My neighbour has a habit of letting his two dogs (A Golden Labrador and a German Shepherd) run loose. His property is enclosed with high walls and fences. He has recently installed gates too, shortly after I pointed out to him that I didn’t like his dogs fouling in my garden. My garden is not dog-proof. To make it so would involve putting high barriers around the property and I am not prepared to do this. I bought the house for the views from the garden- we look out across the valley and then up onto Yr Mynydd Du in the Brecon Beacons. It’s a view that doesn’t need a six foot fence blocking it.

He runs a sports physio business from home and his clients visit him for treatment. The property is large and he lets out rooms to a number of tenants. There is thus a lot of toing and froing. The gates are generally open. I sometimes close them, when I take the dogs back. His dogs frequently stray into other people’s gardens apart from my own. All the neighbours I have spoken with are annoyed.

My dog (Willow) is always tethered to a line when I let her outside on her own. When the neighbour’s dogs ‘visit’ she gets very territorial and defensive and will snarl. Recently Willow snapped at and nipped the German Shepherd when her lamb bone was being threatened. Willow is a mature beagle/ Welsh collie cross. The other dogs are both less than three years old, not long out of being puppies. They want to play but will annoy her. They also trash my plants with their digging as well as fouling in my garden.

I approached my neighbour again two days ago, asking him to ensure that his dogs did not come onto my property. I don’t want his animals fouling my garden, destroying my plants and annoying my pooch. I also do not want Willow being in a position where she has a go at one of them and injures them.

His response was not very positive. He shouted and swore at me, essentially demanding that I construct dog proof barriers around my garden. He referred to the new gates (which I thanked him for) but was further upset when I asked him to ensure that they were kept closed if the dogs were running loose. I kept a conciliatory tone throughout.
I believe that it is the owner’s responsibility to control their dog, thus his dogs being at large in my garden is not my responsibility to deal with but his.

Where am I going wrong? The blummin’ things are still roaming around as I write this on a drizzly Tuesday night at 10:35PM.

Too much detail. I’m sure the final book or film will be great. 😉

But then, I don’t like uncontrolled dogs.

Or buy a sheep, put up livestock signs and grab the shotgun*.

*I may or may not be being serious..

To simplify. His dogs are in my garden. Is it his responsibility to stop this happening?

I can understand that you get irritated, particularly with your dog in your garden.

You won’t need a 6 foot fence to make your garden dog proof, and it will work both ways – a small fence will keep them out and yours in, so you don’t have to keep the poor chap tied up all the time.

Might be less of an option if you own acres and acres…

Yes is the simple answer, doing this without conflict won’t be easy.

One option is to ring the authorities and report them as stray or as an uncontrolled dog. There are options like building fences etc but don’t see why you should go through expense when it’s his uncontrolled pets causing an issue.

You could make it his issue by knocking his door every single time the dogs are out on your land. This should interrupt his business also which will soon annoy him.

To simplify. His dogs are in my garden. Is it his responsibility to stop this happening?

Morally, it is. You’ll struggle to enforce it if he is unwilling.

Try not to fall out with the neighbour – I’m sure a solution is achievable.

Environmental Protection Act 1990
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 all local Councils are required to collect stray dogs. A stray dog is any dog in a public place on its own.

Any dog found straying will be picked up by the Dog Warden. Where it is possible to immediately identify the owners of the dog it will be returned to the owner (i.e. if the dog has a Pet-ID chip), there is a fixed penalty of £63.00 (office hours) and £83.00 (out of hours). In all other cases the dog will first be registered and then taken to the Council kennels until claimed. A dog owner has up to 7 days to claim back their pet. The owner will have to pay a fixed fee set by the Government plus all kennelling fees incurred. The total charges have to be paid in full before a dog can be returned.

Any dog that is not claimed within seven days will be rehomed or passed on to an appropriate rescue organisation. Every effort is made to find new homes for unclaimed strays regardless of age and destruction would only be on our vets advice, The Council maintains Registers for both lost and found dogs which help to re-unite dogs and owners.
– See more at: http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/environment/dogwarden/dogownerresponsibility.htm#sthash.j7lPcgcm.dpuf

Go to the council

I’m fairly sure that dogs are not allowed to roam freely without the owner

There are dog control orders the council can use on individual owners

Is it “dangerously out of control”? https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview Arguably it might be if your dog and theirs might go for each other if they were together and they’re not bothering to control it.

Might be worth a call to the local council dog warden?

Dog person here – what you describe is not acceptable
You have tried the decent thing and realised you are up against an idiot so black ops are on

Our dog gets dodgy guts with rich food, so the next time they trespass feed them some nice leftovers
Failing that try agent Picolax – seriously

Good luck

Thanks for the advice and moral support here folks. iamsporticus- just one problem, the neighbour’s dogs use my garden as a toilet 🙁

Can you soak them with a hosepipe, see how he likes wet dogs in his house?

@Siwhite- my dog will jump 5′ fences with ease. She’s impressive.

EGF, I’m erring towards this solution, but it’s not the dog’s fault so why should I make them suffer?

this?

My neighbour has a habit of letting his two dogs (A Golden Labrador and a German Shepherd) run loose. His property is enclosed with high walls and fences. He has recently installed gates too,

Hold on, I don’t get this; He already has high fences.Do they not keep the dogs in? Why has he installed gates into your garden? Is there a right of way over your property?

Tell your neighbour you have no choice but to erect a “non lethal electrical perimeter fence” around your property, these consist of a simple roll of conductive tape wired up to a pulse generator – not expensive to buy and will take 30 minutes to set up. This may prompt him to take more care of his dogs.

I used one to stop cats crapping in my garden, only took a few weeks before they all got the message and now the multitude of neighbouring cats stay well clear.

@suburbanruben. He has fences etc but they are ineffectual because the gates are generally left open. His property borders mine but does not require access over mine to be reached.

They won’t suffer very much, nor very often – not unless they’re really thick. Of course it isn’t their fault, but you were after a solution.

A stray dog is any dog in a public place on its own.

The OP’s garden isn’t a public place.

the gates are generally left open.

Couple of springs will clear that right up.

As you say, anything that harms the dogs isn’t on, it’s not their fault.

Springs on gate is a good one, or lob the poo back on to his drive way.

Returning the deposits sounds like a start. I wouldn’t necessarily “lob” it. But bagging it and highlighting the problem in a very visible way may illustrate just how unacceptable it is.

I had this exact same problem many many years ago when I was a lot more hot headed. I ended up picking up the offending poo and leaving it all over the guys car roof, doors bonnet etc. Literally seconds after I had finished I saw him go out to his car for something and he noticed the mess on it and for some reason he ran his hand thought it. The dog never ever fouled mine or anyone else’s garden again.

To simplify. His dogs are in my garden. Is it his responsibility to stop this happening?

NO , iirc its the landowners responsibility to keep unwanted animals from entering their property .
Speek to the council and the Dog Warden .

Gate spring?

If the neighbour and his tennants have no right of way over your land, put padlocks on the gates.

If they do, put padlocks on the gates anyway. 😀

The OP doesn’t have, nor does he want, gates.

Pick up the shit and leave at the entrance to the gate or on his gate posts.
Just catch the dogs and rope them to the gates or drop them off at the dog rescue

I find it amazing that one type of domestic animal is allowed to roam free and another isn’t.

Good luck OP. I like dogs but wouldn’t want them roaming in my garden.

NJee yeah we know that, but the bloke with the dog does…. Do keep up!

I think contacting the dog warden is probably the best bet. The inconvenience to the OP is unacceptable (fouling in his garden, distressing his own dog) and it’s not a great sign that the dogs are being particularly well cared for or trained if they’re allowed to go on adventures around the neighbourhood (what if they end up in the road, or coming across a dog-aggressive dog, gets onto farmland, worries a sheep and gets shot by a farmer, etc). If the neighbour has to or is likely to leave the gate open, the dogs should be secured, either by a tether outside or shut inside. Dogs occasionally can get loose, but when it’s happening repeatedly and is avoidable, it’s really not on – especially with large boisterous dogs.

If the dogs are going into other people’s gardens as well, they could contact the warden as well. Generally the warden will go around and advise the owner to secure their dog, and warn them what will happen if the dogs keep on getting loose (dog control order, followed by the dog being seized and rehomed if the order isn’t adhered to). I’m not quite sure what else you could do diplomatically, as the neighbour doesn’t seem to be entirely reasonable (keeps on letting it happen despite knowing it’s an issue, demanding other people change their gardens to accommodate his errant pooches, etc).

Buy as paintball gun. Send them back looking like a dog version of Elmer the elephant.

Post their shit in his letterbox. (Although, they haven’t actually poohed in your garden, have they..)

We had a neighbours dog fouling in our garden years ago. Our answer was to wait for the dog eggs to harden a little and use a garden trowel to flick the poop back. Basically he ended up with poo bombs all over his patio and glasshouse. His dog stopped coming into our garden after that.

Shame really as it became good fun seeing how high you could get it and how loud the ‘splat’ would be.

I guess in your case you can’t prove its not your dog eggs….

Dog warden is the first point of call – ours is very helpful & knows the ‘grey’ around the various bits of legislation that are applicable.

As per the link simon_g posted above, the definition of ‘dangerous’ is quite woolly but the act clearly applies to “a neighbour’s property”.

If the dogs are coming in when he has clients / tenants using his premises go over and loudly knock or whatever and tell him to get his dogs to France. Make sure his clients / tenants are in earshot. Not good for business.

I’d second the suggestion for gate closers and make sure the gates are self latching once closed.
Might not be 100% foolproof, but should cut down on the number of escapes.
Again this highlights nicely how some dog owners seem to think their responsibilities are actually someone else’s problem.

As others say I would try the amicable route then try to annoy them as much as they do you

Do they have permission to run the house as a business for example?

its not acceptable to just let dogs roam and certainly not into your garden