Animal Control and Chasing Buddy!

Animal Control

When I finally closed my eyes to get a short morning nap after a long night of no sleep, the door bell rang. I ignored it; it kept ringing.

I dragged myself out of bed, went to the front door and peered out. I recognized the two women standing on my front porch because they had been here everyday for two months trying to trap the family of possums that decided to take up residence under the house. (That is another story altogether)

I tried to open the door, but Buddy, our beagle, raced to the door, and tried to wriggle through my legs to get out. After a short wrestling match, I was able to hold him in long enough to slip through a half opened door onto the front porch to see what the women wanted. Maybe they were checking up on the possum situation…

“We’ve come about talk about him, actually.” the blond one said pointing to the window that Buddy was looking out with his nose pressed against the glass.

“Umm, OK.”

She said that I couldn’t allow Buddy to run off my property. He had to be on a leash.

“Umm, OK.”

They explained that the people across the street called the police because their next door neighbor’s dog barks too much. (Really…people?) But when they went to the next door neighbor’s house to tell them they had to keep their dog quiet, they were told that their dog barks because mine gets out and comes over there to bother the dogs!

Great. I apologized and explained that Buddy digs out under the back fence and gets out sometimes (OK, he does it a lot!). He is an eight month old beagle and can dig or chew his way through anything. I was told that I had to keep him on a lead in the yard if he can dig under the fence. I already have a six-foot privacy fence, you would think that would keep him it; it doesn’t. At this point, I’m thinking we might need a vinyl fence that is deeply rooted in the ground so he doesn’t have a chance to get anywhere near underneath the thing and escape our yard! I have heard from another dog owner about getting a wireless dog fence, they said that it has helped them with their dog. It does sound like a possibility, I need to look at them all before I make a decision, she has also sent me a link and said I can learn more about it before I make my mind up.

I would not mind keeping him on a lead, but when I do he barks! Then the people across the street come over and complain that he is barking. I nearly lost my temper the last time I put him on a lead because he barked non-stop for about ten minutes (at 4:30 in the afternoon), and the neighbors were ringing the damn bell wanting him to be quiet. So, you don’t want me to let him out, you don’t want me to tie him up because he barks, what exactly would you like me to do with him? According to DogProductPicker.com, a dog silencer might be the best option though.

I am not allowed to muzzle him to stop barking because they said that would be cruelty to animals. So I asked Animal Control how they would like me to keep him quiet AND tied up? They said I just had to make his stop barking if he starts. It feels like they’re treating this case as though it’s one that will have to go through a animal control dog bite procedure, which seems unfair to me. He’s loud, certainly, but he hasn’t caused any actual harm. And how am I meant to get him to stop barking? That’s like telling me just make the baby stop crying…somehow. I was advised, to go buy a barking collar that zaps him if he barks. Really? That is not cruelty?

Catch that Dog

Well, I went to the store and bought him a new collar, and now I have to tackle him and have a wrestling match anytime I want to get out that door without him. When he is not digging under the fence, he is wriggling through our legs, or flat out barreling through the kids to get out the front door, which is exactly what he did when I was trying to leave for a doctor’s appointment yesterday.

The dog runs down the street and refuses to come back! My oldest son runs after him, but still Buddy will not return. He jumps on his dirt bug and zooms down the street after the dog. Our street opens up onto a very busy road and the dog proceeds to run out into traffic! All I am thinking now is that if this dog gets killed my aspie son is going to lose it, and especially if it happens in front of him.

Also, my son doesn’t always think before doing, so I was panicked that he was going to chase the dog right into traffic with his dirt bike (It wouldn’t be the first time he’d scared the crap out of me by doing something like that). So I jumped in the van, and sped up the block after them. My son chasing the dog, and I’m chasing my son.

My son jumps off his bike at the end of the street and starts running for the road after the dog. By the time I got to the end of the street, four lanes of traffic (two in each direction) had stopped and blocked off the street because my son was chasing his dog through the road!

Thank God, they all stopped and now me, my son, and two other women are all running after this dog who refuses to listen! Finally, he decides he likes one of the other woman better and goes running over to her wagging his tail and sits down to be pet! Unbelievable! And…the neighbors call the police because the dog got out!