How (if there is a way) can I ask a neighbour to lock his dog up at certain times of day?

[fryalot]

The people who live next door to the school have three dogs. Two are placid and don't bother me. The third is a big black thing that barks every time we walk past. It jumps up at their fence and barks and barks and barks. Sometimes it gets out and jumps up at us.

My littlies are terrified of dogs. I have no plans to change this, I think that being scared of something that potentially could kill you or maim you forever is not a bad thing. I especially do not want to teach them that a dog that barks in such a vicious way is safe.

Other neighbours have mentioned the dog to the family, and got the response "oh, he wouldn't hurt a fly, he just barks a lot"

I have been dealing with it by holding the kids hands as we walk past the house, but today, the dog jumped right up at the fence and ds hadn't spotted him. It terrified ds and he managed to let go of my hand and he ran into the road.

Luckily, there was nothing coming and obviously, I will make sure in future that I have a really, really strong grip on his hand or that I carry him past.

But... is there a reasonable way that I could ask them to put the dog inside (or in their back garden) at the times that I am walking the kids to school? They know what times these are as they have two children at school, one of whom is in dd2's nursery class.

I know I probably am being unrealistic, it is their house, their dog and it hasn't bitten anyone, but even so, any ideas?

aaah, as in a sort of "I heard other neighbours talking about your dog and they are worried"? That's maybe a good idea.

Would the head of the school have a word or write a note? Maybe better coming from them? If not I would report the owner to the local council/dog warden as it has been known to escape from the garden.

If it was securely in the garden at all times with no means of exit then I would say there is nothing you can do but an owner must ensure his/her animals are in a secure place if unnattended!

Can you walk on the other side of the road until you're past the house?

I think I would just tell them what has been happening - honestly. Tell them about DS running into the road and they may be sympathetic. Good luck. x

Message withdrawn

Try speaking to them, if it doesn't work, go to the head of the school.
If it's upsetting your children it will be upsetting others.
Dogs should not be able to get out, even though your DS was ok the dog could cause a major accident, and cars hitting each other to avoid a dog near a school could leave terrible numbers of injuries.

talking to the head also a good idea (and possibly better, as I won't have to do it myself )

Walking on the other side of the road is not an option, it is a very small village and there is only pavement on one side of the road. So if I were to try and bypass their house, I would have to cross the road twice and walk down the actual road itself for a way.

I don't want to piss them off, I don't want to get arsey and complainy about their horrible dog, but I do feel that it has now got to the stage where I have to do something.

I will discuss it with dp (who is a governor at the school) and see if he will speak to the head.

Thanks for all your input.

The owners are probably right, thier dog probably wouldnt hurt a fly, i used to have two rotweillers and they were very placid dogs. EXCEPT when people used to walk up the alley past our house (why they felt the need to do this i dont know). They would turn into barking, snarling, salivating beasts. A good thing when trying to deter burglars, a bad thing when the person being snarled at is the local kiddies on their way to school (just around the corner from us). To be fair though, there is absolutely no need to walk down our alley unless you live in one of the houses that back onto it. We re-enforced our fence so the dog(s) could still see through it (security reasons) but could no way get through. The local kids would dare each other to run up and down the alley, it would make the dogs worse. No one ever complained, although i did hear someone slagging my dog off, i told her there was absolutely no need for her children to be running down "my" alley anyway. Interestingly, some of the braver children would stop and stick their hands through, only to be savagely lickedd!! Lots of dogs exchibit gaurding behaviour in this way.

BUT if my house was on a right of way, next to a school, i would either make sure the dog couldnt see or would keep him in whilst the kids were on their way to school. I would most definately make sure they couldnt get out. So YANBU at all to expect the dogs to be under control and appear to be under control too. I would talk to the head teacher as i think this is an issue for the school to sort out. If the owners are reasonable (some dog owners arent sadly) they should respect this. Also, if their dogs get out, they are not under control and they are breaking the law.

I have to say squonk, that whilst i sympathise with your fear of dogs, i DON'T actually think it is a good idea to encourage this fear in your children. Of course dogs ARE potentially dangerous, and a healthy respect is very wise, as in NEVER EVER approach a strange dog, even if its owner says, its ok he just wants to say hello. But dogs are always going to be in public places; parks, beaches, woodland walks. I think it would be sad if your children couldnt enjoy these places for fear of dogs. Cars are pretty lethal to, proabably more dangerous than dogs to be honest, but we don't teach our children to fear them, just be sensible on the road.

oh, no, I haven't taught them to be frightened. I just haven't done the usual "no need to be frightened, here come and stroke the doggy woggy" thing. I tell them that the dog cannot hurt them if they are with me, I tell them that the dog probably won't hurt them anyway, but we don't know the dog, so we won't trust it.

And I also tell them that cars are dangerous and they should be a bit scared of them as well.

Thanks for your views - I have decided that speaking to the head is the way to go. Dp has a meeting with him tomorrow, so I'll speak to him first to see if he wants to mention it then. Otherwise, I shall do it myself.

And, I won't let it stop them from doing anything/going anywhere. But, if there is a dog running around the park unsupervised, I would probably leave - but I wouldn't tell them it was because of the dog.

I don't think.

If the dog escaped from thr garden then it becomes a very different matter than if it is just barking in the garden.
I would either go for a chat myself and tell him excaty what happened with ds runing into the road or get Dp to go round and say same.
It doesn't have to be arsey or confrontational but I'm sure they wouldn't want their dog being run over either ..

Message withdrawn

No, that's good, doodle. I knew about the standing still thing, and the others make perfect sense, but I wouldn't have thought about teaching the kids about them.

Thank you. We'll have a practise session later on.

A dog jumped up at dd1 once, it was being friendly, she was about 10, and very tall for her age so other than scratches, the dog didn't do any damage, but she was screaming and flapping her arms about and I was yelling at her to keep still so I could get the dog off her, and she was trying to run away from it, and it was jumping up even more. So yes, you are absolutely right, teaching them what to do if a dog does either attack or even just jump up being friendly is a good thing.