as most of you know, i just bought a house. well, my next door neighbors are really cool (mom, dad, 3 kids), but there is a slight "problem". they have this awesome little dog named Rocky. he's a chi-mix and really neat. he's under a year old.
aaaaaanyways...they have a big yard, but the yard isn't fenced in. i am currently building a whole new fence for my yard, thus i am giving them one new side (make sense?). well, they let rocky run all over - into my yard, into the front yard and even down the road. he even crosses the street. he always comes back as he is really protective of them already and "knows" home, but i'm so scared something will happen to him.
the PROBLEM is, i don't think that they can afford to put up any fencing. the "fence" they had was random metal poles stuck in the ground with wire mesh tied to it. it was there just to seperate the side of our yards.
what should i do? we live on somewhat calm streets (the kids ride their bikes up and down the road...in the middle and all that), but i'm still concerned.
thanks.
btw - i've already offered to train him to sit, down...etc. i'll try to take a pic of him tomorrow......he's soooooooo cute! i can't wait for penny and chaquita to meet their new friend. and my other neighbor just bought a GSD puppy. !!! they (GSD people) ARE building a fence, btw. oh gosh...me and my tangents...
BYE.

First of all congrats on getting into your new house!!! I don't know what you could do about their dog...I'm guessing that your concern is that the dog gets to roam free all the time? If it is a fence issue then I know that here legally if someone is putting up a new fence the neighbour that is also getting the new fence has to pay for half of it. If it is a dog roaming in general issue you could just keep telling them how great their dog is and how you are concerned that someone might take it if they don't get it fenced in. If you are upset cause it is entering your yard all the time you could tell them that is upsetting your dogs and go from there to have some action taken to keep this dog in its yard. I don't know if I have helped or not but hey I'm trying!!lol

Every time you see the dog get out and run down the street call the animal control officer, they don't mention where the complaint comes from and he'll/she'll fine them up the whazoo for a dog running at large, violation of leash laws, etc. until they get the point. Sound awful but the alternative is that the dog gets out and it gets picked up by someone else, gets attacked by another animal, or gets hit by a car.

I totally agree with Dena... It's really the only thing you CAN do... Good luck

to answer carmen - i don't mind him over at my place. but when my fence is up he won't even be able to enter my yard. also, i didn't ask for them to pay for half the fence price because it wasn't their choice to want/need one, plus i don't think they can afford it. i would've put it up anyway on top of that.
i don't want animal control to take rocky away from his family! are you sure they will JUST fine them? they won't take him away? sorry...i just know that would devastate little rocky. but i want to do something! do you think i should mention it to the kids, and they could tell the parents? (the kida are about 10 and under).
i just don't want rocky to be in the pound cause of me! but i don't want him hurt either. :/

I agree with Dena 100%. I think you should call and report it, and she is right they won't know who called. Atleast that is how it is where I live. I know, it has to be such a hard situation for you.

I had a situation at our old house, they had a small dog, she was out all day, running around the cul-de-sac, barking at everyone. When we first moved in, they had another dog doing the same thing, except bigger and people got scared of it! People walking by would scream and get scared of it. Poor kids didn't want to ride bikes by. Then, they brought a 3rd dog, and all 3 dogs were OUT ALL DAY alone! No fence, just running around the cul-de-sac and streets. And, hmmm about 2 weeks later she was knocking on our door crying "her new dog was missing!" Brad and I seriously think someone took it after seeing it outside! Then, their son or whoever, was mad b.c it was his dog, so he took the bigger dog with him, I guess. (Am I making sence??)

So back to the one small dog... Brad saw the dog get too near a car a few times, she ran into the road. We tried to tell them nicely to keep the dog in their yard, but they didn't care. She would bark outside all day and then my dogs would bark all day. We would be out in our garage and she would come up and sit and bark at us and not go away. (She wasn't nice at all) We got upset and called animal control. They told me that first they send out a letter to them, warning of a complaint being made and that there are leash laws here, etc, etc. They said let about 10 days go by (they would send the letter within 4 days of the call) and if the situation gets worse, to call back. They needed our name and address and their address, but they would not know who filed a complaint, unless they went in "person" to the office to find out, which rarely happens, she said, bc sadly some people don't care. I asked what happens if I have to call back, and they said from there, they go ahead and give hefty fines, up to $350 here.(I believe, I don't remember exactly but it was alot and I don't know how long they would give them) She said honestly, it would take a while for the dog to actually get taken away, usually they keep fining people (like in the situation I described anyway).
Well, it went well for about 2 weeks and started again, they would just leave the dog sit outside and shut the garage and she was panting, its hot here in FL!! I kept getting some rude lady on the phone so I don't know if they ever got fined. I was so glad to move from there b/c that made me so upset and they didn't even care about the dog, it's safety and how it affected the nieghbors, the nieghbors on the other side were upset about it.

What else made us so mad, was that when Brad and I were outside minding our own business and the dog would be there, people driving by or walking would give us looks and a couple even asked if that was our dog!!! Everyone would think it was our dog, it was always in our yard! We didn't want people to think we left our dogs out all day!! And the best part was one day, I saw her with the dog on a leash (Ya rare occasion) she walked in ours and the nieghbors front yard and let her go potty and our yard and then she walked away!!!!! Things cease to amaze me anymore.

I know you are worried about him going in the street that is dangerous! I don't know if I would talk to the kids or not.. If you got to know the adults and could talk with them, you could speak with them about it. However, calling animal control might be better, like Dena said.
Let us know how everything goes.

Heck, you may not to have to even file a report. If you know any police officers or other officials personally they could go over and give the person a talk without anything being on record and/or fines.

Of course, first I would just go over there and tell them point-blank my concerns -- it isn't like you are being "rude" and telling them to keep their dog off your property -- you are just concerned about the dog! They will probably appreciate having a caring neighbor.

Exactly Elf! That is what we tried to do first off It's just we didn't have nieghbors who cared. Brad tried to talk with them nicely and said the dog would be safer in their yard, because a few times while he was outside, the dog darted into the road near cars! They just didn't seem to care. No one was even outside with them most of the time.
But Jane, your nieghbors sound nice and once you get to know them better, you might be able to talk with them.
Just keep in mind like Dena said, if you do call, they are just going to get a warning/fine and won't know who made the complaint, it could be a wake-up call for them, that its so dangerous to let the dog roam near/ in the road.

i know! i will have to do something. i will probably call the animal control or police and ask if they can give them a talk. maybe that will work.
thanks you guys. i'll keep you updated. and i'll try to get pics of rocky!!

They don't take the animal away from a family, but they may take him to the pound for them to pick up. This way the dog is in a safe environment (can't get hit by cars) and they are able to get all the peoples information, name address, phone number, if the dog is licensed, etc. They will have to pay a fine to get him out of the pound and then the animal control officer may or may not choose to give them a ticket or two. Most of the time I only see dogs in the shelter once. We've had a couple of repeats but people usually learn after one time.

well, i went to the house today and they had him on a rope leash tied to the front house pole. so that is good! but they will probably still let him loose when he needs to go to the back yard. i will try and talk to them about it casually...like ask them, "so... were you planning to put up some more fencing for rocky?" and then see what they say. i'll let you guys know. thanks!

ok, here's an update:

yesterday rocky almost got hit by a car and my parents saw it. at first they thought i was over-reacting and interfering, but after that they made me go say something. so i picked up rocky and went over there and no one was home. well, they got home 5 minutes later (i'm still holding rocky) and my friend esmer was there and she speaks spanish. so i told them what had happened and that they needed to keep him on a leash tied to the house whenever he's outside. i was nice, but firm.
sooo...
they had been keeping him tied up all the time (good), but today for the first time i saw him running around off the leash again. ugh. i don't know what to do. if i call animal control and they call the neighbors, then the neighbors are going to know that it's me now.
i'm going to give them a small tie-out rope thing that i have to try and help them out. maybe this will help.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaagh.

That would suck ... but ... even if they did know it was you at least you would have the satisfaction of knowing you helped to probably safe Rocky's life. I mean, yeah, you might have some disgruntled neighbors but at least Rocky would be safe ... I guess you have to kind of weigh it that way.

I think it is really nice what you are doing ... Whew.

I Totally Agree

I agree with Elf but I also understand that you don't want to be on bad terms with your neighbours....it makes your life very stressful. We have two lots of neighbours that hate us cause god forbid we are bettering our house (no big high extensions or anything and they aren't even next door) and they are forever complaining. It's annoying as all ****.
Maybe you could tell them that the ranger had driven through, and that you are worried they will get a fine if the ranger sees rocky running around or that the ranger will take it with him/her. A little white lie could help!