It finally happened that C and one dog (leashed) and I came out of our apt. when the evil dog was out, still sans leash. I stopped and piced C up as soon as I saw them and of course the dog comes running at us. The female owner was out with them and said that yeah, I should pick him up. I looked at her and as nice as I could muster said "I shouldn't have to pick my child up, you should really have your dog on a leash, sorry" Don't know why I said sorry except residual childhood guilt maybe! LOL. She said sorry and attemped to call the dogs in which took forever because they don't listen and she made no attemp to PHYSICALLY remove them. A neighbor also came out with her (nice) dog at this time. The whole time I am standing there holding 30 lb C who is struggling to get down (owside owside!!! OWSIDE MOMMA!!!!) and my dog on a leash who is being growled at by their dog. So of course this woman can't fight her own battles and has to go get her big ex military bf. He comes out and says she was crying as in what did I do. I tell him that since his dog has bitten someone it needs to be leashed. I am still trying to be nice-ish. He then starts yelling at me and proceeds to make the following *points*: I should go back inside if I see their dogs out. No one in this neighborhood will listen to him, and it is everyone else's fault. It was the fault of the (I swear to Goddess I am quoting!) "BITCH" who got bitten (his gf's sister). His dog only fights with other dogs because they are different breeds, nevermind that all the other dogs get along. They will NEVER put their dogs on a leash because they "don't believe in that SHIT". He was being nice to warn us about the dog biting so that we would know to keep C out of it's way. They will just go to another park At some point during all this I stopped being nice and went into Mother Bear Mode. There was a slight shouting match. Oh,and he said dh (who he says is reasonable) should call him when he gets home. I immediately called dh, who agrees that the dog is a menace and tells me not to start taking my actions until he tries to talk to him. I did call the landlord, who says that the guy isn't even supposed to live there, he is supposed to live with her father who lives behind them on another street (who also has a gf who has a dog that barks incessantly and people in the neighborhood want to poison). I knew that he wasn't supposed to be there, and made sure I told her that he does indeed live there. DH is going to talk to him tonight, but I seriously don't see him saying he will leash his dog. So here are the actions I am planning. Please tell me others you can think of!! *Calling Animal Control. (I have unfortunately heard from several people that they are very, very lax here) *Logging and photographing whenever I see the dogs outside unleashed, even from their door to their car. *Sending a letter to the landlord about the problem. *I have already alerted the postal carrier and the construction workers who are working on the apartments. *Calling the Parks Department to see about what they can do if they are going to other parks, and the area behind us where the dogs are is a Public Park. *Trying to get a picture of the dog and make Dangerous Dog fliers and posting in our buildings, area libraries, parks, dog park (which they won't go to b/c you have to pay for a permit), telephone poles, etc. *Alerting people in my AP parent group who live in the nearby area and go to local parks. The thing that most concerns me now is that he has vowed to take the unleashed dangerous dog to other parks in the city. Who goes to parks? CHILDREN!!!! I am trying to do everything in my power to stop this because it will be on my conscious if that f-ing dog bites a child. And apparently AC up here is so slow to react that they wait until a total tragedy has happened. They flat out told me that they won't remove a dog "just b/c is bites someone". DH says that the jerk told him that AC was supposed to have been alerted when the sister got bitten, but they obviously didn't act. Sorry this is fifteen pages long, but I am SOOOOOOO F-ING FURIOUS!!!!!!!! Do not mess with my child and his safety, or I am likely to kill your dog with my bare hands. (Disclaimer: Which I am not going to go do, but you can bet that if the dog gets near and threatens my child again, it will swiftly and soundly meet with my Birkenstocks!) Okay, am going to go try to cool off by blowing bubbles with C. Thanks a million for letting me vent! Tiff
Regardless of whether or not the owners believe in putting a leash on the dog, it is the law. You might also point out to your neighbor that one of these days, that dog's going to seriously hurt someone. If he doesn't care about the person who gets hurt, he should care about the fact that if they make a big enough fuss about it, he'll be in legal trouble and the dog will almost inevitably be put down. Shame, really, because it’s not the dog’s fault the owners are no good at controlling them. Almost any dog can be well behaved and friendly if the owner just takes the time to get off their ass and work with them. I don't really know exactly who else you can call. Sorry if I'm not a lot of help.
I am so sorry, how inappropriate of me to post this rant! I just really needed to get my anger out to someone, even if it was a computer forum, and we just don't have any friends up here yet. So I am really sorry! Tiffany
totally nothing to apologize for. unfortunately, it takes several reports on a bad dog to get animal control to do anything about it, and all the calls can't be from one person, i believe. we had a rott in our neighborhood go bad. he was a wonderful dog before the owners son thought it would be cool to give it meth and stuff. it just was vicious forever after that. he chased me, my baby brother, several other neighborhood kids and finally attacked my own dog so viciously that my dog had to be quarantined for protecting my little brother and sis. it took a baseball bat to get the dog settled down. they put poor old max down for good after that, we has just too much of a risk even when ON A LEASH. he's probably chasing frisbees in a better world now.
Im glad you posted. I was hoping to hear an update about the evil dog. Dont give up. Never should your human child have to be picked up because some dog owner is selfish and breaking the law. Tell him that dogs must be leashed, and if you want to get serious give him a printout of that law. Then say he needs to start taking the dogs to the dog park. At dog parks it is fenced like a little park, and dogs are allowed off leash. Tell him your not afraid to call the cops, or animal control and get things taken care of. Or this may sound cruel, but the next time that dog comes at you and your child you start yelling firmly no and get, and maybe give it a kick. I had to fight back once when I was walking home from school and aggressive stray decided to come after me. It ran away because I was tough and not willing to back down.
once, when i was little, i ended up with my arm up to my elbow down a dog's throat. mom had told me to cram my hand as far down a dog's mouth as i could, since nothing can bite when it's vomitting. i think she never intended for me to take her seriously. but it did work, though the dog's owner was seriously pissed with me for hurting his big vicious doberman. me, a tiny 5 year old girl attacked by a doberman, and I'M the one getting yelled at. WTF? short patrol came by, took the dog away and had it put down. i never went that route to my friend's house again.
Unfortunatly, this usually doesn't work on Pit Bulls, these dogs are usually very kind, if they were raised right, but have the most enormous jaw strength, and also the highest pain tolerance of any dog. Chances are a Pit would clamp on (and they have the ability and the tenacity to stay clamped on to "prey" for hours.) and you could lose your arm. (I am glad it worked with the Dobe who bit you, though KC. What a scary thing for a little child.) My next door neighbor has pits. All but one were very sweet (thank God the scary one died last year, the others are adorable, and they are very good with children if raised properly, thier scary dog was abused as a puppy, by a different owner and trusted no one. Poor thing. But a dog who "fear bites" and has a several thousand pound per square inch jaw strength is never safe around children.) The owners wil often use fireworks to get the dogs to stop fighting, (hasn't happened much since the scary one died) and they told me (which I did confirm with our Vet) that one of the only ways to get a Pit off of you is to stick your finger up his ass, and then bean him with something, OR get away quickly, as he will ususally try to attend to his ass right away. My neighbor said she saw a freind hit a Pit with a baseball bat while he was biting someone and the thing didn't even flinch. So, carry fireworks, with you (it will get their attnetion, although I don't know how you can light a fire cracker while you are being bitten) or be prepared for an anal probe to get your arm outta their mouths. OFten, if you have a stick, they may grab that, too. I am not a huge fan of the cops, but this man is breaking the law. CHILDREN as well as everyone else are in danger. I'd call the cops, before this dog kills someone's baby.
not sure if this is any use but maybe taking a squidgee bottle of water when you go out, those things they use at hairdresers or for strange bugs might help a wee bit. Whilst it is no hose down the mouth of a pitbull....which by the way was the only way we got my housemates piggybullydog to unlock jaws with the ridgeback up the road one time, it certainly has worked a treat when dealing with dogs at other times...and given you aren't a fit looking ridgeback this might just be enough....combined with a rehousing policy!! keep the fight up because no matter how much I love these dogs and find them to be charming there is always the dickheads around that choose them and then fuck it up for everyone by having dogs of a rare slightly viscious breed that go mental a cute little things.
Now we are trying to move and be really nice to the landlord and find someone else to rent our apt. (also so we don't have to pay the rent til they find someone, per our lease) and the landlord is being a total dick, ass, bastard, to me. (**Short background**The landlord broke his ankle at our apt. in Dec. after C locked me out with a slide bolt when I was two steps out the door. R told him to let him put his shoulder in it and pop the lock off. No, he didn't want to damage the apt. door. So he got a ladder (to get in a window) and R TWICE said "let me go up it". Nope, he, an elderly man in a suit and dress shoes, had to go up. In the rain. Then, he didn't put the ladder up at all correctly and when R said he would ge the pliers the man asked for, the ladder fell. So I guess he hates us for his mistake. Oh, and R then popped the lock off and some paint flecked off it. Whoa, big f-ing damage!) Yesterday I called to tell him that someone wanted to come get an application and he screamed at me, just totally went off. He said he never wanted to see our face or hear our name again (although he doen's seem to mind our name on a check every month) and he wants us out but....we can't just break our lease and walk out, blah blah blah. Even when I tried to explain that we were not in any way trying to "just walk out". I swear, talking to these assholes is like bing on Fox News. Wanting to stay under the covers and eat Indian food, Tiffany
I'm really confused, aside from having NO idea who C and R are. Why didn't the person who locked the bolt just let you in? Is C the dude with the dog? Why does you appartment building have a dead bolt any idiot can use? Sounds like a shitty place to live. I'd ditch the place now. Totally confused now.
Sorry! I have gotten into the bad habit on email of using C and R. C is my son, who's two. And R is my husband. My ds couldn't figure out how to unlock the slide bolt, which is on the INSIDE of the door and I was in the hallway. He was 23 months old at the time. I had no idea he knew how to slide it locked in the first place. The apartment doesn't have a dead bolt any idiot can use, it has a locked deadbolt on a second door to the apartment (there are two entrances- on my ds slid the lock on, and another that was dead bolted) that the landlord didn't have a key to. It's actually a great apartment in a great location, but you have to deal with horrible people.
OK, I'm sorry, I couldn't make sense of it. Why do they have a lock that no one has the key to? Scary. Good luck. Have you talked to the police or Animal Control about that dog yet?
