I need to vent and let out a little rant.

I live in a typical neighborhodd in Virginia - middle class, single family homes, normal lot size (not too big, not too small). I have lived here for a little over a year.

I have a dog - a yellow lab. We have a large back yard for her to play in, but it does not have a fence - we thought about putting up a fence, but we have never had any problem with her running out of the yard, plus she's not out there unless we are standing on our deck watching or we are actually playing with her. Plus building a fence is really expensive. My normal routine with her is to open the sliding glass door, she runs out to do her business, sometimes I stand there and watch the whole time, sometimes I watch for a little while then go into the kitchen and watch from the window there. She does her stuff, and comes in.

Here comes my problem - some of our neighbors who also don't have fences feel it is ok to just let their dogs roam wherever they want, onto whoever's property they feel like. There is an especially annoying neighbor around the road that has 2 jack russell terriers (I have come to hate these dogs!) These dogs are constantly in our yard, and I don't like it! These people need to watch their dogs and not let them roam wherever they want. I have to worry that when I let my dog out that these dogs will be in my yard and they might get in a fight.

Today I let my dog out to go, and before I even got outside to watch her, she saw one of these jack russells and took off after it through the woods. I ran after her not knowing where she went, and she was on the jack russell's owners deck. I went up there and spoke with the man who lives there - he was so rude to me! He said he just lets the dogs go wherever they want, and he doesn't care about other dogs in his yard. Well I do and I told him he needs to keep an eye on his dogs. And his little B**** of a daughter threatened me and told me to get off their property.

I'm about to call the HOA or cops on these people, I am so mad. I used to take my dog out on a leash and stood out there while she did her stuff, but she has been so good the past year about doing her thing without being on a leash and then coming back up to the house. I think I have every right to have my dog outside in my yard and not expect other dogs to be in the yard. I just find it so rude that people think they can let their dogs go wherever they want! I don't want their dog going to the bathroom in my yard - I have enough of that from my dog. It's not like it's ok for people to wander into other people's yards and do as they please - it should be the same with dogs.

I know it's a frustrating situation and I hate to say it but you're just as much at fault. Your dog did run off of your property so she's doing what you don't want other dog's to do. I really think you just need to put a fence up and then be at peace that you can let your dog out without worry. What if she had run across the street and into traffic instead of through the woods? No matter how well we like to think our "babies" are trained they are dogs after all and chasing is quite normal.

~Heather

I would call the authorities.Dogs are not allowed to run free.They are breaking the law letting them go anywhere with out supervision.Do they have dog tags?Animal control knows just how to deal with people like them.You tried to handle it civilly now let animal control earn their pay.

I would report them for dogs at large. There are reasons why there are leash laws and why people have fences. Yes, you are partly at fault for that incident because your dog pursued them, but if they are always at large, they should be reported. In my hometown, there was a story on the front page of the paper because new subdivisions are popping up around ranch land and one rancher has had to start shooting dogs for coming onto his property and downing livestock.

Be careful. Many areas have leash laws and you'd get in trouble along with the nasty neighbors. Maybe, you can stand out there with a hose and spray them a bit when they come into your yard. The water won't hurt them, but they'll quickly learn that your yard is not a fun place to hang out.

I disagree - I don't think you are just as much at fault... in fact I'd say you weren't at fault at all. The guy with the terriers let his dogs out without caring where they went. You on the other hand, let your dog out and took off after her when she chased after this other dog. If you don't want to put up a fence, could you perhaps put up a pen?

People can be very rude and it seems apparent that you simply cannot reason with some.

I'm with fitbyforty - let Animal Control deal with it.

I live in California , everybody has a fence. They are often called Good Neighbor Fences. As a rule each neighbor will pay for half of their side, after all the fence benefits everybody.

I think you should call the HOA or cops, because it is ok to let your dog out in your yard as long as thats where it stays, but for your neighbor to let his dogs out and let them roam wherever is not ok.

I live in northern VA, too (was just in Sterling the other night, as a matter of fact!). We have 2 pups. I hate to say it, but whether you watch your dog closely or not, I believe there are leash laws to prevent such situations from happening. A dog outside should be either confined (fence or pen) or on a leash.

That said, I would still call animal control about the JRs. I wouldn't mention this incident specifically, but rather just that they are OFTEN in your yard because they are not being supervised by the owner.

I would love to be able to just let our dogs outside. They are good dogs, and our smallest has been outside off leash on occasion when she started pooping in the house and we quickly kicked her out to do it outside. She, like your dog, just does her thing and comes right back to the door. But when we take them out normally, we leash them every time. I really think it's just too risky to let them out without a leash when there are wild animals around (carrying disease), other people around (too many of whom are lawsuit happy and could likely have your dog euthanized just for getting excited and jumping up on a kid or something), and other things that could easily distract and lure the dog off your property. For the safety of the dogs and the protection of myself, we leash every time.

We are actually also thinking of putting up a fence in our back yard. The back of our home faces woods, and our nighbor on one side has a fenced yard, and the neighbor on our other side just has a fence between us and them (but not across the back of their yard). I'd like to be able to just let the dogs out and not worry that they'll run off chasing something (even if I'm watching them, I don't know about you, but I sure can't run fast enough to catch up with my dogs!) or that anything will wander into our yard to cause trouble.

Oh, and maybe yours is better, but when anyone in my neighborhood calls HOA about a dog issue, they say they can't do anything about it. All this money we fork over to the HOA, and they're useless for anything other than fining people for painting their shutters without permission, or something equally as petty.

Fences make good neighbors!

We live in MN and have 2 large dogs. They are very friendly and stay in the yard. However, if they ran off after another dog and killed or hurt it off or on our property (no matter how I tried to stop it or how good my intentions were) or, God forbid, hurt a child who was walking by and just wanted to pet it, (fact is that some kids just don't know not to aproach a dog) it would be my fault. We put in a fence 2 years ago and it was the best money we spent on our back yard! It is way cheaper than a law suit and just helps to keep the peace.

Good luck!

In my first house, I had a big problem with little dog turds showing up in my front yard mysteriously. For weeks, I would diligently pick up the poo and put it in my trash, while silently fuming about it.

Then one day I saw the suspect: my neighbors annoying ankle-biter was running free all around the street (I lived at the end of a cul-de-sac) while their kids were out playing. And sure enough, the beasty did his business in my yard! This was practically a daily thing too: the parents would let the dog run wild around the street when the children were out playing.

I guess I could have talked to them about it, but I resorted to something more childish: Every pile of dog turds I found in my yard after that I happily dumped (pun intended) into their yard.

I'm going to disagree with the majority here. Don't call animal control. These are your neighbors, and like them or not this could start something that escalates and causes you a lot of unhappiness. They will suspect that it was you that called animal control, even if your call is annonymous.

I do agree with the others - put up a fence. We did not fence in our dog for many years (like yours, our dog stayed in our yard). Animal control saw him sitting in our yard, unleashed and we were warned about the leash law. The fence has been great! It keeps the other dogs OUT of my yard and our dog can roam at will. We installed a pet door on the back so he can let himself in and out while we are at work.

I am sorry to say so but you will never have peace of mind unless you put up a fence. I had to fence my yard as well, I would never even think of letting my dogs out in an unfenced yard. I hear you re the expenses but go for chain link and it is a lot less than wood. You can have something like boston ivy or other climbing stuff on it so the fence will disappear.

Since a fence is costly, a short term measure could be a spike with a chain. When I was growing up, our back yard was unfenced. My parents put a spike deep into the ground that was attached to a chain with a clip. When my childhood dog, Misty, wanted to go out, we clipped her collar to the chain. She could run outside and do her business and we didn't have to worry about her leaving the yard (another dog entering the yard was a separate issue which I don't remember ever happening). When Misty was ready to come back in, she just came to the door and we unclipped her. Our backyard didn't have anything she could wrap the chain around (like a tree or post or anything).