"Everyone knows my/their dog gets loose." Discussions

I see this occasionally in local Facebook groups and it aggravates me...one reason why I hardly look at those groups anymore. (Or much of Facebook in general.) A dog(s) is roaming around somewhere, but it turns out that people are familiar with the dog(s). It's fine, the dog gets loose all the time, everyone knows that the owner will catch when they get home. Or a neighbor will grab them.

This also happened in a neighborhood where we used to live. Two dogs were roaming around our street, then disappeared. When I looked online, I learned that these dogs live nearby and they are known to get loose while their owner is at work. She'll take them home later.

My parents have a neighbor whose dog is known to get out of the back yard frequently. But it's "okay" because my parents, or another neighbor, always catch him.

Do people not understand that a dog could be stolen, injured, killed? In addition to that, the neighbors are not responsible for always bringing someone else's dog home.

Majority of back gardens here are confined, mine is with a 6 ft fence to all sides and I’d be surprised if they got out as is the neighbours fences next door both sides. But most people will if found a dog straying will put on Facebook (which I do not use or have) or Nextdoor that they have seen one wandering around and if picked up will be taken to a local vets if not reunited with its owner. My dogs if and when I’m working would be left locked in the house after a good walk and someone else comes home to let them out the back. It’s law here in the uk that dogs must be controlled at all times and your responsibility to make sure it can’t get out. Hence the chip, collar and tag if it does, So we rarely have this problem. But then I suppose it depends on where people live and how responsible they want to be in looking after them.

These incidents actually happen in similar neighborhoods here in the USA. Places where many people have a fenced-in back yard.

I will say that many of these roaming dogs are Pitbulls/Pit mixes. Do I think every single Pitbull is "bad"? No. But the shelters here are over-crowded with them, and it's very easy for an irresponsible person to get a cheap Pit, fast, without many questions asked. Not every Pit owner is irresponsible, but it seems like many careless people want a pet for the dirt-cheapest price possible (if not free). Which often seems to be a Pit from a crowded shelter.

Surely if they know the dog gets out then they shouldn’t be leaving them out in the yard to escape there after. I like to know where our dogs are at all times.
Pit bulls especially xl bullies here as you might be aware are banned here now and those that are here have to have exemption certificates, be muzzled when out and on a lead and under control aswell as insured and neutered.
It’s irresponsible owners that give other dogs bad names, a dog will only respond as to how they have been trained or not trained as the case maybe and spoil it for everyone else that take the time to teach their dog how to behave.

We have a Chihuahua, and those have something of a reputation for being mean also. Owners of small dogs will sometimes neglect to train them properly, because they assume that a small dog can't hurt anyone. Or a small dog is treated as a fashion accessory.

Chi's need to be treated as dogs not as babies, and properly socialised. I used to help out in Chi kennels, and all of ours could be walked to the shops quite happily. My Beagle breeder friend has two Chihuahuas among her house dogs which behave in just the same way as her Beagles.
I did know one Chi that was trained to compete in Working Trials. Sadly she never completed her only trial because the distances, and the length of the grass were just too long. At least she tried!
Thankfully the Chihuahua in a handbag craze seems to be fading over here, but I still see the occasional one dressed like an elf or a ballet dancer!

In the U.S. there is a much more common attitude that dogs are burglar deterrents and should stay in the yard 24/7. These same people tend to ignore the dogs, not neuter them, not provide mental stimulation for them, and so on. And because they ignore the dogs, they don't pay attention to the condition of their fences.

So, these dogs get out day after day after day.

We have the same laws regarding leashes, properly controlled, etc, but laws are only effective if they are enforced and ours tend to be ignored until/unless something major happens and then action is often only taken against the dog (put down) rather than at the owner, and nothing is done to stop all the other dogs.

Pits get loose because there are too many uneducated owners. They are far more likely to not neuter, leave in the yard 24/7, ignore, etc.

Right now, we have a huge number of huskies running around. They have become the latest fad breed and people get them with no clue as to their very very very unique personalities. They can escape any yard and they will just to prove that they can.

Chihuahuas and other small dogs are always running loose. And shepherds are very common.

I've heard all the excuses. We didn't know the fence blew down. The gardener left the gate open. He ran out the front door. Someone must have let her out. On and on. Never do they say "we screwed up and we're fixing the problem so it doesn't happen again".

When I was on NextDoor, several folks would offer to go to these dogs' homes and repair fences, etc, for the owners. They never accepted but their dogs tended to get loose less often afterwards. It seemed to shame them without putting them on the defensive.

With one dog, who was that well known neighborhood roamer, the neighborhood joined together and talked to the owner to figure out a solution. When I left NextDoor, the dog had not gotten loose in several months.

I live in the Southeast USA. I briefly worked at a pet store in the past (not doing it again - the things I saw!), and two home improvement/hardware stores that allowed people to bring leashed dogs inside.

The majority of Pit Bull owners were stereotypical "trashy" types who wanted to act "tough". And they often wanted the cheapest food and supplies they could get. Sadly, the minority of Pit Bull owners were friendly, respectful people with well-trained dogs, who were trying set a good example.

That very much sounds like here too, you have the ones that try to have a status in life with ears clipped ( which I don’t like to see) and heavy chained dog collars, when you know full well that’s there is only one reason they have these dogs and it’s not to be nice to people, the usual, what they have hidden amongst their person and for their protection. So spoil it for the people that genuinely like these dogs. Fortunately we don’t have to many around here, they are usually in the big cities and I avoid them like the plague. It’s Staffies here and there is some nice ones about and then some you can’t trust, I always remember when I had just my old dog and one came running over to us and the guy was trying to catch it as it had got out, it bolted straight for my dog and he’s shouting grab him and watch your dog!!! So trying to keep them apart so he couldn’t get him was hard, I was pulling his back and trying to keep my away as he thought he wanted to say hello to him and it didn’t, he just grabbed the dog and walked off, no I’m sorry or anything. If it wasn’t for me grabbing him by the collar god only knows what would have happened.

I've read a few stories of Pit owners running away without an apology. I am so glad that your dog is okay.

Just one incident: My brother was attacked by Pitbulls while trying to walk his small dog (unknown mix; maybe Chihuahua + Jack Russell) on a neighboring street. Their owner is a crazy woman who thinks that she and her dogs "own" her end of the street; not just her yard. My brother had to kick the dogs away while holding his dog almost above his head.

Since I've said a lot of critical things about Pitbulls in this thread, I want to be fair and mention that one of our worst experiences was with a careless Welsh Corgi owner. I don't resent all Corgis because of it.

Recently there were two large dogs in this area that kept escaping and were being a nuisance while their owner was working. He lived in a flat in a divided-up house, so maybe not his fault. He turned out to have some mental health problems, and was assisted by the Council. The dogs were taken by a local rescue and I think have now been rehomed.

I've met too many sweet pits and bullies to harbor any negativity to them.

The truth is that most ANY dog breed can provide that missing part between a person's legs. Over the years, that breed has been shepherds, chows, pits, labs, akitas, various bully breeds, rotties, dobies, boxers, malinois, and so on.

The thing these breeds tend to have in common, with few exceptions, is that they develop strong bonds with their humans. That is used against the dog.

There are the sterotypical trashy types, but there are also the macho protection sports types. Shepherds and malinois are their current favorites.

Around here, if the dog gets picked up by animal control, it will rarely return to his owner. In most cases, the owner doesn't even bother searching for the dog at all. So the dog gets a chance at a better life. Unfortunately, they are so overcrowded at the shelters and offer free adoptions all the time and shelters don't carefully vet the potential adopters, so the dog ends up going to another bad home.

Back before microchips, there were ways to minimize this.

Once, a very very sweet girl pit showed up in my yard. I made arrangements to drop her off at the shelter, but emailed the local pit rescue and gave them all the info on her. That way, if she didn't have owners who cared, the rescue could pull her out of the shelter. She was gone from the system by the following day.

Most rescues have working relationships with the shelters, so they can pull dogs out. Giving them a heads up on special dogs can help ensure those dogs get good homes.

You are right about how the "bad breeds" change. I was a kid during the '90s (born in late '80s), I seem to recall more people being afraid of Dobermans and Rottweilers back then.

I hope that nice Pit Bull girl is very happy now!

I've met the macho sports types. There's also a certain type of woman (in my experience, as a woman) who wants to show people that she is too "tough" for a "little purse dog".

That woman also falls into the macho category. They all need that "aggressive, tough dog" to prove that they are tougher, braver, more "manly" than everyone else.

Some just love the challenge of their sport - whether Working Trials or IPO, (or whatever it is called this week). You can compete for fun but you need a smart, tough worker to get to the top.

I think in the states it is very rare to find someone in protection sports who doesn't have a chip on their shoulder. Other working sports are different, but here there is a certain mentality that trains a dog for protection work. Even the majority of law enforcement dog trainers fall into that category. Exceptions are there, but not common. They also tend to use very aversive methods.

I attended an akita dog club picnic once. They had a "highly touted" law enforcement dog trainer give a talk. Someone asked how they could stop their dog from digging. This was his recommendation:

Fill the hole the dog dug with water;
Shove the dog's head into the hole;
The dog will struggle and then stop;
Do not let the dog up;
Continue to hold the dog's head into the hole;
The dog will start struggling again;
Keep holding the dog's head in the hole;
When the dog stops struggling the second time let it go;
The dog will never dig another hole.

That mentality is extremely common in protection sports.

I can't put a 'Like' on that!
What a ghastly man. I'm sure it wouldn't be a woman.

That one was a man. But I've known women in protection sports who offer similar advice all the time. They all want to dominate their big powerful dogs so they can feel important and superior. In truth they are psychos.

When he said that, I got up and walked away from that club. The members of the club were all applauding him - it was disgusting. I talked to my dad later that evening and told him, and he said that club was filled with whackos and the other akita clubs avoided them.

Awful.