I'm not at my computer yet, I will post the full story when I'm not on my phone but I had two women come on my property today causing issues saying I am neglecting my dog. I absolutely love my dog and treat her very well. Ill give the full story later. But so I told them to leave or I would call the police. For crying out loud they were standing in my backyard. I told them 3 times over the course of a couple minutes before they finally left and they said they would be back tonight to see if the dog was still being neglected...wtf. The woman told me she had came by earlier to take pictures for evidence and said we would be on the front page of the newspaper if we didn't fix the situation by tonight. I brought the dog inside of course but is there anything I can do when they come snooping around again? Again, I assure you the dog is in outstanding shape and treated well. I have a 1 and a half year old who loves her to death. Ill be on later with the full story just looking for any input if they come back soon.
What are they accusing you of? Is it hot where you live? If you are leaving your dog out in the heat, technically you could be charged with neglect. I have no idea where you live and how hot is there. If they are not ON your property, you are shit out of luck. If they really want to piss you off they can call animal control and have people come out to your house and that would cause a scene. Rather then telling them to get lost, I would diplomatically deal with them. If they want to they could seriously humiliate you and your family all within the confines of the law. So it's best not to piss them and and deal with their complaint. You never said what they were accusing you of.
While there are all sorts of things I'd like to suggest. Open bear traps in your yard, pongee sticks, ball bat to their heads, shotgun blast to their face, your dick up their ass...etc etc... Probably the best thing to do would be to keep your dog indoors until they lose interest.
Laws may be different in your area, but here are some general guidelines: Trespassing is illegal even on unposted property, unless it is unimproved, apparently unused and unfenced (or not otherwise enclosed to exclude intruders.) Even on vacant land, a written notice delivered in person (or by certified mail with a signed receipt, etc.) to any person, in the name of the landowner or authorized party, containing a description of the premises and a warning of restrictions which apply has the same effect, for that person, as if the land were posted with those restrictions. Likewise, anyone asked to leave the premises, posted or not, by the landowner, occupant or other authorized person, must do so immediately.
Ok, sorry for the delay on the full story, I just got back to the computer. So we were out of town all last week, but we have a friend who lives with us in TN currently who took care of the dog (10 month old German Shepherd) while we were gone. He is a responsible guy and did a good job of taking care of her. We don't have a dog house for our dog when she is on her runner because it is in a very shady area and we always bring her inside before it storms or anything anyways. The issue arose on Thursday while we were gone, we had a storm come in around 12-1 and our friend couldn't make it back to the house from work until about 3 to bring her inside. It is very shady back there though so hardly any rain really gets to her so it typically isn't that big of a deal. Well apparently there was some thunder and she ran around the tree and got her runner tangled up so instead of a 30 ft lead she was on about 7ft...still enough to move around just not a ton of room. I know this because when we got home from vacation the runner was in the same position. Anyways these women call animal control and say we are neglecting our dog and that we are torturing her by leaving her out there. So animal control picks her up. That is fine, I am not that worried about it. I can understand someone getting worried about it. Luckily after my friend got back and searched around for her thinking she got off, I called animal control to check and they confirmed they had her so he went to pick her up. She stayed inside most of the weekend except to go walk her and everything. No big deal. We got home Friday and everything was fine. I also arranged to get a doghouse Sunday night. Fast forward to last night, it was a cool clear night so I took her back out and put her on the runner with food and water for the night because she enjoys being able to run around out there vs staying inside. She regularly knocks over her water bucket when she runs around but I go check it twice a day usually at least. So I am doing some work on an outlet today in the house and my wife runs up and says there are two women in the back yard go see what the heck they are doing. So I go out there and said "can I help you?" One lady is on the phone and says, "the owner just walked out I will call you right back, standby". She introduces herself and says she is with animal welfare and says are you the owner of this dog and I said yes. And she says this animal is living in terrible conditions. Why are you torturing her by keeping her on this cable (keep in mind it is 30ft so still plenty of room to play). I start to respond and she cuts me off and says not to mention there is no shelter, water, or food out here for her! I said "first off there is plenty of room for her to run on this cable when we arent out here and second she always has water she just knocked her bucket over, and anytime we need to put her up I have a kennel for her. She is far from tortured." Anyways we go back and forth and she says she had came out there an hour and a half before and the water bucket was knocked over then too and why would I even own a dog if I was going to be torturing it. Blah blah. I then say "You are currently trespassing on my property. Please get off my land immediately or I will call the police." My wife then comes out with my son to see what is going on (she was being very polite, just curious what the issue was) and this other woman starts going off on my wife saying she called animal control the other day because the runner was tangled up and she had dirty water in her bucket and all this. Basically they were going off on us and wouldn't even let us respond. I again say get off the property now. The woman then starts saying she has come out there and taken pictures for evidence and that if we don't have a doghouse out there by tonight that we will be on the front page of the paper for this and everything. Well we just so happened to be getting one tonight so good timing. But anyways she said she was going to be coming back by tonight to see if we had and that she was going to be waiting to see if we correct these issues and animal control will be coming to get the dog. I pull out my phone and say leave now I am calling the cops so they finally leave. The woman that went off on my wife laughed when we said we would call the police....her husband is a judge for the city and they live in our neighborhood. Anyways, I just was trying to figure out if there is anything I can do aside from filing a police report for them trespassing? I am sure I left out some details on the story but that is pretty much it. We take care of our dog, I am an animal person and would never do anything like she implied. It is beyond ridiculous the way they acted and how they refused to get off the property and said they would be coming back. I am going to keep her inside for the most part until this dies down some. But them being in the neighborhood I fear she will always be on our case looking for anything to cause an issue over.
OK, so I'm not going to comment on the women trespassing since you seem to have figured out now. But regarding your dog, I don't know if this is the first dog you have owned or not so forgive me if I'm missing some info here, but dogs are deathly afraid of storms. I mean absolutely horrified by them. Many dogs will try so hard to escape they will choke to death on their chain. And if they do break the chain, you will NOT see that dog again. He will run like the wind and will not come back. In all fairness, I would have called animal control as well as animal cruelty is something I do NOT tolerate and ignorance doesn't go far with me. But if I saw what those girls saw, I would have a little "chat" with you. And yeah, I can be a real dick sometimes. I wouldn't trespass on your property but I would make the call and I would have a chat with you. And if you did it again, I would have the dog removed. That's me. Hey, the world is full of people like me. And I can tell you right now, if you push those girls away someone else will make the call. It's just not kosher. It's like these idiots who leave dogs in 100 degree cars while they go shopping with the windows rolled up. You just can't do that. Sorry to come across harsh here but owning dogs is a LOT of responsibility.
No dog owner is perfect and we do learn from our mistakes. When the women do not leave immediately when told to you should get on the phone to the police and have them arrested for trespassing if possible. Why you would put up with some bitch for more than a second that wouldn't listen to you and wouldn't get off the property is a little beyond me. Lots of people will pull out the phone and start calling the police first, while informing the trespasser they have to get off the property. I deal with a lot of women, with some of them I practically have to kick them in the shins before I'm allowed to finish a sentence. It's really annoying and utterly disrespectful and I react pretty quickly to it having been tortured in one too many conversations...
Well, it wasn't really much of a storm just raining and a little thunder is what my friend said but obviously I wasn't here to know for sure. This isn't my first dog, I have owned and trained duck dogs all my life. This is my first German shepherd though. She isn't scared of thunder though because I've worked around her with guns and the loud noises don't bother her. Just always something I have felt is useful is working around your dogs with noises like that so they understand it is ok and not to be scared of it. It prevents panick during storms as well. She just wraps herself around the tree occasionally for whatever reason and doesn't know how to unwrap herself all the way. That is what happened in this situation. I understand them being worried and calling animal control. That's why I said that's whatever. If you see a dog wrapped up in a storm and call I understand. The dirty water was from the rain as fresh water was put in her bucket that morning. This isn't something that has ever happened and like I said I immediately corrected the situation. I was mainly upset they refused to leave our property and the false accusations. The woman that lives in the neighborhood has stood out there and talked with my wife before while she was standing there feeding the dog. My wife said you have literally been out here "socializing" with me and witnessed me feeding her and playing with her and the woman said nope I've never talked to you...she and her husband both stopped and talked to us shortly after moving in just saying hey so idk wtf her deal is and why she would deny that. She said you never keep food out for her.... Is it normal to keep food out for your dog all day and night? I have never done that. As a puppy I feed them 2-3 times a day according to the bag plus a little extra then once they get to about 8-10 months I usually cut back to once a day. Maybe she has small breed dogs and that's how they are handled, I have no clue. Regardless this whole situation was annoying to say the least. I am all for taking care of animals, I grew up on a farm and understand the importance of taking care of them. But she might need to find a better case than a dog being left in the rain for a couple hours. That sucks and I felt bad for my dog, but she is absolutely fine and in as good of shape as ever
It's not just the loud noise. It's the flashes of light. Also many dogs can sense storms coming before there is even any thunder. They are sensitive to the drop in barometric pressure. Combine that with them being alone and then restricted by a leash and you have a recipe for disaster.
Here is a nice update to the story...I have been in and out of the house several times this evening/tonight. Around 9pm I put a locking screw carabiner on my dogs runner because the clip was kind of rusty. I twisted it completely shut. I have been in and out several times since then. I just walked outside to take my dog for a walk and when I did the carabiner was almost completely unscrewed it was still closed just enough to not come off her collar. That means one of two things. Either my dog grew thumbs or those women snuck back there trying to steal her from the yard. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that might be crossing the line a little on their part. I must have scared them one of the times I walked out there and not realized they were out there. That right there bothers me big time.