To report my neighbours XL bully, it is ruining my life

[TheLangyers]

I’m 14 weeks pregnant. Me and my partner currently live on quite a rough council estate as we are saving up for a house deposit. Won’t be able to move for another couple of years.

Our next door neighbour has an XL bully. I am usually a dog lover but feel really uneasy about these dogs. My mum was a dog walker for a few years and I got bit by a pit-bull and repeatedly witnessed incidents involving them. My childhood best friend was left with lifelong facial scares after her rescue pitbull randomly decided to bite her face off during a game of fetch.

The XL bully hasn’t personally attacked us yet but it’s been involved in several incidents. It’s been known to get in fights on the local field with other dogs on the estate but owner insists it’s always the other dog’s fault. She leaves it unattended in the front garden, gate is usually closed but it could easily jump over. My partner doesn’t understand the danger that these dogs present and often encourages it to come over to stroke it when we go out. Our walls are very thin and I know from overhearing domestic arguments that it’s bitten the owners autistic grandson before when they’ve been playing.

She often walks 2 minutes the road to another friend’s house and doesn’t bother muzzling or leashing it for this as it’s a short walk. It just runs down the road in front of her. For proper walks it’s on a leash but no muzzle as it “doesn’t like a muzzle.” She often moans to be that she’s suspicious that people on the estate will “snitch” on her so she tries to walk early morning or late at night.

Being pregnant I’ve been a lot more cautious and try to only go out when my partner can give me a lift - I can’t drive. However an incident today has left me terrified. I was on the road in front of our house at lunchtime cleaning the car and they come out to walk to the friend’s house. It jumps on my back trying to be friendly and lick me - this dog weighs 70kg. I froze and was terrified and she didn’t pull him off, she just kept shouting its name until it ran to her and they left.

It’s really starting to ruin my life and my partner doesn’t care as he just thinks it’s a funny, goofy big dog. He always brings up my parent’s cockerpoo as an example as occasionally nips at people when it is guarding food but the difference is that a cockerpoo isn’t capable of killing a healthy adult, and a cockerpoo usually will bite once then back off. XL bullies generally are genetically wired to try to kill and could turn at any moment.

I’ve now fallen out with my mum too as she’s very worried about mine and the baby’s safety and she says we should look at private renting somewhere else until we can afford to buy. This annoyed me as we only pay £500 a month rent at the moment and if we were to move to another private rental it’d be hundreds
more and we would lose a load to our savings to moving costs. I don’t see why we should have to do this. My mum says I’m putting money over my baby’s safety and has become angry at me. I feel like I can’t win.

I want to report as she’s breaking the law letting it out unleashed and unmuzzled but I’m concerned that the neighbour would know it’s me after the incident today and make my life hell. She is somewhat unhinged, nice enough on a shallow level, will invite you in for a cuppa and chat to you etc bit get on the wrong side of her and she’s as rough as a bears arse and will get family members to bang on your door etc. Police have been called before when she’s had disputes with another neighbour about rats in the garden. I hate confrontation and really don’t know what to do.

any advice appreciated

I get why people suggest waiting to report it, but I wouldn’t. I’d report now, it could be anyone else reporting it, someone who saw the dog jump at you. You could report anonymously via crime stoppers, in fact I’d do that and also call the police to report it.
The owner sounds incredibly irresponsible, not to mention breaking the law.

I'm a dog owner but I dont want a random dog jumping at me, especially an XL bully, one of the few dogs im afraid of. Their sheer size and unpredictably is already proven to be an issue and I’d want this dealt with sooner rather than later.

Definitely report her. There was an XL bully that got out. Police seen it roaming with no muzzle and shot it dead. Owner claimed he was a therapy dog for her autistic son. The son also has epilepsy.

You should move. Even if you reported and the dog was destroyed, she might well get another dog of whichever breed is not yet banned but is next on the list of dangerous dogs!

I cannot believe there are still people trying to justify the existence of these mutants.

I think if you are privately renting rather than council tenants it's a simple decision.

You can't be terrified of pushing your baby out of your door.

It's not fair but as you've identified, it's for reasons like this that the house is cheaper.

Would you be better elsewhere for nursery/school?

Your mum is worried about you and wants you away from there. I understand why you were annoyed but I think it's a shoot the messenger situation. You've apologised, I'm sure she'll understand why you are so stressed.

If the dog is definitely an XL bully- it should be registered, on a lead and muzzled any time out of the house and garden .
You can report to the police and council. Don't be fobbed off, XL bully issues are a police matter.

I smell bull here.
Armed police do not turn up for a dog who is wandering the streets.

Weird that your partner “doesn’t understand” - is he thick? It’s well reported and for good reason that XL bullies often attack children as well as adults. They may be big softies most of the time but there is something in them that just switches. They should be allowed to die out IMO.

Not even for a dangerous XL bully that might turn on them?

Might they use tasers instead?

It seems so outlandish. A van of armed cops happened to see an XL bully in the streets, so they shot it?
So much wrong with this.
It did not happen. PP is talking a load of (XL)bull

Just report it. She's breaking the law and imagine if something happened to you or anyone else for that matter?

I would report the fact that the dog is taken out unmuzzled and off lead, as well as being off lead in a garden where it could jump over the fence tomorrow.

Both to the council and police. What you describe today sounds terrifying and you know that the dog has bitten.

Your mum IS right. I'd be absolutely terrified if my daughter and grandkids lived next door to this dog. Especially if my daughter's partner was an idiot who encouraged the dog over.

I've no idea why it's your mum that you've fallen out with, and not your partner.

ETA sorry, I missed your post where you said you've apologised to her. But still, your partner is an idiot.

Jesus those fucking dogs. In my local town, one dog went after a small boy, unprovoked on his way to a friend's birthday party and bit his thumb off. Another I heard of escaped its back garden and ripped off the legs of a poor little Dachshund. Imagine the pain and horror of both cases and psychological scars.

I've heard of aggressive dogs, but I don't think any other has the reputation of escaping its confines and going out to attack something or someone like this breed does, or killing their owners. Some people say they're friendly and they're fine, but with this dog, the inbreeding seems to have created a dog that can snap and when they do it's deadly. They're a bloody liability in any neighbourhood and it's an antisocial thing to own one. If someone wants an effective guard dogs, there are other powerful and more reliable breeds to choose from. They don't have to get an X L bully.

Surprisingly it is true, sort of.

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2025-12-17/responsible-owner-of-xl-bully-dog-shot-dead-by-police-sentenced

But even the judge said the dog wasn’t behaving dangerously, the officer just acted based on his ‘potential’ to be dangerous.

hi @TheLangyers I'm afraid I haven't read everything you've posted or the other comments but my instant gut reaction as a mum of a young woman is that your mum is totally right.

The woman next door could turn on you, set her family on you, she has rats in her garden, you're wary (almost scared) of her and there's a giant dog running around that has bitten a kid, is off leash, and today it jumped on you, a pregnant woman... And its owner wasn't mortified and didn't run over.

Get the hell out of there. Pay more rent. This is better than being maimed, injured or worse.

Move out

Definitely report and keep reporting. Get your mum to do it as well. Do it anonymously and keep doing it.

Report the grandson has been bitten on more than one occasion to child social services by an illegal dog. Phone the nspcc for advice,

Waiting will weaken her report because the dog warden/police could say she clearly didn't feel all that intimidated given she waited several weeks to report it. Sooner is better.

OP I would try to get out of where you are living.

There are owners with XL bully's all over my area. Almost universally the owners have the dog not because they just love the breed, but for the power trip and faux respect it gives them. They enjoy seeing other people's intimidation. There's a local man parks the huge full grown XL bully in the doorway of the local off-licences. Literally in the doorway so you have to squeeze past it. He doesn't care about the school children in the shop, and if you show that you're uncomfortable he stares you down. He enjoys seeing people stop and turn back rather than enter.

I see behaviours like this by XL bully owners all the time. The dog is literally dragging them down the road, but they don't change their route if they see you coming. Even if you have a buggy. One attempted to go for me snarling barking and leaping whilst I was simply walking past with my shopping bags, dog unmuzzled but thankfully on lead. Owner casual as f, while I was rooted stiff in fear. Had no idea what set it off. Eventually he strained to pull the dog away. This is a full grown man struggling to get his dog away!

That being the general attitude, even if the dog is taken away I guarantee this neighbour will replace with a similar dangerous dog and she might be suspicious that it was you who reported her.

It's high time the government brought in mandatory dog licences for all dogs with mandatory training. Even smaller dogs are a concern if they're not raised properly and bad dog owners give good dog owners a bad reputation.

They should all be euthanised IMO

OP your partner is a very weak man if he would put the feelings of an unhinged neighbour and dangerous dogs ahead of his wife and unborn child.
I would lose all respect for him and move out

They absolutely do.

Ghost, Zaherali's XL Bully, was shot three times by officers after he charged towards them on December 7, 2024. Sophie was attending to her epileptic child when Ghost escaped through the door and ran onto Dunella Street in Hillsborough, Sheffield.

Two constables emerged from their vehicle, with Officer A35 firing three shots that killed the animal. Zaherali labelled the officers "murderers", however South Yorkshire Police maintained that officers chose to destroy Ghost "to end and mitigate the risk it posed to the public".