Report him. You need to make sure dog is up to date on rabies shots, and don't take his word for it. The dog is dangerous and should be on lead ALL the time. I hate when this happens and have begun carrying a stick when walking the dogs.

I don't know why the neighbor didn't have him on a leash. I am so angry I just want to call them and let them have it but my husband wouldn't like it. I also want him to go to the ER but he wants to wait until tomorrow and go to the walk in clinic. I hope he'll be OK till then.

I told my husband that we need to report it for the reason you mentioned (rabies) and also to have it on record. We did take pictures of the wound, so that's good. I've never trusted this dog since he nipped me on the finger. He also prevented us from leaving the house a few times by standing in our yard a growling at us. Finally, they got the invisible fencing. I'm trying not to hate the dog. It's not his fault but I still think he needs to be viewed as a dangerous animal. I'd hate to see him put down but next time it could be a child.

I think you should report it. It needs to be on record that this dog is a problem. It sounds like it was going for the poodle and your husbands arm got in the way, but had the dog got hold of your dog it could have seriously injured or killed it, how would your husband feel then? would he still feel like it wasn't neighborly to report it? of course not, so he needs to think about the potential for this dog to seriously hurt another pet or like you said a small child. The owner is simply being irresponsible and it should not have been off leash in the first place (how can an owner control a dog when it's not on a leash?), and it may also need to be muzzled when out on walks. Reporting it will hopefully put the owners on notice that they need to be doing more to control their dog. Yes it's uncomfortable having issues with neighbours but this is just unacceptable what these people are allowing their dog to do, bailing you up, biting you, and then they have this dog out in public with no control over it and it attacks your husband. Get the authorities involved and get it on record, I'm sure you could sue them for the medical costs of your husbands hospital visit if you wanted to but it sounds like you can't even safely leave your house without worrying this dog may be around.

I agree that their dog was probably going after your dog and might have done it harm. What kind of dog is it?

The neighbors don't seem very concerned about their relationship with you if they let their dog terrorize you in your home and then bite both of you. They're still letting him off lead after the first bite, too.

An aggressive dog should NEVER be kept in an electric fence. One of these days something will tempt him enough that he will run through it and that something could very well be a small child or a pet.

We had an electric fence and my dog was very respectful of it and kept his distance until a rabbit ran along the very line where the fence was buried. He chased it down the full length of our yard and kept going, so caught up in the chase that he was completely oblivious to the shock.You would be doing a public service to report the bite before something even worse happens.

Depending on the laws where you live, the clinic your DH visits may be required by law to report the bite.

I'll share a story with you and you can take whatever you can from it...

About 10 years ago my neighbors had 3 vicious pitbulls. They would lunge at the fence at us and were just all around ugly dogs. One day I went out to get the mail and bring in the trashcans and the dogs had gotten out. They started a pack hunt, circling and stalking me. I was terrified, but managed to back my way into the house with the help of a rolling trash can as a bit of a shield. It was such a bad experience that 10 years later I still have occasional episodes of PTS related to it.

Where we live a dog does not need to bite to be determined to be vicious and removed from the owner. The people who owned the dogs were always very nice to us, but they seemed generally clueless as to the threat their dogs posed to others. I sat at the front window with the phone and animal control's number, debating about what to do. Didn't want to make enemies, especially where houses are so close together, but didn't want to see a kid come down the street and be a victim--- that would have been on my conscience at that point. Within a few minutes, the adult son (who the dogs most seemed to belong to) came out, found the dogs, and put them in the fenced yard. I felt relieved for the moment.

A few months later animal control showed up on a Sunday and confiscated all the dogs. No doubt there was an issue and someone complained- I believe it was their back neighbor because he had been working around the mutual fence for a few days. After the dogs were taken, the adult son was very short and rude to DH, DH suspected that he thought we had called animal control and were the reason their dogs were taken. That bothered me for all of about 1 minute that he would think that, because if he had any thought in his head about why we might call animal control on his dogs, then clearly there was an issue with HIS dogs. I knew we hadn't called, but I didn't care if he thought we did at that point-- the problem was not with us, it was with his dogs.

I will say this as the final thought on this incident. When I flash back to how terrifying it was to have been stalked by 3 very vicious dogs, my only regret is that I did not call animal control immediately. To this day I feel like I dropped the ball and put other people at risk. I did not do the right thing and even though nobody ever got seriously hurt or killed by those dogs, I still regret that I wussed out and didn't do the right thing. A good neighbor doesn't have vicious dogs that he allows to bite or otherwise terrorize his neighbors.

This post was edited by quasifish on Mon, Apr 1, 13 at 11:13

My daughter got bitten by her own cat when he ran outside. He's totally an indoor cat. He freaked out at the experience, and bit her on the hand when she got him a minute later. Her hand became infected and she had to see a doctor and a form was submitted to public health that the cat would be taken from her and quarantined or euthanized. Her own cat, up to date on shots!!! Didn't happen because daughter minimized the bite and all was well with her and the cat, but this is PA law for ALL animals.

'A good neighbor doesn't have vicious dogs that he allows to bite or otherwise terrorize his neighbors.'

So true. And it doesn't make one a bad neighbor to report a dangerous situation, you'd have been in the right had you phoned when the earlier incident happened to you.

You need to protect your OTHER neighbors by reporting it. And make sure the animal has current rabies vaccine...

And who is going to pay for the trip to the doc? Did the dog's owner even offer? In my state, it's mandatory for health care providers to report dog bites to the authorities. The last time I had a dog bite, I didn't have it seen (even though it was nasty enough I should have) because a friend's dog bit me and it wasn't a public menace. Electronic fences just don't impress me much.........everyone I know who has one has had their animals breach them when tempted enough. It also does not provide protection for the dog inside the perimeter from other dogs coming in and attacking them.

I'm not too impressed by invisible fences. The two neighbors I know with them do not keep them up.

One neighbor had a large yard and a lab that wandered out in the street. I tested the batteries, found them dead, and got the neighbor new batteries. That did no good, the underground wire was not complete. They fixed that, but three years later the lab is back wandering in the street.

The other neighbor bought a invisible fence for their new dog. I brought him back to his home three times in the first few months, the gismo may have been set too lightly. Two years later the dog is not wearing the thing on his collar, guess it fell off months ago.

So passers-by may have a false sense of security. The dogs will stay inside the boundary for most people and occasions. But if something really gets them wound up, there is no 'bite' when they reach the fence.

Here is my take on things, First you need to find out if the dog has had all of its shots, rabies is a serious disease and anytime someone gets bit the dogs rabies vaccination status needs to be found out, second if you report it, the owner will need to quarrantine the dog to make certain it is rabies free and does not pose a threat to others, third you need to report it because the owner needs to take more responsibility for his dog, what if the next person is a toddler or elderly person seriously bitten, your call can prevent another attack.

I agree with the others about reporting it. And rabies is not serious, IT IS FATAL. Always. There is still no treatment. If you get symptoms, it is too late. If you cannot see official vet records for this dog, get treatment for rabies. Very few dogs have rabies, but skunks, bats, and other wild animals do have it, and can give it to dogs without the owner having any idea. Bat bites are so small that I have read that there is now a recommendation that everyone in the house be treated for rabies if a bat is found to be in the house at all, unless the bat is captured and tested. It is the saliva that spreads the disease. A dog playing with a dead animal with rabies can contract it, the dog does not have to be bitten. Look up info on rabies, I think I also read that the animal giving you rabies can also not yet have visible symptoms. This is nothing to play around with. Have you seen the vet records on this dog?

OldHippieMama--let us know what happened.

Lily316, the exact same thing happened to me two days after I adopted a little, scared girl from the HS. She bit me on the hand when I tried to grab her (totally my fault, she was so much quicker and I was used to older, slow cats!) and it got infected so the next day I went to the Urgent Care and got treated. By the time I got home, there was already a notice from Animal Control on the door, since she hadn't already been vaccinated I had to surrender her for a few days back at the HS where I got her. Since they knew her so well I got her back earlier than I expected.

OldHippieMama, what happened with this? You definitely have a responsibility to report this, what if a little kid is next? You would feel so guilty, and this dog obviously has the propensity to attack again and again. PLEASE tell us you reported it!

You should report it. Most state leash laws state the dog has to be leashed. And frankly, I am kinda sick of entitled feeling pet owners.

LEASH YOUR DOG......... and frankly most of those laws state your cat has to be contained too -- its state LAW