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.

There's lots of concern for the imaginary children in the garden and much less for the actual children not in the garden who might now encounter a loose dog.

The man was trying to prevent an accident invokving the dog and probably other people and motorists. There was sense in trying to contain the animal until authorities arrived. The dog may even live reasonably nearby. A bit of common sense was needed by your neighbour. If course the dog was aggressive, its only way of protecting itself with all the anxiety it was going through and dealing with humans it didn't know.

It would be very easy to protect children in the neighbour's garden imby not allowing them outside with the angry dog. Much more difficult to protect all the people using the road or pavement from a dog that is completely loose.

I used to work at an RSPCA hospital as a vet nurse and the advice was to always try to get an animal contained to protect it and more importantly to protect the public and other animals from injury or accidents until the authorities can safely collect it. Eg. Road traffic accidents caused by animal running into road etc.( Plus to prevent wasted resources on call outs when animal just runs away before ambulance gets there) In this case it would have best to secure the dog in her garden as easier to catch dog with a grasper ( pole with noose type leash on) or calm him with treats quiete voices etc . His car would be ok but that would be harder to get the dog out of and it might have become more stressed and escaped again. I understand if your neighbour was scared but on balance the safest thing for EVERYONE is to safely isolate dog away from public until help arrives. Hope you all ( and the dog) are ok now

If you worked for the RSPCA then you know they do not always come out when asked for help.

In these parts we have been turned down many times because we are so far away from one of their centres. Their advice, if the animal isn't injured, is to call the dog warden. The one dog warden based in the nearest town who can take hours to arrive, as I've already said. I can't believe you think it was ok to confine the dog in the garden. The man didn't know if there were children playing at the back or other animals. Your logic is badly flawed.

The man had hold of the dog by its collar. It was fairly calm until he tried to shove it through the gate. The right thing to do was for him to keep hold of the dog and phone the authorities, not dump it in the nearest garden and drive off. He was offered a belt as a lead, he refused because he wanted to just dump the dog. I don't understand how people just can't see that. It wasn't safe to leave it in the garden of an elderly woman who would be trapped in her house. Madness.

As for the suggestion of feeding the dog - with what? Neither me nor my neighbour keep dog food in our cupboards on the off chance someone dumps a dog.

The dog has disappeared so I imagine its owners came looking for it or it found its way home.

The guy had the right idea, wrongly executed. I'd have said no, too, under those circumstances.

Both op and neighbour were clearly unreasonable

The neighbour is not being unreasonable.
She didn’t want the dog in her garden, for whatever reasons. End of story. She shouldn’t need to justify it to anyone or to accept it because the man wanted to put the dog in her garden.

Both op and neighbour were clearly unreasonable

Care to enlarge on this illogical statement? Daft.

Its a shame the dog wasn't secured. The whole incident seemed to upset much more an already anxious dog and make it much more likely to bite the next person who tried to catch it, or indeed attack a random person, and/or blindly run in front of a vehicle.

He escalated and made the situation more dangerous when he tried to force you to have the dog in your garden; you also escalated and made it more dangerous by refusing to allow that. You were within your rights but what a shame for the wider situation. Sometimes something that we didn't ask for and certainly didn't cause happens, and sometimes we are forced to disrupt our day to deal with it and others we have a choice whether to or not. I think the world is a slightly better place when we choose to help even when it disrupts our day.

Sorry, I've written as if you were your neighbour. My apologies.

She's being unreasonable - he wasn't from the area, saw a loose dog and wanted to place it somewhere secure before he called the authorities/knocked on doors to find the owner. Our dog has got out and I would be really appreciative of someone stopping their car to ensure it was safe, though our boy can find his way home (he sneaks out via broken fences onto another road if gate is left open then walks down the road to the front of the house!)

It would be very easy to protect children in the neighbour's garden imby not allowing them outside with the angry dog.

Only if the house owner knew the dog was there. As the man wasn't knocking to ask permission, that's not a given.

She's being unreasonable - he wasn't from the area, saw a loose dog and wanted to place it somewhere secure before he called the authorities/knocked on doors to find the owner.

How do you know he wanted to call the authorities or knock on neighbours' doors? The people who were actually there at the time were sure that wasn't his intention.

He didn't need to put it in the car or a garden. He just needed a lead. Why didn't anyone help him? Pathetic.

He was offered something to use as a leash and he refused.

I’m not a dog person and would never have tried to approach the dog myself, but I would certainly have let the man stow it safely in my garden while waiting for animal control. I probably would have asked him to hang onto it until I got back in the house, though, as he seemed to know his way around a dog. I think your neighboring was being thoughtless. What if it bit a passing child or caused an accident? Plus, someone loves that dog like a child and will be devastated if something happens to it. I think your neighbour was extremely unhelpful and selfish.

Sorry missed that. I just would have helped. The original poster obviously didn"t care.

Thankfully I think the OP did care, about her neighbour!

I don't understand what planet people must be on if they think this man was in the right here. There was an aggressive man trying to force an aggressive dog through this woman's gate. And the woman is unreasonable and selfish? Ok.
I don't know the reason this woman didn't want the dog in the garden, I do know that she was strongly against the idea and struggling to stop him do it. To me that's what matters, she said no, whatever I or you would've done she said no and he persisted.

Op you have had many reasoned people on here, who do not see your point of view, as they see a far greater danger in letting a dog loose on a road than containing it in a garden where no one needs to go near it.(.I presume the lady whose house it was has a front door? and can exit her house without going through the garden)

You are still insistant people are wrong. So why waste your time asking if you don't want anyones opinion unless they agree with you?

Sorry missed that. I just would have helped. The original poster obviously didn"t care.

The neighbour didn't want a large angry dog in her garden, she did offer to help by offering the man a belt to use as a leash

You are still insistant people are wrong. So why waste your time asking if you don't want anyones opinion unless they agree with you?

Just as many people think she's 100% right though, so why are you so insistent that we are all wrong?

I would refuse also.

I have a dog myself and young children and if I opened my door to find a large, strange dog in the garden I would be very nervous incase my dog got out and caused a fight or the strange dog was aggressive and decided to go for me or my children.

From your description I would assume it’s probably a dumped travellers lurcher.

The man is utterly in the wrong and I cannot for the life of me see how anyone can defend him.

You don’t put unknown dogs in people gardens without their permission!
You just don’t.

If your that concerned you restrain it yourself, take it to your home/garden and call the warden.

Suppose he had managed it and the lady didn’t know, opened her door later and the dog charged and bit her, would he be defensible then?

Unbelievable.

@Dragongirl10 sometimes people come on here to vent, to get things off their chest. Sometimes they ask AIBU and after considering all the answers still don't change their minds, just because you ask doesn't mean you're obliged to agree with those saying YABU 🙄
And as @AryaStarkWolf says, plenty of people can see the issue that OP had with this man, and believe he should've gone about things differently.

If you worked for the RSPCA then you know they do not always come out when asked for help

Why would I say I worked there when I didn't? I worked at the hospital for 6 years and saw first hand some of the terrible things that people do to animals. I also saw some wonderful things that people do . The hard work and care involved from staff and public was inspiring.

I know they cannot always come out if an animal is not contained. In many areas Inspectors and ambulance drivers have hundreds of miles to cover and it is a waste of resources to try to get to an animal that may not be there when they get there. So calls have to be prioritised. Same for dog wardens. Truly dangerous dogs can be reported to the police too.
Your logic is badly flawed
Do you mean the logical idea of containing an animal so everyone is safe?
Sorry if the lady was upset, I imagine the man just saw the secure garden and went for what he thought was he best option of removing the dog from the immediate danger of causing an accident or injuring other passersby (saw a case when escaped lab got hit by car but got away with minor injuries but driver was seriously injured as swerved and hit a parked car too)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and the man should have checked there was no one in the garden and obviously listened to her objections as her property but not easy to be calm and make kind rational decisions when in emergency situation.
For the record most dogs (and humans) would be happy with a biscuit or a piece of cheese, specialist dog food is not required

I presume the lady whose house it was has a front door? and can exit her house without going through the garden

No. She couldn't it was the front garden the man was trying to dump the dog in. The front door, unsurprisingly, opens out into the front garden. She would have been trapped inside her house. But that's ok with some of you as long as the man isn't inconvenienced and the dog can be there snarling until the dog warden can be bothered to come. Her front and back gardens are quite large and the dog would have had the run of both leaving her trapped.

All the man had to do was accept the offer of a lead and phone someone. He could have waited on the pavement with the dog. But he wanted to pass on the problem. And some think he deserves a medal and me and my neighbour are unreasonable?