Heartstopping Occurrence.....strange Child In My Yard

[sandgrubber]

Dog owners must be realistic about kids. Sure, sometimes the judiciary takes a tough love attitude toward the bad/naughty kids. But that doesn't guarantee you'll go scott free if your dog attacks a kid who enters your yard. Even if you end out being found not guilty, being brought to court because your dog did major damage to a little bugger who snuck into your yard isn't going to be much fun.

I have never been anything BUT realistic about kids AND dogs! And I've never said that I would be held unaccountable if one of my dogs did attack a kid entering the yard. That, if you recall, was my main concern. I'm not naive. I class myself as a responsible dog owner and a responsible parent as well. My dogs are healthy and well-socialised and in so far as they can be, childproofed. My fences are regulation height and well-maintained, my gates lock securely and yes, despite what others may think, my yard IS secure....for MY needs and those of my family and my own dogs. What other people (ie neighbours) do with their yards is their business and I class the kid next door as being their problem so they need to do something about THEIR security issues!!!

It surely isn't however too much to ask that I can have a bit of a whinge about people who don't apparently even attempt to instill values of not trespassing, not stealing and not approaching strange dogs into their children? I have certainly had more than my share of battles with my own children and their behavioural issues and learning disabilities over the years, yet have still managed to lay ground rules for all of the above, so why would it be unreasonable to wish that other parents would/could do the same???

Winges are fine. I'm sure it was a shocker for you. I hope you can work things out with the parents so there are no repeats. BUT. . .

Lots of kids have behavioural issues. Jeez. Read a Harry Potter book. The little wizards spend half their time going to places they aren't allowed. I totally support going back to parents, or other responsible adults if the parents are so zoned out that realistic communication won't happen, and working to keep kids from playing in the road or your back yard. But that doesn't mean some other poorly disciplined kid with some fantasy in his/her head isn't going to do something stupid.

My point was not that you, Ellz, need to kid-proof your yard. The point was that the judicial system is not guaranteed to be sympathetic, and people who have serious guard dogs would be well advised to (a) childproof; and (b) carry liability insurance . . . preferably to the tune of $1M+. A kid who doesn't have mature judgement and who mayhave all sorts of grandiose fantasies running around in his or her head (or just covet some ripe fruit) may do some very stupid things.

Holy Moly, if a kid climbs your fence and drowns in your swimming pool, you're in trouble if you don't have proper childproof pool fencing. Some parents don't supervise well (my father was never around and my mother was consistently drunk). Talk all you will about how parents should be responsible . . . . I'll hold firm that using dogs as weapons to protect your house is a risky strategy, given society's present mixed feelings about dogs. Ellz clearly doesn't belong in the dogs as weapons category, and I didn't mean the message for her. And the real dogs-as-weapons advocates probably aren't listening . . . so why am I wasting my breath?

[colliehound]

Hi Hardy's Angel

Apologies if I offended you with my post.

I guess I left a lot of details out - for the sake of brevity.

In this case there are signs warning people, the cattle are in the yard and can be seen from the road.

Things are very different in very rural areas. I would NEVER advocate this in mini rural or suburbia. TOtally different kettle of cow.

You are going to hear this bull coming from acres and acres away - plenty of time to get out of the tree and over the fence.

I guess my post was a little tongue in cheek. Of course you can't "set" your animals (or your rifle for that matter) on people, but out here if you are dumb enough to enter someone else's property, you are lucky to get away with a bite or a scratch. It is well known many farmers will shoot first, ask questions later.

I will be more careful in future - by being a bit more detailed and less frivolous in my posts.

THanks for pointing it out to me

Colliehound

Why is it ok to let your "livestock" do what nature does, but not our dogs?

I think most people (and the law) would not be okay with that.

Setting an animal to attack someone, regardless of species, is a stupid and dangerous thing to do. The human could get hurt, the animal could get hurt and in the case of a bull.. a person could very easily be killed.

If someone was killed that way, "They were stealing my nuts" is not going to be much of a defence.

[persephone]

;) I like the bull story ...

If my neighbours cannot keep their child in their yard, then that's their problem UNTIL that child comes into my yard and then I get pretty sh*tty! And that's the crux of this whole thread. The neighbours need to take some responsibility in childproofing their back yard, supervising their child adequately and if they can't do that, they need to teach the child that it shouldn't go into a backyard with strange dogs without permission and they could perhaps feed it fresh fruit once in a while so it doesn't have to resort to hunting and gathering for itself.......

!!