Speaking of Hell Hounds
April 25th, 2006 - 3:43 pm
The hell hounds from next door have been getting out on their owner’s yard on a daily basis lately. The other day when I was out running errands, I noticed some fliers on telephone poles saying that lost dogs matching their description (female, grey and white, pit bulls) had been found, so apparently at some point they made their way over more than a few blocks and someone was brave enough to contain them. They have been out most of the day today, even though their owners are at home, and you would think they would notice the total lack of annoying barking coming from their back yard. I know I have noticed how quiet and peaceful it’s been today. At any rate, the last time I saw them was after that white haired woman chased them off down the road. They were gleefully wagging their tales and exploring someone’s front yard.
I have figured out how they have been getting out and onto the street. After they hop the fence to my yard, they then hop my front fence out to freedom. Something has to be done about the fence situation, and quite frankly, I don’t think it’s our responsibility to deal with it so the neighbor’s dogs don’t get out all the time. Not that the dog owners have suggested it was, but Linda was making some noises the other day about how we should put up deer wire along that fence line like she did. Um … no. First off, it’s an ugly solution and looks low rent. Secondly, we don’t have anything we need to retain or contain to our yard. It’s not my problem that my fence is the weak link in the doggie escape route. If someone wants to pay me to put up a taller fence, no problem, but we aren’t going to pay for any fencing until we are ready for the horrible task of putting up a nice wooden privacy fence all the way around. If I can get the dog owners to put up a tall fence on their tab, that’ll just make it easier for us in the long run, and if Linda wants all the trees along our mutual property line cut down and a new fence put in, she can damn well do it herself and put up her own damn tall fence (thus making our task even cheaper and easier still). Linda may think she is stubborn and can always get her way, but she has no clue how long I can tolerate dogs escaping to freedom through my yard and looking at the junk piled up in hers … or neighbors bitching about wanting trees cut down. It’s especially easy to ignore when you don’t have the money to put in a proper fence anyway (and you happen to like trees). Our fence is perfectly fine. The only thing wrong with it is it isn’t tall enough to keep either neighbors’ pit bulls from escaping. I have mentioned that Linda owns put bulls too, haven’t I? Big burly white ones that are completely deaf and somewhat blind. At least she usually manages to keep them in her own yard, which is more than I can say about her collection of fuzzy rabbits which are constantly escaping.
I suppose one of these days when the owners of the hell hounds are all out doing yard work, Lin and I should probably go talk to them … if for no other reason than to maybe get to know the dogs, seeing as they have been spending a good deal of time in our yard. My opinion on the hell hounds has been improving lately. My last two face-to-face encounters with them have gone well. These two seem to like me … or maybe they are just suckering me into lowering my defenses so they can kill me. Hard to say. At any rate, I’d like to meet the dogs with the owners there, and then maybe when I see them in my yard I would be willing to get them home rather than ignore them as they run away. As it stands now, I am not scared of them as much anymore, but you couldn’t pay me to touch one of them or try to get them to go home. Too damn risky to do with dogs you don’t know and who have, in the past, expressed extreme displeasure with your very existence on the planet.
So there, a little more gossipy banter about the goings on around my little corner of Austin. Crazy people and potentially vicious dogs. My life is so full of excitement and entertainment today.
3 Responses to “Speaking of Hell Hounds”
Nothing says ghetto like a yard full of unsocialized pit bull terriers. Some progressive fines levied by Animal Control will help get things resolved. By the way, dogs jump fences because their derelict owners pay them no attention, same reason their own kids act out and get into trouble. Pit bulls are somehow seen by these people as projecting the strength and courage they wish they could have, but aren’t willing to develop through their own efforts.
Anyway, the fact that the dogs are not respectful of fences and yards is not a good sign. They will continue to push the limits and a bad outcome will grow more likely.
Just wanted to say that not all dogs jump a fence due to the inattention of their owners. I also have a dog that will jump the fence and come straight to the front door. He has tons of attention and spends most his time in the house with us. Spoiled pretty much if you ask me, but will go out into the back yard and jump the fence and come straight to the front door. So please don’t say its due to inattention from owners. We love our dogs and pay attention to them as well as walk them daily. For some reason one of them was a fence climber. We have stopped that though by installing a privacy fence.
Like most species dogs are creatures of habit. With this in mind some habits can be construed as bad habits. More times than not these bad habits are not due to the inattention of the dog as much as it is in the lack of training, but in some isolated cases bad habits arise from people just throwing their animals in confinement and not having anything to do with them at all.
I have two very aggressive dogs and we live in an area where people young and old often walk down our street very close to our property line. I have trained my dogs to be aggressive, but they will not cross our property line. They will go right to the edge and raise nine kinds of cain, but one word from me and they stop barking and even if someone such as a child enters onto my property the dogs will surround that person and bring them to bay without ever biting them unless they receive a command to do so.
My knowledge comes from having worked in Zoology where I trained many different species. Most notably African Lions and Bengal/Siberian Tigers to walk on a leash as well as the training of African/Asian elephants. Although I think it is an injustice to have to train these animals to this kind of behavior I did so for wildlife parks and Zoos.
When animals attack and kill people they are most often killed themselves and when people have to work around dangerous animals on a daily basis in these environments then it is better for both the animal and people to have a common ground between the two.
You train an animal by making whatever you want them to learn to become a habit of the animal.
Ann the way your dog jumped the fence was a habit he learned on his own, but the way he came to your door is ample proof he did so for more attention rather than the lack of it.