Aggressive rescue staffy-greyhound cross has twice broken into our garden

[Spaniellover2]

Please can someone advise. Twice in the last two months a neighbouring rescue staffie-greyhound cross has broken into our garden. We have a small wooded area at the bottom, which is impossible to fence off. The dog is 3-4 houses away and escapes her fenced garden to get into ours ( and other gardens - but seems to have a thing about ours). The dog ascends the stairs which leads to our dog flap and where we have patio doors. It barks and growls and paces - trying to get intoour house. It is trying to get to our two small spaniels. One is tiny and the other is old, with Addisons. The dog who, according to its owner, is gentle- aggressively growled at my husband and is scary. We have spoken to the owner (an elderly lady - like we are) who says that it is not her fault that the dog escapes. My husband spoke firmly to her and said that, if the dog is not adequately controlled, we will have to report it as it could maul, and possily kill, our dogs. Please advise - what should we do?

I think you'll have to do your best to secure your garden and report if necessary. That's so irresponsible of her!

It is the owner’s responsibility to keep her dog within her garden but that’s of no consolation if said dog injures a child or another dog.
Have you a local dog warden who could speak to the owner?
This cross is not good, greyhounds are prey driven, as can be staffies, and whilst often seen as gentle they are often reactive to other dogs and do bite.
I would try and block where the dog gets in and try putting pepper on your boundary.

Be careful with your little dog, bull greyhounds when they're nasty will kill other dogs like they're a rabbit. They use game dogs to put over lurchers to make them more vicious so you get a dog that can see other dogs in the same way it would see typical prey if it's a dog aggressive one. You'll have a hard time making it let go if it gets your dogs. Report it sooner rather than later as you can report a dog that you're worried will attack you and coming into your garden and growling at your husband should be more than enough before something bad happens.

I'm guessing it's a rescue and she didn't go out and buy a bull grey puppy so it might be in there for having a screw loose with other dogs to begin with - some bull greyhounds can't be worked if they take after the dog aggression side too much because if they lose whatever they're chasing they'll take it on themselves to go after a dog being walked. You don't know until they reach 18mo-2yo and alot are shot or dumped or sold on when people find out.

Is it aggressive towards people? I'd have the dog warden out every single time. If they have to come out and deal with it repeatedly and its aggressive, I think they can insist it's put down.

Shoot it next it comes in. That would be my advice.

Vile.

Of course it is her fault it escapes. She either needs to secure her garden or keep it inside. What a useless owner. I agree with calling the dog warden every time it escapes, or call the non emergency police number and tell then that the dog keeps escaping and you're concerned about it's aggression.

Thank you for your comments - scary, but helpful. I will phone up the dog warden service.

Needless to say - no one answered re Dog Warden and RSPCA

Police? This dog is ‘dangerously out of control’ That’s a criminal offence. See what they advise

why do a mumsnet post when its obvious what to bloody do

Who does she think it is the fault of?! She needs to take some responsibility

Keep trying with the dog warden - you should be able to leave a message. If you get no response go through your local councillor - if you’re worried the dog is aggressive then you could contact the community police.

I'd contact the police every time saying that there's an aggressive and out of control dog in your garden .

Unfortunately whilst the owner is completely irresponsible you do need to secure your garden by any means possible to stop that dog or any other dog from getting in.

You will have to put a fence in lower down your garden or in your grounds if you can’t put one at the end where the dog gets in.

The problem is where I live is full of badgers and foxes and massive trees - hence,holes everywhere. We spoke to the lady and she is reinforcing her fence and has given me the times the dog is out. Not overly reassured, but she said that 'it definitely will not happen again' and that she was distracted this am ( hence dog's escape) as husband receiving treatment in the Marsden. I have her tel number, just in case. She did apologise for being defensive this am and reiterated (argh) that her dog was scared of little dogs.Ummm - I showed her video ofher dog barking and growling outside our patio doors. We contacted our neighbour whose second fence it is escaping through and she is getting someone to fill the gaps under her fence. She is about 4 ft tall and frail - said ' did not want it to knock her over when she is 'putting the bins out'. Thanks for advice from everyone.. It is depressing that the dog escapes and am still somewhat concerned.The dog warden service and RSPCA did not phone me back.

Thank you everyone for your advice and moral support.

It's very unlikely you'll get a call back from the RSPCA, you'll need to call them again. They get ridiculous amounts of calls every day.
The fault is the owners, she needs to have her garden made secure.
We have a lurcher (bull terrier/greyhound) who is a rescue. He is great with us, once he got used to us obvs, but has fear aggression (because of previous abuse). If she's had it since it was a puppy, she won't have socialised it enough, if it is aggressive with strangers.
We had a similar situation a few years ago. We spoke to the owner and she had her garden fence sorted out so it didn't happen again.

I also would ring the police if an aggressive dog was on my property growling at me, wouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt in doing so either!

I’d look at mites solutions to feeding your own garden too.