Who was U here? Not my neighbour.

[AuntieCJ]

On my way back down the lane earlier I found my neighbour of a few doors up involved in a nasty sounding argument with a man. She has a large front garden with high fences and gates. A man had been trying to push a large barking dog into her garden. He'd opened the gate to do so. She'd seen him and rushed out to see what he was doing.

The dog had been running up to people and barking and running into the road, narrowly avoiding being run over. The man had caught it by the collar and was trying to put it into neighbour's garden. It's not her dog and she didn't want it in her garden, it was very big and barky and I don't blame her.

The man tried to insist saying the dog could cause an accident or attack someone because it was panicking. She said to take it to his own house and keep it there. He said his garden wasn't secure like hers. She said that if he left the dog there she'd let it out the moment he'd gone. He doesn't live near us but had stopped his car to try to help and didn't want to put it in his car.

All the time he was trying to push the gate and force the dog into the garden. By this time it was snarling and growling and it tried to bite him. He let it go and it ran off. Imagine if it had been trapped in neighbour's garden in that mood. It was U of him to try to do that, wasn't it? If I'd have found that big angry dog in my garden I'd have been frightened as was my neighbour.

The unreasonable person here is the dog owner who can't control / contain their dog. Out of control dogs do a lot of damage to livestock in the country and risk being shot by pissed off farmers who are fed up of sheep/cows being injured and killed.

If you have a precious family pet, keep it safe and don't expect other people to.

Bit different putting a dog in a garden to shoving it your car. The man reacted to a situation in the best way he thought possible and was clearly thinking of public safety, he was trying to be a Good Samaritan. He also came up with this plan on the fly so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

It all gets a bit weird once the house owner expressly denies permission, at that point he needs to come up with a plan B and his behaviour becomes very odd.

I wouldn’t have minded it in my garden while the appropriate authority came to collect it, but we aren’t easily scared of dogs. Some people are terrified. The neighbour is entitled to refuse permission.

t it would have been much better for the dog if she'd agreed

Stuff the dog. The human neighbour is more important. She didn't want a big, barky, aggressive dog in her garden. End of story.

He was trying to keep hold of an aggressive dog while it tried to bite him. He was doing the best he could under the circumstances, at risk to himself. I think he is exactly the sort of person you need in an emergency.

Whilst trying to shove it into a garden, whose contents he had no idea about - it looked secure from the road, but there could have been anyone or anything in there and he was trying to add angry dog!

I mean, yes, I see what he was trying to do, but he literally had no idea if what he was doing was going to make the situation better, or end up in the massacre of small dogs/attacking of children round the back of the house!

My neighbour and I are both sure his intention was to leave the dog in her garden and just drive off. That was pretty clear. He decided to help but didn't think it through and so tried to make it someone else's problem.

In general I am a helper. If the dog had been smaller and friendlier then I would have let it stay in my garden until the warden arrived. I was not prepared to take responsibility for this dog. What if someone came to my house and it attacked them? Would that be my fault? We only have one dog warden, it could have been tomorrow before she came out - we are in a village.

My neighbour offered him a belt to use as a lead but he wasn't interested he just wanted to get rid of the dog onto someone else. He made a bad situation worse.

I don't think it was Kew Gardens, I'm sure he would have seen if there were any kids, other dogs, the postman etc in there

I'm a dog lover but I would hate anyone to try and spring a large uncontrollable dog onto me. My cat would agree. It's awful that the dog was upset and abandoned but how is it fair to make it her problem? She may have been on her way out somewhere, may have young children, be terrified of dogs, or any number of reasons. What if she had her own pets in her garden to think of? Most cats would be terrified and likely as not would run straight into the road.

She didn't want to try to find a solution? The world does work better when everyone pitches in.

Not her dog, not her problem to solve. This man was totally in the wrong trying to invade her space with this dog. Who's to say the warden would have had time to collect the dog while the man was still there? Or perhaps he expected he could dump the dog and head off in his car straight away, leaving the neighbour to deal with it. If that happened in my garden I'd be out with a fucking pitchfork! She should put a lock on her gate in case any more crazy 'do gooders' try to offload stray animals on her property.

Should just have put it out of its misery with his car and driven to work, then.

Sweet Jesus

Has the world gone mad in that some people think this was an reasonable thing to do. If he wanted to help he should have helped, Not make it someone else's problem.

I don't think it was Kew Gardens, I'm sure he would have seen if there were any kids, other dogs, the postman etc in there

Not if they were round the back. There is a path down the side of the house to the back garden. There could easily have been children or other animals for all he knew. A year ago there would have been chickens but she had to let them go as physically she couldn't look after them any more. No need to be so snide "Kew Gardens?"

Should just have put it out of its misery with his car and driven to work, then.

Yes that's the only other option here clearly.........

I woke up once to a large husky in my front garden it had been running loose and the local kids had secured it in my garden to stop it getting hurt. I had absolutely no problem with this and just went and found the owner after checking its collar. I'd honestly rather they did this than someone or the dog get hurt. However the local kids did know me and know I was an animal lover with a dog of my own.

So I'm kind of on the fence but leaning towards SWBU because its kinder to help and takes nothing or very little effort to do so.

If everyone thinks not my problem then the worlds a pretty shitty place seriously.

pina the man tried by palming the dog off on someone else, the woman only had to have the dog for a few hours, wtf! You don’t know her circumstances, she could be terrified of dogs, had young children, her own dogs etc.
No need to catastrophize it, what if the dog caused an accident and someone died! If that was the case It wouldn’t be the womans fault who didn’t want a strange dog foisted upon her

He was doing the bare minimum he could, and was making it someone else's problem.

Trying to do this without asking permission or knowing the householder's circumstances isn't very community spirited.

I have two dogs and children and would be very pissed off if I found a strange, hostile dog in my garden.

Asking and assuming are two very different things.

Neighbour had every right to say no, and he could be used the belt as a lead and used his time to wait for the dog warden.

I'm with your neighbour on this one.

I'm generally afraid of dogs and would be terrified if someone tried this (not that they could, we don't have a front garden like that).

I hope your neighbour is ok, OP

I don't think either of them were being unreasonable - he was trying to come up with a secure place to keep an out-of-control dog, your neighbour didn't want to provide that secure place. I can see why it got heated - he had clearly been struggling to restrain the animal and was frustrated that his plan wasn't going to work, she was annoyed that he had made the assumption that the dog could lodge with her.

In his shoes, I would probably have asked her to call the police and tried to hold on to the dog for as long as possible while calling to other neighbours to see if any could help with a temporary solution. In her shoes, I probably would have allowed the dog to be confined in my garden, so long as I wasn't expecting visitors or planning to go anywhere, and just called the police to deal with it rather than waiting for a dog warden. But I can understand why she didn't want to do that, and I don't think it was unreasonable not to want to be lumbered with the problem.

Did the man specifically say that he was intending to just leave the dog there and go, or is that conjecture based on his mishandling of the conversation about what to do with the dog?

I think your neighbour and you were unreasonable. The dog needed containing until the dog warden came. Thanks to you both the dog is now running loose and wild,
free to cause an accident, but someone etc. Nobody said the man the planning to dump and run. He may have wanted to put it in the garden so that he could ring the dog warden and then wait for them to arrive. It's not as though he could put a snaring dog in his car or hold it the whole time. Lots of heartless people on this thread.

Thanks to you both the dog is now running loose and wild,
free to cause an accident, but someone etc.

I think you mean thanks to its owner.

He couldn't put a snarling dog in his car but he could put it loose in the garden of an elderly woman? Right. Makes perfect sense.

Well, I understand he was trying to save the dog. But you don't shove a random dog into someone's garden!! What if she'd had small children or someone in a wheelchair? Or just a door open?

If he really wanted to help, he should have called the dog warden. And then waited if he was really concerned.

I think your neighbour and you were unreasonable. The dog needed containing until the dog warden came. Thanks to you both the dog is now running loose and wild, free to cause an accident, but someone etc. Nobody said the man the planning to dump and run. He may have wanted to put it in the garden so that he could ring the dog warden and then wait for them to arrive. It's not as though he could put a snaring dog in his car or hold it the whole time. Lots of heartless people on this thread.

Again, not the ops problem. He could have put the dog in the boot of his car and driven it to the bloody dog warden/nearest animal rescue centre or even police station, himself if he was so concerned. If the dog causes a pile up on the nearest motorway it won't be the ops fault, nor will it be her neighbours. It will be the fault of the owner who couldn't manage to keep their dog under control. So stop trying to guilt the op.

He couldn't put a snarling dog in his car but he could put it loose in the garden of an elderly woman? Right. Makes perfect sense.

Exactly.

I can’t believe that people actually think the neighbour was the unreasonable one here, and I’m a dog lover who generally comes down on the side of the dog owners on these kinds of threads.

So for people who think that the man was just doing a kind thing, how does that work then?

So, bloke finds an unknown dog in the street who is barking and who tries to bite him. He then puts unknown dog into the garden of an unknown individual who he has not engaged with in regards to whether she is ok about having the dog there. And this is doing a kind thing how exactly? It doesn’t take account of either the owner of the house or the dog because he knows nothing about either.

Whether the dog was aggressive or the neighbour had a fear of dogs aside, how did he even know that the neighbour was home? What if she’d been away on holiday for instance? Would he have just left the dog there where it could have starved to death? Given contacting people isn’t his thing it would be perfectly reasonable to assume here that he had no intentions of ringing a dog warden to collect the dog since he didn’t even have the common courtesy to ask the home owner whether it would be ok to put the dog in her garden.

And in actual fact how did he even know that the house belonged to the person living there? Could have been rented? Vacant? Landlord could have a strict no dogs policy? And. How long should the woman have been expected to keep this dog which she hadn’t even been asked about? If she had no dogs she wouldn’t have anything to feed it if the warden didn’t come out? If the warden didn’t come out should she bring the dog into the house?

I am a dog lover and I am not afraid of dogs. If someone knocked on my door and asked if they could put a dog in my garden they’d found in the street I would most probably have said yes. But all that depends on communication.

anyone who thinks that the neighbour was unreasonable in the circumstances outlined here needs to give their head a wobble.