What to do with male dogs that show up?

[BLACKJACK]

I live in the country and have two female labs that I keep locked up in a kennel at night and whenever we're gone, and they only get out when we're home - in other words I supervise them and don't let them run the countryside. Now when one of them is in heat I'm getting a little white male mutt showing up at my place. I'm not really sure which neighbor he belongs to. A couple of weeks ago I caught him and tin canned him, but that didn't work so hot, he took off running thru the woods and got caught, and then sat and barked until I cut him loose. What do I do with that little ^%%$#%#? You hate to do the 3's to him, its not his fault, I've contemplated rolling him over and cutting his nuts out, I've contemplated hauling him into the humane society, I don't want to take the time to load him up and take him around to the neighbors, partly because once they realize hes coming to my place and then if he disappears (hit by a car?) I'd still be under suspician. What should I do? Last year it was a Saint Bernard that showed up, its p1sses me off that people don't keep their dogs at home.

[jbdragon17]

Get a paintball gun. Mark him up real good and he will go home to show his owner he has been "shot". It will scare the [PoorWordUsage] out of him without really hurting him. I have done that before and the dog never came back.

[mamohr686]

I woudn't advocate hurting or maiming and animial. Paintballs travel at 300ft/second out of the barrel and easily destroy and eye or break the small bones in some dogs. If I were in that situation I would catch the dog and tie them up, and then call the cops/pound for pick up. Tell the people who pick up the mutt that next time the dog comes around it will be shot or else the owner will be responsible for the cost of aborting a litter of dogs. In most cases once the dog is caught the owner will be fined for not having proper tags/being loose ect. and that will end the problem.

[jbdragon17]

I'm not interested in maiming an animal. One can turn the velocity of the gun down. Even at 300fps a paintball is not going to break bones. I am not going to try and catch a strange loose dog either.

Sorry, but if the dog is in my yard shooting it with a paintball is a far cry from shooting it with a rifle. The dog will get stung less than if it were shocked with an e collar.

[mamohr686]

That is false. Painballs are chronographed to shoot below 300ft/second on a field because anything higher can break the small bones in your hand. If you do enough websearching you should be able to find this documented. Dogs have much smaller bones in their feet and other areas so you could do more harm to an smaller animal than a person. Also, your last statement proves you have very little knowlege about electronic collars. Paintballs leave a serious welt and can do some serious dammage including breaking the skin, electronic collars are adjustable and at the right setting do nothing more than give a tickle. After the owner has a warning and the authorites know about the tresspassing issue, you have the right to shoot the dog. Just like you have the right to shoot a dog that is chasing deer out of season. If your hurt or mame an animal you could get animal cruelty charges and be responsible for any future care and vet bills. So I would much rather shoot a dog after a warning with a rifle, than to do something stupid like shoot it with paintballs.

[verg]

kind of funny but sad. My unlce had the same problem. So, one day he took his bb gun and shot the culprit. He said he watched run away about 100 yards then lay down. He went to investigate and found he had hit it in one of the arteries in the back leg. Dog bled to death quite quick. He only pumped gun twice, didn't mean to kill it. I also have a friend who put a rubber band around nuts. They eventually rot and the dog chews them off. Now, do these ideas work, sure...but what if it was your male? Would you want it to go through that? As much as it would pi$$ me off, i'd catch it and take it to neighbors (if you can find them) and nicely state that if it continues to return--you may not ever see him again.

[Gus]

Everyone is a diplomat when the problem is someone elses....

[LABS4ME]

My buddy caught a male that was coming around his house each and every night. Tied it up and proceeded to take 2 colors of marking paint to the dogs body... Blue all over and a pink stripe down the middle. I think it solved his problem...

I would've tied a "ransome" note to his collar detailing what you did and why... and next time to call the pound looking for a shaved - hot pink dog! I think that would do it!

I've set a trap for males that come to my house... leave the kennel open next to the one with the dog in heat, when a male goes in it, I slam the gate and latch it. Then I call the cops and tell them to come and get the mutt... That's a $90 bill for the lucky owner. $60 for the pick-up, $30 (day) for the pound... second time you get to go talk to the judge too....

Good Luck!

Ken

[jbdragon17]

I have played plenty of paintball to know what it feels like to get shot. I have seen 10 year old kids taking hits and laughing about it. Yes… Guns are chrono'd at a max of 300fps AT THE BARRELL. Do you think I am going to walk up to a strange dog, stick my paintball barrel in its eye and let one rip? Have some sense. I know plenty about e collars too. I have (as I'm sure many others have) felt what it is like to be shocked, and it hurts a hell of a lot worse than any paintball I have taken no matter what kind of welt it leaves.

And...If it was my male I would completely accept someone shooting it with a paintball if he got out and was after a female in heat.

Again...I am not going to try and catch a strange dog that is probably out of his mind in lust after a female in heat. That is asking to be bitten. I am not out to hurt or maim an animal. Not with a paintball gun. I think you are putting to much danger on something they sell over the counter at Wal-Mart.

[Esoxmn]

I would try to find out who's dog it is and talk to them. It could be escaping , you would be surprised what a male can get out of when theres a female in heat.

[gspman]

I think the sensible solution is to catch the dog, try to identify the owner and then have a chat with them. If that doesn't work, catch the dog and call animal control.

[caseymcq]

I would second what both esoxmn and gspman had said. I wouldn't want to be responsible for hurting somebody's pet.

I agree though that it is pretty poor for people to not be responsible for their dog.

[xedge2002]

I definetly wouldn't try to catch the dog myself. We had a female that was in heat and a male kept showing up around the house. We had a vacation planned well in advance of knowing she would be in heat so the neighbor was taking care of our dog and was nearly attacked by the male. He came out charging at him growling and trying to bite him. The male ended up getting our female out of the kennel by pulling the fencing away from the poles and making a large enough hole for our dog to get out. After $1000 in vet bills for the abortion and subsequent infections she had to go through so we could have pups with her because she was a really great hunting dog and family member; we were stuck with the bill because the owner of the male wouldn't pay for any of it even though we know it was his dog - we called him a couple of times to pick it up before he got our dog out.

I would agree with the paintball idea, I have shot paintballs and got shot with them and they don't hurt that much. If you would happen to break a bone in the male maybe it would make the owner a little more responsible about keeping track of them. It would also have to be a pretty good shot to hit them in the foot if they are on the move. If nothing else it may serve to be enough to scare him off for a few days until your female gets later in her cycle. If it was my male that kept taking off and someone shot him with a paint ball I wouldn't be happy but I would know it was my fault for not keeping better track of him.

[BLACKJACK]

Some interesting replies!!!

I live in the country 25 miles from the nearest town with a humane society; I don't think the cops or animal control will come to pick up a dog. And getting anyone to pay vet bills for your pregnant dog would be next to impossible. I don't want to go around to the neighbors and try to find out whos dog it is because if he does disappear, either by my hand or otherwise (hit by a car?), I don't want them to suspect me and put my dogs in line for retaliation. I DO like the paint idea and I do like the idea of a note on his collar.

So little 'Sparky' showed up again last night. This time he didn't have a collar on - did he slip off the chain? What to do? I tried to lure him into one of my chain link kennels, sure enough; he went into the one next to me and I locked him up. What to do? Waste him? Take him for a 10 mile ride and dump him? No, that would be slow death. I was working on dewinterizing the camper and had the water hose out, so I proceeded to soak him down. I did that 5-6 times in the next two hours, it was cool and windy out last night, by the time I turned him out he was shivering pretty good. My thinking was that if I made him miserable, he'd go home and stay home. It worked so good that when I went into the house and was sitting down eating popcorn, he showed up at the deck door!! So I went out and petted him and talked to him, hes actually a nice little doggy. Thats the point of this whole thing, hes a nice dog, I don't want to hurt him, its the irresponsible owners that torque me off!! I know I shouldn't pet him, but I want to be able to grab him and do something with him rather than just have him skulking around my property.

So anyway, I'm going to call the humane society today and find out what their hours are and next week little Sparky will be getting a ride. Hopefully he'll have his collar on when he shows up again so they can identify him by his rabies tag, so the owners end up paying the neutering fee. I DO like the paint idea though but I don't think it will solve my problem, he'll just show up again, only as a pink dog !!

[killerloop]

Paintball the young lad till he goes ni-nite!!!!!!!!!!

[Jackpine Rob]

I had a male who turned into an absolute Houdini when a (Contact US Regarding This Word) came into heat anywhere upwind. He would go over, under or through kennels like they were tissue paper. Chain link? No problem! Rip through the siding of the doghouse and out that way? No problem! Welded wire cover wired atop the 6 foot kennel walls? No problem! 1/2 inch plywood flooring stopped the escape tunnel, so he ripped off the door of the kennel... When he wanted to go, he simply could not be stopped by conventional means. If we had advance warning, I would confine him to the house/garage and bring him out only on leash until the 'season' ended.

He was also a fantastic hunting dog and he and the kids were best buds. He wasn't a bad dog, we weren't irresponsible owners, but he got away from me more than once.

His final prison break included a visit to a cute little lab (Contact US Regarding This Word) (the owner and I got along, and he knew about my beast - thank goodness!) and tangling with a bobcat on the way home. He never really recovered from the bobcat incident - and I put him down a year later at 13 years of age.

Thankfully the owners of the complains he went in search of weren't total morons. When he would escape I would immediately drop everything and begin working my way upwind, alerting dog owners, handing out my phone number, and watching for the escapee. Eventually he would be spotted, and then I would move in for the capture. The look on his face when my voice came to him always had the same, predictable result - he would first look startled, then the head would droop, the tail would go between the legs and he would walk to heel, then roll on his back and moan the most pitiful sound a lab could make... I swear, that dog was apologizing every way possible!

[Jackpine Rob]

Hey! The filtering software doesn't allow me to use the correct term for a female pooch! Correctness run amok...

[verg]

lol..no offense.

how do you know it was a bobcat, and how'd did he fair in the fight? Hold his own? i head b-cats are tough!!

[Jackpine Rob]

Tracks and hair gave me the ID on the other combatant. I found my guy in a little nest of leaves he had scraped together, too stiff and sore to get up. He had quite a few bites, but by the looks of things (blood, hair, ripped up ground) it was a pretty even match. It looked like at some point the cat had climbed a tree, and the dog must have circled the tree for quite a long time waiting for it to come down.

He had always come out on top (or I intervened to prevent needless bloodshed) in prior scrapes with a variety of varmints, and I think he lost a little bit of his heart when he couldn't defeat the cat.

[BLACKJACK]

Quick update on my male dog problem. 'Sparky' is now resting comfortabley at the local humane society - hopefully soon to be without his nuts. When we got back from camping on Sunday, he wasn't around but later on he showed up so I grabbed him and threw him in my kennel in the back of the truck and on Monday he got the ride into the humane society. Hopefully the new owners will take better care of him and won't let him run!!!

[fishnhooks]

BlackJack,

Nice way of handling the situation. Thanks for letting us know and hopefully, like you said, his new owners will take better care of him.

"hooks"

[kgpcr4]

I owned a very expensive female and when the rouge males showed up i grabbed them and spray painted them bright red. If it was one of the neigbors dogs i just took them home. I wonder what the owners thought when thier dog showed up home painted. In my back woods i saw two dogs chasing deer last spring. They never made it home.