I just had a woman telling me to watch out for her dog because it likes to bite people who are wandering on her property. I let her rant for a moment before kindly asking her if she could put her dog away because we were standing in a platted ROW(from an old plat with no improvements). Her husband then came out and was nice and helpful wanting to know what was going to happen.
Sometimes I enjoy letting people rant and rave before telling them I am not on their property. Am I the only one?
Don't take it too far. There was a surveyor that was shot by a woman and nearly died in just such a situation a couple years back.
Works wonders if you let them run down before making any explanations.
jud
I have had the same issue except the reverse. My dog bit a guy who was walking in the road (which is a platted right-of-way). I explained to the guy that he was on private property since it is a private right-of-way with use only granted to the property owners within the subdivision. I stated "You are on private property and my dog is just protecting his property" Being that my kids were playing in the driveway about 50' in front of this guy. Needless to say, the guy left.
If there's a threat of getting shot, I wouldn't stick around.
Your dog bites people who are walking by on the street? I don't think that argument is going to hold up in court.
I'm sure that the shot guy would have said the same.
There really aren't many bad dogs out there. Most of them just want some attention, something to eat, get laid once in awhile, and go to sleep.
But there are plenty of bad dog owners. There in lies the problem.
Knock on wood, but I think most dogs know if your presence is a threat to them, and they react accordingly. The owners don't really see that as well as their pets, unfortunately.
I was having a very bad day and was in the driveway working on my vehicle (a Chevrolet no less). So of course, I was already upset. Then my dog bites this guy. I think my blood pressure was off the charts. Once I calmed down (about an hour later) I realized the err in my ways and called the guy on the phone to apoligize. The apoligy was accepted and nothing ever more came of it other than he no longer walks on a private right-of-way daily as he did before.
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Years ago My mother had a neighbor who had no visible means of support that kept a dog and he had intimidated the whole neighborhood and would sometimes threaten homeowners when they were leaving or entering their homes, My mother included. The police would do nothing. One morning when my mom was gone and I knew the dog owner would be home, I went to town with my 357. When I pulled up, I saw the owner talking to someone across the street and sure enough the dog was wandering around. Happened to be a kid going by and I asked him if he owned the dog loud enough for the owner to hear, the kid said no, and went on to say he was afraid of him. By this time he had noticed that I was armed and asked me if that was a real gun, I told him yes so he asked me what I was going to do with it, there was my chance, told the kid loudly that the dog was bothering my mother and if it set foot in her yard I was going to shoot it and then went on into the house. Came back out a little later and the dog and owner were gone, the owner returned but the dog was never seen there again, my pistol never left the holster. Would I have shot the dog, yes, but only if he had came into my mothers yard at that time, I would have considered that a threat to my safety and was armed because I had heard about that dangerous dog running loose in the neighborhood.
jud
My employee has a knack for making friends with dogs. He can usually get them to calm down and be friends.
Years ago I was surveying a lot in boulder, co. The guy was splitting his lot in half to build another housing unit. I was breaking down the block, and looking for intersection corners and property pins. I parked the truck in front of someone's house and a lady came out and said "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to not park here in front of my house. We don't support what that other guy is doing with his lot." It was a legal parking place in the right-of-way.
Irritating dogs
About 30 years ago, whilst topo'ing a ditch that ran behind a subdivision, there was a very irritated rotweiler in a back yard next to the ditch. Fortunately, there was an eight-foot high privacy fence around the rear yard. My i-man, who is from Poland, calmly walked up to the fence as the "rot" was barking loudly (in my opinion, he was just doing his job), found a knot hole about 2 inches in diameter and when the rot started barking at him through the knothole, he gently blew into the dog's face. That rot really went crazy then. Still, I had to admire my i-man's panache, even as I was hurriedly moving ahead.
