We live in a housing development near the end of a cul de sac. At the beginning of the year, a younger guy moved into the house across the street. My DH was outside about a month ago, and the new neighbour came over with his blue nose pitbull named Lily. (She’s a beautiful dog!) He introduced himself and the dog and said he’s going around the neighbourhood and letting everyone meet her so they can see that’s she's not a scary, mean dog like the stigma that surrounds the breed tends to suggest. He also said “so in case she gets loose, you won’t shoot her” Hm okay. But nonetheless, I thought it was a beautiful and responsible thing for the guy to do since there is, unfortunately, a reputation with pitbulls.
Tokay was the first warm day we’ve had in a long time some, DH, our 3-month-old baby, and our Shih Tzu went for a walk. We made it 3 houses down before the pitbull came running up behind us and jumped on my Shih Tzu and knocked him over. I immediately scooped him up but by this time he’s already spazzing out. Then the pitbull jumps at my DH, sticks her head under the stroller where we had the diaper bag, then turns around and jumps on me and tries to get my dog. The neighbour was standing across the road saying “No Lily! Come here Lily!” but of course she was too busy jumping all over us to listen. At this point, I’m pretty pissed off because we have a baby and a little 10-pound dog and I don’t appreciate this big dog jumping at any of us.
DH said, “You need to come to get your dog!” And the guy finally came over and grabbed her by her skin. She didn’t even have a collar on for him to grab. I asked, “Do you not have a leash?!” And he said no she doesn’t need one and she’s just not used to seeing a lot of people out walking. Well, it’s the first beautiful day out, and everyone in our neighbourhood likes to take walks!
Now I can’t help but be a little apprehensive of her. I was planning on taking lots of walks with the baby to get back into shape this spring, but I don’t know what I’d do if I was alone and his dog came charging at us. It’s not fair that I can’t take my dog on a walk ON HIS LEASH because our neighbour doesn’t believe in them.
I tried looking up the leash laws in our county, but I can’t seem to find any. What should I do? I don’t want to be in our yard this summer with our baby, and the dog comes over and jump on him. She seems friendly enough, just rough. DH is pissed and said he will call animal control if he sees the dog out of their yard without a leash. But if we don’t have a leash law, is there even anything they can do?
