A prisoner in my own trailer

[Linda R002]

What a way to start the new year. Tried to go outside my trailer and the dog from next door RV was off leash and didn't like me being in his area. Apparently the dog took the whole camping area as his free roam area and growled, barked and snapped at me. As some of you already know, I am afraid! of aggressive big dogs. So with the owners maybe inside their trailer, and me in mine, I felt like a prisoner inside my own trailer. How do others deal with this problem?

Even with a promise to keep their dog on a leash, we moved our trailer to another less desirable site to prevent this from happening again. We had come early to get a good spot and they had moved next to us.

I just wanted to add that I truely respect people like Gina, who is so good at keeping her babies under control. I like dogs in general and its only the running loose dogs that I have a problem with.

[BAMA & Pachyderm Posse]

no bad dogs just bad owners ! that said mase works wonders , not as ruff water gun with viniger water . or water hose ,

[Gina D.]

Tazor. Not to USE on the dog, but to make an electrical field and a big SNAP noise. Point at at the dog and make it ZAP!!!!

My dogs HATE mine, and they instantly stop what they are doing. Even the bruiser that hates other dogs.

Check the laws. I am in Arizona where anything even considered a weapon is OK.

[Gina D.]

oh, and thanks, but I think my dogs are the biggest pain on earth.

Where are you at right now?

[Sandra Lair]

Does the campground have a rule that dogs must be on a leash or tether? I would have brought it to the attention of the campground host or office. If they would not comply with the rules, they should have been told to leave. We never, ever let our dogs loose when we take them camping.

Sandra

[Linda R002]

We are working at the Bakersfield fairgrounds. The security said, yes, that is a problem that is common and if they catch the dog off the leash they talk once to the owner and then call the dog catcher. But they can only do something when they see it. She said it is a hopeless task to make the owners keep their dogs on leashes.

[brian m.]

But they can only do something when they see it. She said it is a hopeless task to make the owners keep their dogs on leashes.

Take a photo or video of the problem. Show it to the powers that be. There should be no question then.

[Bud Kennedy]

Get a little squirt oiler and fill it with half oil and half amonia.

One squirt in the snout and the dog will remember you for ever as TABOO!

[Adrian W]

Not a fun time to have loose dogs. We keep a small air horn in the trailer to be able to make noise and to keep animals away; mainly while hiking, but in camp would work as well. Something like this, but ours is much smaller and we got it at Wal-mart. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...;rid=0123456789

I not sure if I would have moved, but found animal control's phone number.

Too bad, to have this happen.

[Alf S.]

Hi: Linda& Dale... Walk softly and carry a BIG STICK!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Nancy]

What Gina said about the sound reminded me of my Mom and her portable oxygen tank.

Every time my mother took a breath there was a very mild click sound. Dogs avoided her.

So, we who are afraid of dogs, need to investigate a sound device that makes them run away. I would be getting myself some pepper spray since I don't know where to buy some sound device.

Keep the animal control phone number on speed dial on your cell phone?

Nancy

[Curtis F.]

How about one of the dog training devices that use sound above the human hearing range. Seems like that would turn many dogs away.

Dogs need to be on leash as required by law. Even then it can be scary when they charge to the end of the leash.

[Nancy]

The boat horn would be multi function, and could be used to alert humans to a problem.

If this animal sound device really works I wouldn't mind having one, I would prefer it to pepper spray. I have a neighbor dog that while on his leash is between me and my mail box. He is a nice dog, it is just my fear that keeps me off my own driveway.

http://www.tbotech.com/dogchaser.htm

Nancy

[Mary F]

I'd try throwing him a dog biscuit, myself. It might change him into your buddy instead of your adversary... (but I agree with the other folks who lament that people break the rules by letting their dogs run off leash.) Of course, since I have a dog that we travel with, we always have dog biscuits on hand. I realize YMMV. Good luck with it, Linda!

[Robin G]

I am not afraid of dogs so I would have been knocking on their door. That is total bull! I have pets and I do everything to keep them out of other peoples hair, they may drive me crazy (cause I love them) but I refuse to let them drive others crazy. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, Bad Pet Owners!

Boat/fog horn available at Walmart in the rv/boating isle. A few blast of the horn and the bad pet owners would have been out of their rig in a heart beat . I personally carry one in the Casita, just in case someone try's to break in at night! Figure freak them out as bad as they would freak me out if they were messing around the trailer at night. If the horn doesn't send them running, I figure my shaking gun hand will .

[BrianP]

Petco carries a product called "Pet Corrector." It is basically an air cannister that has a nozzle that emits a loud blast of air. It's expensive ($14.00 for a very small can) but the nozzle can be removed and re-used on inexpensive cans of air like those used to clean computer keyboards. I have a dog that is an incessant barker. With a blast of the Pet Corrector (and you don't need to point the can toward the animal), she will immediately stop her barking - and it does not cause any harm. So far, it works and I don't have to use it very often.

I have no connection with Petco or Pet Corrector - just a satisfied user.

[CharlynnT]

RE: Pet Correcter:

MY blast of air is: "Lass! Lass! Quit it!" since I knew her name. However, she is now deaf and partly blind so when she parks herself on our yard I scoop her up and bring her next door.

Roaming dogs I don't know I tell, "Scat! Scat! Go home!"

If they are trained, at all, by human owners, they move on.

When repairing our fence last year there was a gap and a big barking aggressive dog put his head between the slats to snarl and growl and bark. I said. "You BAD dog!" And he hung his head in shame and went home. He had been socialized, at least a bit.

If dogs have not been trained at all by their pack, their owners, their family, nothing will help.

They feel, maybe rightly so, that nobody is there to protect or guide them. Be afraid of their owners, their humans, who also feel they are in the world alone with nothing but fangs and aggression to protect them.

[Roger C H]

When we lived in the Midwest, the neighbors had a dog. They kept it fenced in, but when I rode my lawn mower past their fence, the dog would come charging out at me and scare the bejeebers out of me. Being a boat owner at the time, I tried the air horn - didn't do a thing. Never did solve the problem. Just moved 2000 miles away from it. LOL

[Weinel, Alan]

**But they can only do something when they see it.**

At that point, politely say that that answer is wrong and say - "Just to remind you, as of now YOU are on notice that and if there are any attacks, you WILL be held 100% liable in addition to the dog owner. It really is in YOUR best interest to take care of the situation NOW - BEFORE something happens."

Be polite, frim and assertive. People cannot walk all over you unless you lie down on the ground FOR them.

We are working at the Bakersfield fairgrounds. The security said, yes, that is a problem that is common and if they catch the dog off the leash they talk once to the owner and then call the dog catcher. But they can only do something when they see it. She said it is a hopeless task to make the owners keep their dogs on leashes.

[Adrian W]

..... We keep a small air horn in the trailer to be able to make noise and to keep animals away; mainly while hiking, but in camp would work as well. Something like this, but ours is much smaller and we got it at Wal-mart. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...;rid=0123456789

Also I am considering getting some sort of pepper spray to keep in the trailer for hiking as well. But the one item dogs do not like is an umbrella, they are afraid of the opening of an umbrella, not up above your head but in from of you. The meter readers carry one.