To be scared to go in through my own front gate!!!!!

[tigerfrog]

Last week a new family moved in next door to us including their two rather big, fierce looking bull dog type dogs. I am now in the position that i can't get in my own front gate without them barking, growling and generally going beserk every time I go near it. Thats if they are actually in the garden rather than patrolling the road outside when its risking life and limb actually getting out of the car!! My two young daughters are petrified and on two occasions I have had to drive off and come back later when its safe to take them out of the car. The piles of dog poo that have now appeared outside the house is another huge concern. So advice please, how do I get past the dogs? How do I stop the dog poo?
Have tried calling over to new neighbours but they dont seem to be there or are avoiding me!!!

can you ask the landlord to deal with this ?

first we had the pooing cats and now the pooing dogs

Put a letter in their postbox? find their phone number and call them? Before you have the gate moved, is there anyone official who could approach them about having the dogs wandering up and down the street? That sounds totally unnecessary.

Hard to stop them barking and going beserk in their own garden though

The council. They are a nuisance and the dog poo also a health risk.

We have dog wardens on our area who will come out and take loose dogs away. If the dogs are kept in the front garden and they are agressive to everyone that walks past then the owners would be told to keep them elsewhere.

how can she find out if she has dog wardens where she lives?

Sorry, the dog wardens work for our council. The RSPCA would probably help as well.

local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/index.jsp?LGSL=432&LGIL=8 might be useful.

Here we have council wardens who also are dog wardens, I think it is common place for most councils now.

RSPCA will NOT help. Not their area of jurisdiction. This is a matter for your local council's environmental health department - ring them and ask to speak to the Dog Warden, get him/her to read the riot act to the owner (IF your council has a FT Dog Warden and not just someone appointed to pick up strays). If they don't then contact the directorate of the council and complain that this is the case and that your environmental health issues are therefore not being addressed as they should.

Call the Dog Warden out immediately you see the dogs straying - no matter whether the council has a FT DW or not they MUST by law have someone appointed to deal with strays even if they are cutting costs by not dealing with dogs causing noise/fouling nuisance. They will come and seize the dogs if they are straying - which is appallingly bad news for the dogs but that's your option, not one I'd carry out as I know what's likely to happen to the dogs if they're taken to the pound and not claimed by the owner. If they ARE seized in the street and claimed back the owner will have to pay a release fee, which might deter them from allowing the dogs to stray again.

Bear in mind please that my own 3 large breed dogs go nuts if you go near their fence... this does NOT mean that they are a risk to life and limb, just that they put on a good display. I get the idea that you are fearful of or unaccustomed to dogs and wary of Bull breeds, which although not unreasonable may be colouring your judgement.

That does NOT mean it's okay for the dogs to stray or shit on the pavement though, so call the council. HTH

Guys - By law each council MUST have someone responsible for collecting and dealing with stray dogs. He need not be called Dog Warden and he might combine his duties with another post - pest controller seems to be favourite - but they MUST have someone to do the job regardless.

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately I don't live in the UK at the moment so i can't ring the local council here. I dread to think what they would do with the dogs if they did come and pick them up so I am reluctant to ring. I think its a case of hoping it is all a good show on their part and once they get used to me it will be ok. As for the dog poo I am going to get the bleach out!! Anything I can put down that they don't like the smell off so they wont do it again?

Bugger!

Sorry tigerfrog, didn't realise that you're not in the UK. It's a difficult one, UK legislation and attitudes are pretty shitty as it is, other countries' often worse still.

One of the best bits of advice I can give in that case is to talk to the owners and not to give the impression of fear to the dogs. My three will take the pee something chronic if they think that they can bully you with a few well-placed barks but if you stand your ground and effectively tell them to shut the hell ip and that you're not taking any damn notice of them they will back down and try to be your best friends.

Good luck it needs dealing with. We have had occasional big dogs in the street over the years There are more laws these days