evening just a quick question. on sunday night i let my dogs out into my back garden i hadnt realised that their was a stray dog in the garden the dog went for my dog and my dog fought back, i ran out and managed to get the dogs apart bought in my dog went out to see if the other dog was ok and it had dissapered. i didnt have a clue who the dog belonged too my dog was unharmed. monday tea time i had a knock on the door from a man that lives at the bottom of the road accusing my dog for atacking his, any way i admitted that my dog had got his dog but at that point i didnt have a clue whos dog it was. i explained his dog should not have been roamimg round  and  he was in my garden. the man was ranting telling me he was going to ring the police etc and that i should pay his vet bill... i probably would of offered to pay but he came ranting at me saying my dog was dangerous etc can i actually be held liable for my dog attacking his and can the police get involved.

His dog was roaming off lead so he should think twice about reporting you. It comes to something if you can't let your own dog into your own garden without worry. Would jump the gun ring the police yourself and complain about the lose dog in your garden attacking your dogs. Say you are not wishing to make a formal complaint but would like the owner spoken to about allowing his dog to roam and being abusive to you.

Sorry, maybe just me but, if I let my dogs out into my own back garden and a strange dog had jumped over the fence, I actually would expect my dogs to rush up to it and say what the h**l are you doing here, in fact I'd probably join them. Why was his dog roaming the streets unattended?  Personally, I'd stand my chance with the police, I don't think he's got a leg to stand on. How did he know it was your dogs in their own garden, anyway?  I'm assuming your garden is fenced.

Have word with your council Dog warden. His dog was technically a stray at the time it was in your garden, and the Dog Warden (or you) would have been within rights to collect it and take it to the local pound until claimed...   or not....:(

His responsibility to make sure his dog is not allowed to stray. Absolutely not your problem how your dogs reacted, at all. If you have a half-decent Dog Warden, s/he will come along for a nice chat with this neighbour and read him the riot act. After all, if you hadn't known whose dog it was and it had no ID, it could be in the council pound right now with its owner looking at paying a very hefty fee to get it back.... Vets bills are neither here nor there.

(Had a similar issue with a neighbour's dog a couple of years back - twice it climbed the fence to fight with mine. Got advice from dog warden and police, who warned the family to keep it under control....not long after it was picked up as stray elsewhere. Did time in council pound because family didn't pay the fee - later rehomed to better owners.)

tresspassing stray dog attacked your dog in his own garden.
if your dog had been small- or had it been a cat it would have likely been your pet badly hurt or dead because of someone else allowing their dog to stray.
so it came off worse? well GOOD, I don't like seeing any animal hurt but if any ones going to come off worse i'd sooner its the invador and not the resident pet who was only minding own buisness on own property.
it is dog owners responsibility to keep their dog on their property, not your reponsibility to keep other peoples dogs off.
don't get paying any bills for this owner, its not your responsibility-and anyway how do you know it didn't go have fight somewhere else after fighting with yours? unattended running round loose could have got injured anywhere. a stiff vet bill may focus this owners attention as to the merits of keeping his dog under control.

I agree with the other posts, also when talking to the police it would not do any harm to mention what might have happened had a toddler been out there when it all started. It may seem a bit of an over reaction but in my experience it very much depends which police person you get as to how these things do or do not develop-just bear it in mind.
Jeff.

I personally don't think it is your dogs fault at all, strange dog in their garden that starts trouble with them...I would say they are going to retaliate.

The only thing I have heard before is that we are meant to fence and secure our garden to stop other animals from getting in...I have heard something before where a dog strayed into someone's garden and killed the dog that lived there but nothing was done because the owner was at fault for not securing the garden properly.

Stick to your guns, maybe in hindsight you should have denied all knowledge of the dog...who knows which other gardens it has been visiting.

> I have heard something before where a dog strayed into someone's garden and killed the dog that lived there but nothing was done because the owner was at fault for not securing the garden properly.
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That is disgusting! I found a small terrier in my garden a couple of weeks back. My garden is secure enough to keep my large dog in, but not secure enough to keep a tiny dog out that got through the litle gap under the fence that the cats use. I wuld be kicking up a major stink if I was told my garden should be keeping other dogs out - dog are not permitted to roam,  it's the owners responsibility to stop them from straying.
Many dogs can easily scale a 6ft fence if they want to (a mongrel I had wehn growing up could have done that from a standing start), how on earth can our garden be secure enough to keep all other dogs out, especially when we can't put up fences higher than 6ft. Then there is the case of our open-planned front lawn, we're not allowed to put any fence up, but that does not mean other poeples dogs are allowed free-acess to our lawn.

To the OP, the owners of the trespassing dog are at fault, call his bluff and report him for allowing his dog to stray.

ETA, as somebody else said, who's to know that the dog didn't get injured after it left your garden - it could have had a fight with another dog.

What a cheeky man, absolutely ring the police/dog warden yourself and complain that the dog was left to roam onto your property and was aggressive, the man is at fault and if anyone is to be prosecuted it is the man.

How people can get the law completely twisted is beyond me, your dog was in his own territory minding his own business, the fact that the mans dog got hurt is no-ones fault but his, he is supposed to care for his animal/s no-one else, it's his responsibility alone.

Don't you dare pay for any vet bills whatsoever. :-)

Definately contact the dog warden, especially now you know who owns the dog. When I moved into the property I am in, my neighbour's dog was constantly scaling their wall and jumping into my garden, while the other walked along the wall. I spoke with them the very day I moved in and on numerous occassions, but they did nothing about it. There answer was to just let her out through the sidegate for her to make her way back round to their property.
Finally getting sick of their lack of regard and picking up their dog's poop from my lawn, I called the dog warden. Since that visit, where they were advised to put a piece of trellis or something along the wall to prevent the dogs climbing over, they have put broken plant pots on top of the wall. Rather ugly to look at, but it means I don't have poop everywhere and a little terrier barking at my back door or the fear of one of my dogs hurting their little one.

similar situation here, I have a 2 to 3 ft wall on my side, there garden is higher than mine there little (4) jackrussell x yorkies continually come in to my garden and cant get out again I used to coax them out and return them,  the last time (I got bitten on the hand but didnt mention it as more a nip that barely penetrated) I returned it she stood and denied it had been in my garden, this with her gate closed and dog standing next to me on pavement, every gate now has padlock if they get in they will stay in till they come and ask me to open gate she also has cats a couple of years ago one got into a neighbours pigeon loft and killed the lot, her response to him was keep your pigeons locked up then cat(s) cant get in at them
Some people you despair of getting through to
Stan Berry

Yes totally, it is disgusting.

Not long ago someone's dog ran through my next door neighbours garden chasing a cat, the man who owned the dog just wandered into the neighbours garden and stood there.  My mum caught the dog as at the time we had a really old cat and were concerned it might have got her (luckily it caught nothing).  After my neighbour gave the dog walker a severe shouting at for walking in her garden, letting their dog charge around her small children the dog walker started to walk back through her garden to carry on their walk!!  The were marched out and told to get on their way.  I'd be mortified if any of my dogs strayed into someone's garden and certainly wouldnt be so brazen about it!

I wonder if the dog had a collar and tag on....thats another thing to report if it didn't.  And in many areas it is law to have your dog on a lead on a public highway...had it been walking down the road by itself...lots of things you can bring up if needed.