What will happen if I report this woman for not being responsible with her potentially aggressive dog?

[ShinyAndNew]

There is a woman/couple with two dogs in the one of side streets that shares our back alley. I don't know which house she/they live in, but I have seen and spoken to her in the street regarding her dog's behaviour and her lettiing it out unsupervised.

Basically what is happening is that she is letting it out into the alley to do it's business and then shutting her door and leaving it out there (which is illegal in our town). I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with this in itself, providing she cleaned up after her dog (she doesn't), but the problem is her dog displays aggressive behaviour.

It barks and growls through my back gate at my dog and scratches and bites at the door. I am terrified that it will one day manage to break through my door and attack my dog. My children also play in the yard with my dog. Dd2 is fearless, if this dog got in and started hurting her dog in front of her, she would try and prevent it, thus getting hurt herself.

I have no idea if this dog is simply territorial or dog aggressive. It growls and snarls at me and stands it's ground if I open the back door to try and shoo it away and has ran at me growling in the street, but the woman called it back before it reached me.

I have spoken to her about keeping her dog out of the alley and told her what it is doing to my gate when I have seen her in the street and she assured me it would stop, but it hasn't.

I don't want the dog taken from her, besides it's behaviour and her apparent disregard for it's safety or that of the public it seems well looked after. But I want something to happen to make her take more responsibility for her pet.

Also it is the dog warden I call and not the council to report her should I decide to do so?

I would phone the police, although unfortunately they don't seem to take this kind of thing seriously enough. Under the Dangerous dogs act, any dog that is not under the owner's control and could be reasonably perceived to be a threat can be dealt with, although my experience with the police on this score has not been encouraging, it has to be said. Hopefully they would have a word with your neighbour, which might be enough to get her to keep the dog under supervision and control. If nothing else, you have logged a complaint in case anything more serious (god forbid) was to come of it, either involving you or someone else. The dog wardens are really for picking up stray/ roaming dogs, and would only be able (I think) to come out and take the dog away- it's sometimes difficult, as by the time they get there the dog is often gone. I suppose they mighr be able to have a word with the woman too, but I'm not sure what their position is on this. HTH

I don't know which house she lives in Jooly, I have only seen her unload her dogs from the car, in the side street. She has two but only one of them seems to be let into the alley. I did speak to her and she said it would stop, but it has started happening again.

I think it's when the weather is not so nice and she cannot be arsed to stand out there with them.

I'd be loathe to call the Police, knowing thow badly handled many such situations are.

The Dog Warden should work within the local council (here in England at any rate). He/she can not only visit, advise and assess the situation further but also issue the owner with a Dog Control Order notice if necessary.

I might give the dog warden a ring. Do you think she would be able to find out where it lives or should I wait until it's in the alley? It seems to be out there a while once it's let out.

Yes, ring the dog warden, they can be very helpful. If you describe the situation to them, they will let you know if they need to be notified when the dog's out.

It might also be worth investing in a 'pet corrector' spray? It's just a small cannister of compressed air. If you spray it when the dog approaches your property or shows signs of aggression, it should be deterred.

Here

Dog warden, if she's so regular about letting the animal out they can lie in wait to catch her out for letting it foul without cleaning it up.

Tosser.