Yesterday my five month old Golden Retriever went over to my neighbors yard and started humping his small older Poodle. Suddenly the man runs out yelling Don't do that!!! Get off him!!! and kicked my dog causing him to let out a loud cry. Then the man went back into his house with his dog. I have always thought this neighbor was kind of a strange guy but I have always been polite. I am not sure if he saw me. What should I do in this situation?

Why weren't you keeping your dog under your control? A good fence and good supervision would prevent these things from happening.

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Meet Yogi! http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/...tion-yogi.html

Sorry to hear that your puppy got kicked. We had a ghastly elderly neighbour years ago who would entice our two maremma puppies over to our side boundary fence, & then would throw a bucket of water over them. Once I actually spotted him in the act & I rushed out of the house, shouting at him, so that he knew I had caught him in the act. I told him I would get the police involved if I ever saw him throwing water or anything else at our puppies, which were on our fully fenced property. Different than what happened in your case, as your puppy went onto your neighbour's property & in his mind, accosted his dog. No dog owner appreciates their dog being humped all over by another dog. However, it is a shame, I think, that he did not take your pups age into consideration. And to kick a puppy like that is dreadful. I would write the guy a letter, apologising for your dog's rude behaviour, but pointing out to him that he is only five months old & did not deserve to be kicked hard like that. I don't know what the laws are in America. I think I could complain to the police or SPCA here in NZ, even though my puppy had gone onto his property, as people are not allowed to go kicking other people's pets ...or their own. But I guess, as a member above said, ultimately it is your responsibility to keep your puppy from going onto this horrible man's property ...& yes in my mind he is horrible, as only horrible people go around kicking puppies. I understand that your neighbour was probably concerned for his small poodle, as I would be if that happened to my little papillon, but I am sure his yelling would have ended the humping session, without the need to resort to physical violence. Hope your puppy is ok.. I doubt if he will go over again, but I would certainly make sure of that, if it was me.

Oh boy dogs and neighbours! The best thing is to keep your dog home. Many years ago we had a german shepherd who ran the fence line between us and the neighbour as the neighbour would look through his tall raspberry bushes to watch us. One day he was on his hands and knees and I said I see you. Not too long after that our dog was sprayed in the face with mace. It had to be him but we did not witness it. They were the type of creepy neighbours no one wants. Just keep your dog home as no one knows what a wacky neighbour is capable of. Just a word of advice watch out.

Because your dog is only 5 months old, I definitely do have sympathy for you in this situation. He probably is right at that age where he's starting to discover the world out there and of course the hormones are started to check in. I return young dogs like that to fenced yards all the time. They find a way to get out.

But with your neighbor - he has a small and older dog? Of course his dog is going to come first and he may react in anger when this 50-70lb dog comes into his yard and jumps on that little older dog.

People react like that and it's why if my dogs ever get loose - and at that 5 month to 3 year stage, they can get out of fenced yards too or slip collars - I'm making sure I'm jogging right behind my dog and yelling apologies well ahead of my dogs getting a chance of doing anything.

My dogs are all border trained, but in winter when everything is snowed over they forget their boundary lines and that's generally when I have to keep an eye on them a little closer while we are all outside.

My Jacks has a little buddy next door to us - a going-on-eighteeen year old minpin. That little dog was his first and best buddy when he was a puppy, as she was my Danny's buddy when he was young. So he will scoot over that way looking for her on those days when he's "forgotton" his borders.

My neighbors would NEVER kick the dogs if they went over to visit. And none of our boys would go mounting some other dog. But I can imagine their concern if any my dogs were over in their yard with their dog and I was nowhere in sight to control my dogs.

Were I in the same position as your neighbor, I would have grabbed your dog and strongly corrected him. At the barn I board my horse at, there is a female lab who had to be corrected when she kept trying to mount Jacks. I finally grabbed her by scruff, looked her in the eye, told her "no" quite emphatically and popped her away from my dog. That is how I probably would have corrected your dog. But even with your neighbor kicking your dog - because he has a small and older dog who could be badly injured by your golden, you can't blame him for acting as he did.

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

Personally I wouldn't kick a puppy for any reason and this guy seemed to over react BUT, he was trying to protect his older, smaller dog. The best way to avoid situations like this is to keep your puppy on your own property.

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**Fraulein "Maggie" Louise 8/2/95 - 7/20/09**
*At Rainbow Bridge but Forever in Our Hearts*

Oh my goodness! We all need to make sure that our dogs do not run loose. Thankfully, I have a tall 6 foot wooden fence. That last thing I want is for my dog to get into trouble!

Regardless of your dog getting loose when it shouldn't have, that man had no business kicking your dog for what it did!

Maybe, you didn't have enough time to react to go over there to take your dog off of the poodle before the neighbor came out?

I know people can be funny and mean because I have run into them my whole life. That's why when I walk my dog, I keep her away from people unless they ask to pet her.

I accidently let go of Mercy's leash when we came back from our walk last Saturday as I was getting the mail out of the mailbox, and Mercy took off down the street. She ran several houses down and someone came out of their house. I was calling her. Hopefully, this person was tryng to help. Finally Mercy turned around and came running back to me. Her recall is (waving hand) about 50% reliable.

Even when you go to places where there are other dog lovers, you still have to be mindful not to let your dog get into another dog's space. Some places are very formal and have little patience for a bad behaved dog.

I went to a Golden Retriever club meeting this past Sunday and I was keeping my eye on Mercy to make sure she would not lunge ahead when I first came in the door. There were some family members of a club member who were enjoying my dog, but before I could blink, Mercy pulled towards another Golden to say hello, and one of the other people told me to be careful because one of the Goldens was aggressive towards other dogs. Embarrased, I pulled Mercy back. Then someone said to another person "I disagree! I'd say let them go near the other dog so that the aggressive dog can teach the first dog a lesson!" or something to that effect. Of course I didn't like it, especially coming from a Golden person, but I am already aware that some people, even Golden enthusiasts can be funny. I respect their points of view. I used to have a dog aggressive dog myself and I would hope the other person was not mad at my dog for lunging at their dog, even if their other dog came to say hello, so I can kind of understand. I quickly overlooked it and brushed it off. Later as we were leaving, the same person who made a comment did compliment on how beautifully groomed Mercy was since we were there taking grooming lessons. So everything's cool.

I can't stand people not having grace on dogs and/or dog owners whose dogs slip away momentarily!

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Birthdate: February 5th 2012

Gotcha Day: March 30th 2012

Sorry this has happened but consider it a 'life lesson' the consequences to your pup could have been much worse. The guy could have used a bat, or your pup could have encountered a nasty dog.
You have every right to be upset, however focus on minimizing the potential 'fall out' from this incident for your pup - your pup was hurt by a stranger - he could become cautious and fearful of strangers. Even if there are no 'obvious' signs of caution, take him out and socialize him with friendly strangers -have them feed him a few treats if they are willing and he is willing to take them, or even if you just feed him treats as he watches people from a distance, you want to create and reinforce positive experiences.

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Until there are none, rescue one.

Without getting into the details, I saw a cause on Facebook about dogs being abused at an animal shelter in Eldon Missouri. It was horrible!

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Birthdate: February 5th 2012

Gotcha Day: March 30th 2012

I'm sorry this happened to you and your pup. It's a hard life lesson. And it could have ended a lot worse.

I can sympathize with the neighbor. If I walked out of my house to find a large, strange dog mixing it up with mine, my gut reaction would be to get the dogs separated. If its a strange dog, you don't know how they'll react if you tried to reach down and pull them off, so I myself would be inclined to either kick it or use a high pressure water squirt from the hose to startle them apart.

When we got Bear, I went around and introduced him to all of our immediate neighbors and their dogs. I'm continually introducing us to neighbors, explaining if he ever accidentally gets out, I just want you to know he's approachable and this is his name.

My GFs dog can scale a fence and burst through an IF faster than you can say, 'no!!!'. Shortly after they moved to their now home, she jumped over to the neighbors yard. That neighbor didn't even try to approach the dog. We were racing down the street, screaming that she had gotten out, apologizing. But while his wife let us on the property to get her, he came out with a shotgun. Started waving it around telling us we had two mins to get her or he's gonna shoot her for trespassing. Scariest moment in my life.

I would definitely amp up socializing after this incident. And I would walk over to the neighbors with a plate of delicious cookies or sweets and apologize formally to them. Explain the situation (not excuses per se) and ask if the puppy could come meet them under better conditions.


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