Children teasing dogs..I am soo stressed out

Yesterday when I got home I found 2 sticks in the yard with Dowser, I didn't put them there and the trees in my yard are healthy. Later the weekend renter neighboors show up with several children. So I am concerned thinking they either threw them to or at the dogs. Later in the eveniong more kids show up and a woman tells me "we are the family with the kids that just love your dogs". Then I remember the kids were alway nice to the dogs and the dogs let them pet them whil I was around.
This morning I see one of the kids on the front porch having some sort of outburst like a fit yelling at nothing and such. So now I understand he is Autistic or something like that.
As I got ready for work I heard Duncan in the back barking like mad and he almost never barks. I look and that boy has a big stick poking through the fence and he is barking and yelling bang at Duncan, before I can yell for him to stop he pulls the stick out and throws it at the fence. I called Duncan and yelled at the kid to get away from my fence and never to point or throw sticks at the dogs. He just picked it up and pushed it in the fence again. I went out front and the owner of the house was there and I explained what was going on and she says the kid is Autistic, I tell her I understand but he can not tease the dogs or be left alone outside where he can get to the dogs. I also showed her the sticks I found in the yard yesterday
My dogs have never barked at kids before and have always liked them, now some kids has teased them into not trusting them. I have also called the local sherrif, so I can file a complaint and make sure I am not going to be held responsible if something happens.
Maybe my Fido shock wire needs to be on the outside of the fence not the inside. I am seriously thinking of doing just that and posting signs for warning.

 

You might want to look into liability about the fence. I would imagine even with warnings posted you could get into a heap of trouble if a kid gets shocked!

What a stupid mother. The kid is autistic. That does not EXCUSE his behavior!! It means she has to be MORE diligent with him than with a non-autistic kid!

You probably are going to have to set up some situations with the dogs and other kids - have kids treat them and stuff - to re-socilaize them with kids. I'd do it in the open first (on leash of course) and work up to having kids approach them through the fence.

Do you have signs posted about the dogs?

 

Wow, the mother definately needs to be more diligent with looking after him.

I would explain to her about the shock wire you have and if the boy were to stick his fingers or hand through the fence he would get a nice little zap. Also, the mother would probably be liable if anything were to happen to your dogs, like getting poked in the eye or throat with the sticks and I'm sure if the stick were pointed on the end it could do quite a bit of damage.

The shock wire on the outside of the fence might be a liability though. I remember once they had an electic anti-theft device for cars (kind of like the club) that zapped would-be thieves if they tried to remove it from the steering wheel, but if the theives got hurt by it the owner of the car was liable.

 

I have a sign at the gate on the other side of the house for both the fence and the dogs. I was told by a sherrif to remove the dog sign and post a No Trespass sign instead. He says the Beware of dog sign only says you acknowledg you have a potentially dangerous animal and opens you up to worse litigation.

 

I was told once when an adult was harrassing my son that if I tell the person to STAY OFF MY PROPERTY and they don't heed that warning it is considered criminal trespassing if the person goes onto your property again.
I'd tell them to simply stay off my property and I'm alerting the authorities that I have told you to stay off my property, and if they come there again hit them up with criminal trespassing

 

Mary, is it still considered trespassing if the child is standing on his side of the fence?

 

Ahh but here is a catch, my property line exceeds the fence line by 2.5 feet at that area, and the stairs that lead into that house are actually built on my side of the property line. So in the front yard I have 4 plus feet to play with and 2.5 in the back yard.

I heard back from the sherrifs and what I have to do is inform the gaurdian that the kids have now become a threat to my dogs and that if they continue to tease or torment them they could get bit. And that I may have the right to file a civil suite against the home owner and renter if my dogs seem traumitised or I become stressed or traumitised.
I tried to do this already but when i got back home it looked as if they had already packed and left. I really hop they did leave.

 

Good for you, its nice to hear that sometimes the laws do go in favour of harrassed dogs and their responsible owners. :y_the_best:

 

arggh that is so annoying, that lady needs to watch that kid better! i wish that they could watch him better.
i have heard the same thing about the beware of dog signs, by putting that sign up, it means you acknowledge that your dog is mean. and that the no trespassing signs are better.
maybe if you put one of those little garden fences that are like 10" high on your property line (although this should not be your problem)

 

Yeah lil96 they have about 4 of these kids up with them this week. Apparently there is a day camp especially for them this week. I remember last couple times they were up my dogs were so happy to see them but now they are ignoring them or barking at them.

No my dogs see kids as a threat, and they never had this problem before. How would those parents react if I poked there kids with a stick or threw a stick at them? Think they would call the cops or file a civil suite?
Well D,D, and P, are my kids and I am really f*$kin pissed about this.

 

See, this stuff really burns me up. Even with my own nephews! They don't listen to me or my brother and sister-in-law about not putting their face near my dogs' faces and things like that. And my dogs don't get their rabies shots, so if they bite someone...well I think they will have to go into quarantine or something like that. All I know is we're going on the run.) My sister-in-law always replies "he's been bitten before! Let him learn his lesson" But I'm not about to take that chance and I told her I wouldn't brag about her child being bitten because he won't listen. I mean we as responsible animal owners take measures to protect our "kids"--why shouldn't a human kid's parent? I know that my dogs are prone to bite, especially if they are hurt and they have back issues. And I know that kids want to pick up the little weenie dog. That's why I'm extra careful--alright paranoid.

Ok..rant over. I hope they've gone for good too and good for you for getting the authorities involved before anything happened.

 

I have finally spoke with the parents and informed the (very strange) mom of the situation. I also told her if Dowser bites an arm there would only be a stump and I held up a bit in half beef rib bone as an example. She seemed to be very condisending (sp) until I told her I contacted the sherrifs and a lawyer. Her nature seemed to suddenly change.
I told her most kids don't know how to be nice to the doggy and don't know that stick poking is mean and that she must teach the child what is nice and what is not nice. The father came out at this time and was very appoligetic and very comprehensive to the situation (so now I know where the child got his problem from), I let him know the situation now and he agreed and we started to BS about PC and such. I ended up setting them up access to my wireless for the next few days.
Strange folks but just not informed enough. The other 3 kids are no longer here only the boy and his sister both, very small.
So now I just pray they keep the child away from the fence while I work.

 

autistic kids, who have already gotten into the habit of teasing dogs, and dogs will never mix. its sad that they dont but no matter how many times you tell them to be nice to animals they wont listen. there is an autistic kid down at the park and he teases all the dogs. most of the time he will go right up to their faces and scream really loudly then chase them. his mum just stands there and laughs because shes tried so many times to get him to stop but cant. its as if she thinks he has a right to do that because he has a problem. you need to protect your rights as much as possible because i can tell you now they seem the type that would sue [and win] if anything happened.