat thier dogs and the sheriff lived across the street from them,so go figure) Alot of people have animals, but 90 percent of them take care of them. the aspca only has to deal with the other 10%.

 

Video camera and recorder with a motion detector to switch it on and off. Then the Cops! And then, a shyster lawyer to sue whoever is on the video. Easy can do. (Unless of course it's your own fault like b29chevy mentioned. Then you can fix the problem on your own.)

pigpen

 

I don't remember reading if you found several "fresh" BBs on your porch, or if you found a couple with blood on them. The dogs could have "collected" them somewhere else, carried them home, then dug them out of their ass on your porch later. Like I said, don't remember what the exact scenerio was.
I can tell you this--If I see a pit on my property, it will die. I have to assume that it is going to harm my child and/or the neighbor children. That's not a chance I'm willing to take. Pit Bull attacks are devestating. And before pit owners here start in with "It's the owners, and other dogs attack, etc." all I can say is this: I've never heard of an abused schnauzer ripping someone's face off. Or airedale. Or lab, retreiver, cocker spaniel, etc.
When I moved into this neighborhood, everything was still under construction and there were only a few neighbors. There was a big brindle pit bull that used to come around. I did some quick checking, found out who owned it, and had a very short--but polite--conversation with the owner. From them, I got the same story; "We let it out in the fenced back yard, and somehow it keeps getting out!" I understand...but if I see a pit bull in my yard, I'm stepping out the front door, and I will kill it with #3 buckshot from my .410. I'm just letting you know, because I don't want to, but I'm not about to take a chance with my child's safety.
And for the record, I LOVE pets, and would never intentionally hurt someone's dog or cat--except for a roaming pit bull.
Amazingly, the dog never roamed the subdivision again.

As for your trespessing issue, I have a VERY simple, economical and legal solution: Go to a hunting supply store and buy a game trail camera. It's a camera you hang on a tree along a known game trail, and it's activated by motion sensor. Something crosses the trail, it clicks a photo of the animal, day or night (they're really good at night).
These things are made to be left outside for long periods of time, and they're not horribly expensive (nobody would buy one if it cost more than they were willing to have stolen from the woods). That'd solve all your security camera concerns very nicely.

Finally, from what you've posted, it sounds like you may not legally able to own a firearm or have one in the house. The last thing you need is Old Man BB Gun calling the cops on you saying you have a gun and threatened him with it.

-Brad

 

I have thought about that scenerio a couple of times now. I cant find proof that some one shot them on my property. I cannt find any ricochet(sp) marks, but I also live in a brick house. Plus the porch is only 20x30, so it wouldnt be hard to hit to hit your target from the outside. Plus If my dogs get out they are not able to get back in to my porch because of how the sides on the porch are. I agree on the loose dog issue. Coarse I am not blaming it on one type of dog. I have seen what chows, rotts, german shepards, dalmation, and a labs can do. I sucks that pits get sent in to the light for misdeeds of others. But that isnt the topic here. I have taken responsiblity for any damages my dogs do or possibly have done. I know that it is my fault everytime they have gotten out. I agree that if someone was to kill them on their property, it would be justified. I never wanted anyone to think that I was free of guilt, and was totally a victim in this situation. As it had been a week now I come to think of it I should have never posted here about this because I am some much responsible for this happening because my dogs have gotten out. As for what people have said on here, "if you cant take care of an animal you dont need to have it". Well I have to take that into account because I cant stop them from getting out, and I dont want anyone to get hurt. I can say all day long my dogs have never hurt anyone, but it only takes one time. I dont want to get ride of my girls but I also dont want them hurt at the same time. I am sorry I used up so much space on here for this issue. Thank you for the tip on the hunting camera I will have to look for one at outdoor world and see if they have some thing like what you described. Again sorry Ryan for the taking up some much space over a useless topic.

Jonney