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She didn\'t break the skin, just bruised her. She just ran up to the lady, jumped on her and bit her in the rear end. I was sitting on the front porch when it happened and I immediately flew off the porch after my dog. I apologized up down to the lady. Asked her if she was okay. She went home and of course called the police and I was given a court summons. I went to court this evening where basically I took a beating from the judge. And of course the lady was acting like she was traumatized and said my dog was viscious and \"thank God I didn\'t have my grandon wasn\'t with me.\" I mean it was your basic courtroom nightmare. Nevermind, she had absolutely no doctor bills. Needed no medical attention whatsoever after the \"attack.\" Don\'t get me wrong, I completely understand how upsetting it must have been for her to have a strange, rather large dog break a line and run at her. She had to have been terrified as I would be. So I don\'t begrudge her her day in court.
Nonetheless, I was given a month to either put up a fence or get rid of my dog. I was told if she gets loose again and \"attacks\" someone, she will be \"put down.\" The problem with putting up a fence is my dog can jump fences. As my son says, she has incredible hops. She\'s a boxer. She loves kids. She just likes to bark at people who walk by.
So now I\'m faced with finding a new home for my dog who has been part of the family now for over two years. We got her when she was a puppy and she has been my baby ever since. I am completely devastated. My kids are upset. How does one find a good home? I have a list of criteria running around in my head. She has to be allowed to be an inside dog. She needs room to run. She needs to be loved and cuddled. She needs to be around people most of the time.
What am I going to do? I just needed to cry a little. Thanks for listening.
;Here is what I would do:
1. Put up the cheapest fence you can find (even check out the junkyards for old chain link if you are short of money). If they did not specify in the court order how tall the fence has to be, make it the minimum – I think around here it is 4 feet.
2. Check into doggie obedience training.
3. Secure your loved one (I’m talking about your Boxer) to make sure it never happens again.
My story. We have a huge Husky who could beat the high school kids at the high jump. He would plant himself next to the fence and literally jump straight up, somehow move his body over the fence, and land on the other side, without even coming close to touching the fence. He actually learned this trick while in the house by jumping over the grandkids. We thought it was funny until he showed us he could do it outside just as easily.
But I digress. He was forever jumping the fence. He was partially trained, and he came immediately when we called him, so it never got to the point where he actually got close to jumping on or biting anyone. Lucky for us. It took us forever to break him of jumping up on anyone who walked in the door, but we finally got him to only walk up to visitors and not jump on them.
So, in order to keep this huge animal in the backyard yet give him the running room he demanded, we made a sort of clothes line going from corner to corner. We put in two poles. One next to the back door and the other diagonally at the back of the yard. We put in a heavy duty cable that would not rust connecting the two poles. We then got 2 chains. We got the strongest we could, but still light-weight. We had swivel hooks attached at both ends of the chain. Then we put those heavy-duty hooks on, the kind you have to screw together to cover up the opening. I wanted to be sure there was no way the hook would slide off the collar. THEN, we put 2 harnesses on the dog. One regular collar and one body harness with the hook in the middle of his back. We then made sure to connect the two lines as best we could so they would act as one.
Our Husky could run from one end of the yard to the other, but he was attached at 2 different points. Even if by some small miracle, one of the lines got unattached to his collar or harness, or more likely, the collar or harness broke, there was absolutely no way he could break 2 lines without someone noticing. He hated it at first, but after a few days, he got used to it because it really did not stop him from running since the cable was smooth and the swivel rings were big enough to slide smoothly. We put a “car port” (open on 3 sides – closed in the back so he did not try to go out the back) just off his run area (we thought a dog house was too confining and he would have trouble turning around in it). The “car port” worked great. We made sure the two lines had enough give so that he could get into the “car port” to get his food and water, or get out of the sun to sleep.
Because the pole was next to the back door, during the winter (we live in deep snow country) we would just go out the back door, hook him to the two lines, and go back inside while he played in the snow. He even found a specific spot in the back where he did his “job” when it was too cold or wet to walk him, and we just had to clean up that one area.
We did most of the work ourselves and some of the stuff was donated by friends who helped with the concrete to put the poles in the ground, but I have no doubt that it was still less expensive than a lawsuit would have been had he jumped the fence and actually knocked some child down, even in a playful manner.
So, this long suggestion is just one way to deal with your problem. You may be able to rig something up quickly and do more permanent restraints later, a step at a time.
At least the fence would be up to satisfy the court, and all you would have to do is keep a real careful eye on her until you come up with something that will prevent her from ever breaking her line again and getting away from you.
Good luck.