I live in a county that has a leash law.
My neighbors across the street have a dog that they got as a puppy sometime late last year. They just let him out loose in their yard. He goes in the street and chases cars. I know he's going to get hit by one someday.

So, this afternoon my son found a turtle in our back yard and I thought it'd be fun to take it down the street to a lake access ramp and put it out near the water. I wanted to walk my dog -on her leash- down there for some exercise.

We start down our driveway and the dog across the street sees us and immediately starts barking. I just ignore it and continue walking past, then another dog, up the hill in the direction that we're going, starts barking and coming towards us. I told my daughter, who had our dog on the leash, for us to just turn around and go home. In the mean time, the first dog is following us up our driveway and then the owner comes out and is calling it--it's paying no attention--and she follows us all the way up to my house. I said to my daughter "come on, we can't even walk our dog in our own neighborhood" and the lady said "excuse me, you don't have to be rude". I guess she didn't think it was rude that she had no control over her dog!! Plus she was now on my property!

I thought we were going to have a fun walk and it just turned out bad

People regard their animals as their children.... I do. The difference is, I expect ALL my children to behave

Maybe next time you could approach her in a positive and straight forward way? -- To me it was "catty" way of handling things...sorry Just be honest with her... that usually goes LONG way. Tell her how it makes you feel. Comments under breath are...hmmm...not productive or if you really wanted to tell that to your child; please tell her when the "defendant" was not in an ear shot.

Good luck!!

Report them!! Make the police or sheriffs department remind them that it is the LAW for them to keep their dog on a leash. It is for the dogs safety just as much as for people. We had the same issue it took a couple calls to the police before the people figured it out that I wasn't backing down.
Be bold and report them!

they still need to stay as neighbors, though. What if their child played out past dark during summer months, or if they had friends over for a few drinks and the neighbors called cops...Nice goes loooong way

Report them to animal control.

bargoo; Why not talk to them just kindly? Why such drastic measures?

I watch my dog like a hawk, but if she some how got out, I would prefer my neighbors talking to me instead involving the "law". And on many occations some of my neighbor's dogs got out by accident.... no one called animal control...lol even with the annoying ones that get out all the time

Do you live in a neighborhood? Are you friendly with your neighbors? I value my neighbor relations. They watch my house when I am gone etc.

These people are breaking the law. I had to report a neighbor once for the same reason, I did tell them I was going to do that and I did, and yes my dog was always on a leash.

I know they are...but we all do from time to time....

Report them to animal control. Loose dogs can be a threat to pedestrians, motorists, and other pets.

We do?

They ARE breaking the law. But unless I felt it was unsafe for me to do so, I would never call any official agency on any of my neighbors without talking to them first. If you go over, say "Hi, it is unsafe for both your dog and mine for yours to be running around unleashed - can you please keep him/her in the back or etc", there's a good chance the problem will get resolved WITHOUT you ruining your relationship with your neighbors. Going straight to animal control gains you an enemy. Why would you want an enemy to live across the street?

Second time you go over, you escalate..."Hi <name>, I am really not OK with your dogs being off leash. I'd really rather not have to call animal control to get this situation resolved".

Third time, you call, and you know that you did all you could to handle this with your neighbor without escalating immediately to the authorities.

Sometimes I go 57 on 55 MPH zone I even see people going 60 MPH on 55 MPH zone.

Okay I am done now

ETA: It sounds like the neighbor's dog is still a pup....

I realize that I was *****y and didn't act appropriately with the neighbor.
I was aggravated and I should have handled it differently.

They are not neighbors that I'm going to be relying on to watch my house for me or anything. That house has always been a rental and there are so many different cars there that I'm not sure how many families live there. And most people don't live there very long either.

speaking as someone who goes through this A LOT - and i mean A LOT - bec i live in a small country town (farms, hunting, etc) where lots and lots of dogs run loose, the one thing you do not do is turn around and walk away from a barking dog because you are reinforcing the barking dog's behaviour.

do not look at the dog - nobody looks at the dog. correct your dog if she does.
do not talk to the dog.
do not make eye contact with the dog.

all those things can add just that bit of tension to a situation to make it explode.

keep on your way with a steady pace and make sure your dog is walking on the other dog's "off" side (iow, you are between the two dogs - this also applies when encountering another dog being walked on leash - the owners should be in the middle with the dogs on the outside); this will hopefully prevent the dog's personal spaces from overlapping.

if the dog actually does become aggressive (it's not as common as the media would love you to believe - most "aggressive" dogs aren't - they're just hyper or ill-mannered, not actually trying to eat ppl) then let your dog off the leash. keeping your dog on the leash is not good because a) you are transmitting your tension to your dog which will escalate the situation beyond what it should have; b) you are releasing your dog to deal with the situation; and c) you are vastly reducing the chance that you and anybody with you will be attacked by the dog bec the dog will target your dog instead.

if your dog is indeed properly socialized, she will teach the other dog the proper way to behave - and i'm not talking an outright fight. most likely your dog and the other will tear-*** around for a bit playing "i'm better than you are!" and once you see they've wound down (they'll stop for a moment and just pant) you can call yours back and continue on your way.

i've only had 2 cases where it got ugly and both times were escalated by the loose dog's owner shouting and screaming at their dog to get back here NOW! and so on. both times my dog had to pin the other dog down (he puts his chin and one foreleg over the other dog's shoulders and then bears down until they drop to the ground and submit) but i've never had to take him in to get treated for battle wounds.

oh - another thing i do: i trust MY dog. i don't look at the other dog - i watch mine. if he's happy and playful and wagging his tail, i don't have a problem with the other dog no matter how loud and frenetic they are.

if, however, my dog goes very still and stiff and unblinking, then i remove us from the situation asap.

i've had cases where i've seen what, to me, was a very aggressive dog lunging and howilng and snarling at the end of the leash and dandy starts whirling around into a playbow - okay, fine. no problem.

and i've had cases where i've seen what to me seemed a perfectly lovely dog except dandy immediately went on full alert so i moved us off the path and kept him (and my daughter and me!) out of range of the other dog.